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http://www2.parl.gc.ca/Parlinfo/Compilations/HouseOfCommons/MemberByPostalCode.aspx?Menu=HOC
The Honourable [Canadian Federal Member of Parliament]
[Contact details]
[Date]
Dear Mr. /Ms. _______,
As a registered voter in your riding, I am writing to express my concern at comments the Immigration Minister, Jason Kenney, and other members of the current government have reportedly made concerning the matter of Roma from the Czech Republic arriving in Canada. I am concerned that these comments do not further efforts to combat racial discrimination in the Czech Republic, which is the primary cause for the influx of 1,077 Czech asylum claimants to Canada between January and April of this year.
As quoted by the Czech Press Agency on 22 April 2009, Minister Kenney reportedly called on the Czech government to “intervene against agencies that may be behind the new wave of Czech asylum seekers, mostly Romanies, arriving in Canada”. The same source quoted the Canadian embassy as having urged the Czech government to take action against what it called “unscrupulous mediators” who may be assisting persons in going to Canada. We are not aware of any efforts by Canadian authorities to correct or distance themselves from these unsubstantiated statements to date.
As you are no doubt aware, over 80% of the persons who have had a hearing before Canadian adjudicators in the last eighteen months have in fact been recognized as Convention Refugees. The intervention of the Canadian authorities in endeavouring to stop – or to urge other governments to stop – refugees from leaving Czech territory calls into question the Canadian government’s respect for the international legal order. As you are also no doubt aware, the Canadian Federal Court of Appeals has, in a case concerning Romani asylum seekers from Hungary, previously deemed illegal the actions of the Canadian government in attempting to influence asylum proceedings.1
Sending special investigators to assess the situation of Czech Roma (March 2009) to produce a report that would guide the decisions of the IRB Adjudicators is another most unusual and unprecedented measure. According to some refugee lawyers, this investigation is exceeds IRB mandate, which is to judge each case on its own merits. The only other time such a report was issued was during the previous influx of Czech Roma in 1997. Attempting to stop a particular ethnic refugee group by singling out its members for special treatment can only be deemed racist.
The Czech government has not yet eliminated all segregated schools, as it was ordered to do in 2007 by a ruling of the European Court of Human Rights.2 Despite a 2005 Czech Ombudsman report recommending that the Czech government acknowledge and remedy the coercive sterilization of hundreds of Romani women since at least the late 1960s, it has yet to do so.3 Intimidation tactics are commonly used to discourage Roma from reporting racially motivated hate crimes and police often refuse to investigate even the most serious attacks on the Romani minority. All of this must change if the social inclusion of Roma in the Czech Republic is to be secured.
I beseech the Canadian government to urge the Czech government to ensure that these and similarly needed measures are addressed and implemented. It would send an important signal that Canada takes seriously the need for the social inclusion of Roma in all countries in which they live. Efforts to encourage the Czech government to prevent persons who may be refugees from leaving the country – efforts that may be in violation of international human rights law – send a different signal entirely.
Thank you in advance for your consideration of these matters.
Sincerely,
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