Categories: Polls

What do you think of the government’s handling of Tamil asylum-seekers in B.C.?

…

by macleans.ca on Tuesday, August 17, 2010 5:09pm - 0 Comments

Tags: migrants, MV Sun Sea, Tamil

David

It is true that taking 490 people in a ship as refugees at once is a big problem for the government of canada.On the other hand we all should think why have they come to canada risking their lives by travelling in deep oceans for more than 100 days.These innocent people have fled away from their mother soil to safe their lives. Although the world say that the war is over in Sri Lanka, Tamils in the wartorn area are facing tremendous problems and untold hardships.
They do not have shelter, food, cloth and minimum basic requirements . We should sympathise and avoid unwanted comments. Wartorn area is still occupied by army and people are fearing to go to these area and live there as they remember how their brethren were mutilated and buried with bulldozers.

Windigo

How would you know the real conditions of the Tamils in their country at the present time if you have not been there.
hollywood

David
you also speaking from first hand information??
or some humanterian group got you brainwashed??? be realistic
ntt

the "war torn" areas are in Sri Lanka, the Sri Lankans have just won a war against violent separatist colonizers from mainland India (Tamil Nadu)

Canada now has over 600,000 of these "innocent "Tamils. They have already started trying to force our government to do their bidding by closing of major transportation routes in Toronto

The only problem we as a country may have with Sri Lanka is that they seem to have sloughed these potentialy violent people onto us. .

SRILANKAN

Recently lot of Sinhalese young people have tried to enter European countries (Italy) by sailing from fisheries boats, since they are Sinhalese they couldn’t use above words like ‘genocide’, ‘killing’, ‘rape’ as done by these Tamils. So it is clear this problem has not oriented as ethnic issue. Therefore it is very clear these guys are economic refugees which have come here to enjoy better life.

Ravi

Financially superior and owners rich and fertile land are the Tamils, now they were wiped out by mass produced Sinhalese. – tamil
True_Srilankan

If you go to Tamil areas which were occupied recently by Srilankan forces, you will see how innocent Tamil people are facing hardships under occupation.
holllywood

how would you know that??
you have a relative on board??

SRILANKAN

I am Sri Lankan and writing this from Sri Lanka after rending some of the news about recent refugee- ship came to BC. I also was at Canada for few years.
These peoples are economic refugees which came here to enjoy better life. Sri Lanka is now peaceful country after end of the war which created by Tamil Terrorist group.
Question is if they are running for their life they could have gone to India which is few mils away from Sri Lanka.
SRILANKAN

Sri Lanka is multi ethnic country with Sinhalese majority. In Colombo capital there are lots of Tamils which is doing business without any problem. The words ‘war’, ‘genocide’ are the some of words used by Tamils to claim refugee at country like Canada, Australia etc. Once they get on to those countries each person has to pay money (monthly) to LTTE and they used those to buy weapons etc.
SRILANKAN

Fortunately the war was ended last year, Therefore near future they will not be able to use above reasons to claim refugee from develop countries. So they are in hurry and try to enter as mass crowd (loaded to ships) to developed countries like Australia, Canada etc.

Lechuga

According to a 2010 Amnesty International report, in the past 12 months the Sri Lankan government has continued to jail critics and clamped down on dissent. Some 80,000 Tamils remain in refugee camps, while 400,000 displaced Tamils survive in communities where homes and infrastructure were destroyed. The government continues to extend a state of emergency, restricting many basic human rights, and thousands of arbitrary detentions are justified under the guise of detainees being suspected Tamil Tigers. This past month, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appointed a panel to investigate war crimes and genocidal acts committed by the Sri Lankan government against Tamils.

A_READER_

When is the UN investigating the tamil tigers terrorists and what they did to their own country?

SRILANKAN

These operations are handled by former LTTE international smuggling division which has many ships all over the world. Australia has understood this and implemented good procedure to accept refugees from Sri Lanka and cooperate with Sri Lankan Authorities to handle this, Canada should follow this, otherwise there are many ships waiting to start journey to Canada within next few months.

WictorWictor

Dear Annoying Internet Shillbot:

The Government of Canada will individually process and evaluate each refugee claimant, and send away those who do not qualify. That is the law of this country.

A_READER_

There with the name calling, so tolerant are the leftists …

WictorWictor

Whereas I am pointing out something that should be patently obvious to any thinking person — SRILANKAN has not participated in the discussion except to repeatedly paste in the same posts they have made here and on other sites and is therefore a shill — you seem awfully enthusiastic to slap labels on people you don't agree with. So thoughtful is the reader.

SRILANKAN

Recently lot of Sinhalese young people have tried to enter European countries (Italy) by sailing from fisheries boats, since they are Sinhalese they couldn’t use above words like ‘genocide’, ‘killing’, ‘rape’ as done by these Tamils. So it is clear this problem has not oriented as ethnic issue. Therefore it is very clear these guys are economic refugees which have come here to enjoy better life.

