Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Friday, June 17, 2011

On human smuggling, Tories plan to make Canada less desirable

For the Conservative government, new legislation that will subject some refugee claimants to detention is about more than deterring human smuggling.

It’s also about persuading both Canadians and Americans that this country’s borders are secure.

The Conservative government reintroduced legislation Thursday that aims to discourage ships from arriving off Canada’s coasts crammed with migrants seeking asylum. The bill allows the immigration minister to designate such claimants as an “irregular arrival,” making them subject to detention for up to a year while their identity is verified and their claims processed.

The purpose of the legislation, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said in an interview, is to make Canada less desirable as a destination for migrants who sometimes pay tens of thousands of dollars to human smugglers to travel here on unsafe vessels, such as the roughly 500 who arrived on the Sun Sea and Ocean Lady in 2009 and 2010.

But it is also intended, he said, to assure the U.S. government that Canada is taking the steps necessary to control the border at a time when the two governments are negotiating new economic and security agreements.

Full Article
Source: Globe & Mail 

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