Kenney's finely-tuned political antennae needs adjusting on Haiti With the country of Haiti in turmoil, now is the time for Canada to open its arms to orphans and family members of the huge Canadian diaspora. By SHEILA COPPS Published January 25, 2010    5 Comments

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Immigration Minister Jason Kenney's finely-tuned political antennae needs adjusting. With the country of Haiti in turmoil, now is the time for Canada to open its arms to orphans and family members of the huge Canadian diaspora.

An immediate move to provide temporary residence permits is critical. The minister, who has assiduously cultivated political ties with minority communities, now has a chance to prove whether action can match intention.

The opposition parties are clamouring for a temporary permit process to relocate thousands of homeless Haitians in Canada. Family members, and other concerned Canadians are willing to do their part and open their homes to refugees.

In the aftershock of one of the world's deadliest natural disasters, Canada can do more than simply export aid. We need to make sure that our blessed home can provide respite for Haitians who cannot expect normalcy in their own country any time soon.

Kenny's response to calls for a broader immigration strategy has fallen far short of his former political promise. He claimed last week that as minister, he was helpless to speed up international adoption red tape for some 100 Canadian adoptive families awaiting reunification with Haitian orphans. He even raised the spectre of child trafficking. Hogwash.

Canada seems stymied while other governments have been able to get suffering children released from embattled Haitian orphanages. Add to the orphans, the thousands of homeless Haitians whose Canadian friends and family members could shelter them on a temporary or permanent basis.

According to the minister's own department, more than 55,000 Canadians have offered to help. Current restrictions limit the family reunification category to parents, children, brothers and sisters. Extended families are excluded so desperate cousins, aunts and uncles cannot be sponsored by Canadian relatives. Meanwhile, the government's current focus is limited to one hundred orphans.

In 1979, Canada became the first country in the world to be recognized with a United Nations humanitarian award for our massive response to the plight of the fleeing Vietnamese Boat People.

Canadians welcomed 59,970 people to our shores in that time of crisis. More than 32,000 of them were privately sponsored, through a deal dubbed Operation Lifeline and established by then Conservative immigration minister Ron Atkey.

Likewise, in 1972, when thousands were fleeing the politically corrupt Ugandan regime of Idi Amin, Canada opened its arms. We were among the first to accept more than 5,000 refugees at the invitation of the United Nations.

Neither of these refugee relocations destroyed the Canadian immigration system. No human trafficking or kidnapping occurred as church groups and volunteer organizations responded to the need.

On the contrary, our country welcomed a new group of productive Canadians, many becoming business and political leaders of today. From Canadian Parliamentarians, to senior executives, those refugees and their offspring have done our country proud.

A healthy response by Minister Kenney would transform Canada's understandable outpouring of grief and sympathy into a massive relocation effort.

Prime ministers Pierre Trudeau and Joe Clark did not hesitate to partner with Canadians when refugees from Africa and Vietnam needed our help. Prime Minister Stephen Harper should follow their example.

With thousands of Canadians enjoying direct familial ties to Haiti, Kenney's first step should be to issue ministerial permits for temporary residence. Those discretionary permits should be made available to any Haitians with willing host family members or friends in Canada.

A sponsorship program, similar to Operation Lifeline, should seek Canadian guarantors for displaced Haitians who currently have nowhere to live.

While the urgent placement of orphaned children is a laudable goal, it is no substitute for a massive relocation effort.

When the people of New Orleans felt the wrath of Hurricane Katrina, the American government stepped in with a two-pronged plan, rebuild and relocate. More than four years later, the rebuilding effort is still a work in progress.

In a country as wealthy as the United States, it has taken years to return to some semblance of normalcy. Port-au-Prince faces an even more onerous task, with little domestic capacity to manage basic services like food distribution and security.

Operation Haitian Lifeline would serve to mobilize Canadians in partnership with government. It could reignite the spirit of giving. It would also provide much needed respite for desperate Haitians who have nothing left but the shirts on their backs.

Canadians have a history of doing the right thing. We know how to open our hearts and homes to those in real need. Surely this is one crisis where we can house more than 100 Haitians.

Sheila Copps is a former Jean Chrétien-era Liberal Cabinet minister.

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