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19 September 2005
An Open Letter to Joe Volpe, Minister of
Citizenship and Immigration, and Anne McLellan, Deputy Prime Minister
and Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness from the
Coalition Against the Deportation of Palestinian Refugees
Dear Hon. Joe Volpe and Hon. A. Anne
McLellan,
One might have thought that, being old
enough to fill the shoes of federal cabinet Ministers, you would have
long since outgrown the childhood game of hot potato. Instead you have
simply increased the stakes, and instead of passing off a scalding
tuber, you have moved on to passing off responsibility for the lives and
dignity of Palestinian refugees in Canada.
Either way, the music has stopped: Your
attempts to disavow responsibility and accountability for our current
situation are revealed.
Ms. McLellan, in a letter dated June 4th
2004, you denied responsibility for the situation of over 40 Palestinian
refugees facing deportation from Canada, tossing the potato to Joe
Volpe’s office, stating that it is the Minister of Immigration who is
responsible for addressing our concerns. Mr. Volpe, in a letter dated
August 22nd 2005, you denied all responsibility for the
situation of over 40 Palestinian refugees facing deportation from
Canada, tossing the potato to Anne McLellan, stating that it is the
Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness who is responsible
for addressing our concerns.
Our demands have always been clearly
stated: end the deportation of Palestinian refugees from Canada and
grant permanent residence status to all Palestinian refugees in Canada.
In June 2005, we marched 220 kilometers from Montreal to Ottawa with
hundreds of our allies in Solidarity Across Borders to highlight
these same demands. For over two years, we have made repeated requests
to discuss our situation with representatives of your Ministries.
The NDP, the Bloc Quebecois, and __
members of the your own party, as well as over 140 civil society
organizations, have publicly denounced the arbitrariness and injustice
wreaked by Canada’s refugee determination process upon the lives of
Palestinian refugees, and recognized that the plight of those unjustly
refused—those stateless persons born in refugee camps, living under
military occupation—should be immediately redressed. However, when these
same demands are addressed to you, the two members of Parliament
directly responsible, you purport to absolve yourselves of
responsibility for ‘immigration’, ‘permanent residence’, ‘refugee
protection’ and ‘deportations’—all of which fall squarely and solely
within your joint mandate.
Meanwhile, your fool’s dance does not
absolve you of responsibility. You remain responsible for our suffering.
Members of our Coalition have been deported back to refugee camps and
unending insecurity, our health deteriorates under the stress of not
knowing if or when we will be uprooted from our homes here and shipped
out like last week’s garbage—as though we never worked 80-hour weeks in
your kitchens and car washes, as if we never fell in love or held our
newborn kin in our arms in this country.
Maybe you’ve enjoyed your little game,
but we haven’t.
Tag, you’re both it.
-The Coalition Against the Deportation
of Palestinian Refugees
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View the letters sent by both
ministers to the coalition in the links below:
Minister Anne
McLellan's letter to the Coalition
Minister Joe
Volpe's letter to the Coalition
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