Bill C-50 and Changes to Immigration
Published by Patricia April 24th, 2008 in Human Rights, Political Action Tags: Human Rights, Immigration Policy.From Libby Davies
Dear friends,
Recently the Conservative government in Ottawa tried to sneak controversial changes into the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) through the House of Commons via C-50 (the Budget Implementation Act). These sweeping changes give enormous powers to the Minister to decide which categories of immigration applications will be processed, and which would be ignored or discarded. It also restricts several kinds of applicants based on humanitarian and compassionate grounds that Canadian sponsors can use to bring their relatives into Canada, and gives the Minister extraordinary powers to deny visas to those who meet all the immigration criteria and have been waiting for years to have their cases conclude. NDP Immigration Critic Olivia Chow has done excellent work in opposition to these unfair and misguided changes. To learn more about the changes, visit her website.
We need to make it clear that imposing quotas and facilitating queue-jumping and power-grabbing without accountability and transparency are just not acceptable. I believe in a fair immigration strategy that ensures family reunification without unfair delays, and a robust economy without exploitation of foreign workers.
We’ve been working with community organizations and leaders to stop these changes. We need to work together to make it clear that Canada’s hard working immigrant families oppose these changes and demand fairness.
Please join me and say NO to Stephen Harper’s immigration amendments. Write to Immigration Minister Diane Finley and Prime Minister Harper. Be sure to copy me at daviel@parl.gc.ca on your messages. You can also sign and circulate this petition - feel free to make copies - and return to me care of The House of Commons, Ottawa, ON, K1A 0A6.
Only days after these changes were announced we made it clear that the NDP will propose amendments to delete the Immigration section of the bill. We have urged the Liberals and Bloc to join us and stand up for new Canadian families.