September 2012
Dr. Aharon Ben-Ze’ev
President,University of Haifa,
Israel
Dear Dr. Ben-Ze’ev,
Re: Honorary Degree Award to Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Jason Kenney
The CanadianAssociation of Refugee Lawyers (CARL) is an organization of 275 immigration lawyers, law students andlegal academics We are committed to advancing and protecting the human rightsof refugees and migrants. We write to express to your our disappointmentthat you have chosen to confer an honorary doctorate on Canadian Minister ofCitizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, Jason Kenney in Toronto onNovember 4, 2012.
Under Mr. Kenney’s leadership, the Canadian government has passedpunitive legislation that purports to address human smugglers, but is actuallydirected at deterring asylum seekers and refugees from obtaining refugeeprotection in Canada.Amendments to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act in May 2012 authorizearbitrary and warrantless detention of asylum seekers for up to a year, withthe possibility of six months detention with no review of the necessity orlegality of the detention. The new law prohibits designated refugees fromreuniting with their families for up to five years. More recently, Mr.Kenney designed an executive Order that deprives refugee claimants fromso-called ‘safe’ countries of access to public health carecoverage, even in life-or-death emergency cases. These harsh, inhumane andunconstitutional policies have been condemned by medical, faith-based, andhuman rights organizations and individuals across the spectrum, including theToronto Board of Rabbis, former Canadian Jewish Congress Director BernieFarber, and Elie Wiesel. In response to Minister Kenney’srelentless vilification of European Roma asylum seekers as unworthy ofprotection, prominent members of the Jewish community have drawn the historicalconnection between the persecution of European Jews and Roma.
We remind you thatCanadawas one of several countries that, in 1939, turned away over 900 Jewishrefugees fleeing Nazi Germany. At the time, a Canadian official was askedhow many Jews Canada should accept. His reply was ‘none is toomany’. Here is what the present law, drafted by Minister Kenney,would say and do about those Jewish refugees were they to arrive today:
The SS St. Louis was piloted byhuman smugglers intent on abusing Canadian immigration system. The passengersare part of a ‘human smuggling event’ and will be automaticallydetained. If their refugee claims are rejected, they will be deportedback to Germanywith no chance to appeal the negative decision. If their refugee claims areaccepted, these German Jews may or may not be released from detention before ayear has passed. It will be important to detain them for as long as possible inorder to send a message to other German Jews not to try the same thing, lest Canada beflooded with Jewish refugees. In any case, the Jews aboard the SS St. Louiscannot rescue family members left behind in Germany, because ‘irregulararrivals’ must be punished for using smugglers: Even if they are acceptedas refugees, they are ineligible to sponsor family members for fiveyears. By that time, it will be 1943. The Nazi’s Final Solutionwill be in full operation.
We do not believethat University of Haifa’s statureas a university is enhanced by conferring an honorary degree on MinisterKenney.
Yours sincerely,
Mitchell J.Goldberg
Vice-President
CanadianAssociation of Refugee Lawyers.
CORRECTION: *This press release was brought to our attention in an email from Alan Yusim of B’nai Brith Canada. When we published it, we mistakenly posted Alan Yusim’s sender details on the bottom of the email leading to the false impression that he was a signatory. It is not the case that Alan Yusim had anything to do with this letter in either a professional or a personal capacity. We apologize to Alan Yusim and B’nai Brith Canada for what was a posting error on our part.
Sincerely Rhonda Spivak, editor Winnipeg Jewish Review