A_READER_

You are just copying and pasting this exact comment on every thread and sub thread…you are therefore a propagandist to me personally and spam to the thread IMHO.

true north

freetamils…Get a grip, I can not find anywhere on here that anyone has played the ''R'' card. I know myself that I do not see skin colour when writing my comments….are you bringing anything of value to this debate, or are you trying to create a problem where one does not exsist !!
s_c_f

I don't like the poll choices.

I think they should allow the refugees to arrive, but I also think that our refugee laws should be changed, so that the refugees are not essentially guaranteed free health care, welfare, and other expenses for years, just because they managed to step onto Canadian soil.

wictorwictor

Please show me what part of the law guarantees welfare to refugees

Nanakorobi

Singh v. Minister of Employment and Immigration, [1985] 1 S.C.R. 177

Any other questions?

A_READER_

The poll is a joke.
F5 and one can vote all day long.
No serious poll will allow multiple votes by one person, however it looks PC-perfect now, safe for the flakes to show off to their overlords, the international socialites of how 'nice' and accommodating we are.
We need to make rules for all of our security and well being. If this boat of pity gets it way, they'll be many many more.

David

Anyone who has followed the Tigers over the years has an idea of how ruthless these individuals are. Like many migrants Tamils settle in communites once in Canada. The Tamils 'fundraise' by going door to door threatening their countrymen and women. Extortion is not acceptable in this country; paying a militant group $55, 000 for a pass through our refugee system isn't either. An individual who can afford that amount of money is not a refugee. These individuals should have been turned away as a lesson to those who would abuse our system and causing delays for those who are actually fleeing genocide in their homeland.

Windigo

Bingo for David he hit the nail right on the head. A person who pays 55,000 CAD to jump the line is not a refugee, he is a PARASITE who knows that the investement is worth many times the returns if he manages to step on Canadian land and put himself under the protection of the law.

JustSaying

Refugees are supposed to take refuge in the closest democratic country to them. Canada is a heck of a distance away from Sri Lanka…
Wil

I agree with Christopher Columbus

A_READER_

You're an idiot too.

skyroamer

The boat should never have been allowed to land. These are neither refugees nor immigrants; they are migrants, here to take advantage of our good-heartedness and our once good economy. As Mark Steyn wrote in this magasine a few weeks ago, "We are too broke to be this stupid!" The Third World is going to haul us down to their level in short order and then the entire world will be the Third World with Third World economies, industrial ability, and standards of living. My suggestion is that the Third World begin to look after its own problems, beginning with controlling their populations, instead of simply using North America as a dumping ground for it's excess population, and an ATM for welfare cash.

sofia

Right on:
it's sad to have to think this way as a Canadian but it is so true.
If you read the reports from S-Lanka by people who know…it kind of turns the prospective on it – as in yeah – why not India. We are far away.
I have felt for the last 20 years when we originally only made immigration possible to people with money as in BC for them to buy business or property……all it took was 280,000 per immigrant which was peanuts to them – and it caused a great inflation in Vancouver
Suddenly groups like the Tirads formed, drug trade grew, crime grew…….always with large scale immigration for money
the down side is the group that spoils it for potentially good immigrants. To me if they have $40,000 to give extortionists, something about refugee does not ring true

Michel Brazeau

It's a very difficult situation for the government and immigration department.

They have to balance the need to help legitimate refugees and the 'safety' of our citizens and our credibility as a nation that's trying to control what we see as terrorism.

I don't know how they'll do it and how well they'll succeed but I have to trust that they will do as well as they can.
proud canadian

This is not about this particular group of people, but rather it is about queue jumping and the rewards reaped by the human traffickers who brought them here.Other traffickers all over the world are watching to see the results and will make Canada the destination of choice if this situation is not nipped in its early stages.
Said

I agree with you 100%, we the working people are sick and tired of payiing for the others…… The one's that do agree, i'm sure, are not of the working class… I am avery compassionate person, I believe in God and goodwill, but there is a limit, there has to be a limit. Everybody wants to come to Canada, the land of wealth and riches, to live on welfare and other government freebe programs. "Lest we forget", it is us, the middle class, are footing the bill.
Proudly Canadian

The fact that Canada is a country of immigrants is indisputable. But our forefathers didn't come here with their hands out.
cosmopolitan guy

If Mr. Columbus knew anything about history he would know that our natives were also immigrants, but I suppose that would offend some bleeding hearts.

tobyornotoby

Living here before there was a written history, pyramids, or an English language, should probably qualify as indigenous, don't you think Cosmo? Unless you're also saying we shouldn't recognize the Italians claim on Italy or the English right to make immigration policy because they all migrated from somewhere too.

cosmopolitan guy

I would be curious as to when our indigenous people arrived here. Was it before the pyramids? I don't think there is any real record and since they had no written language it's very difficult to say. Perhaps you could enlighten us all.

A_READER_

What a twit you are flower top.
WFT do pyramids have anything to do with Canadian Aboriginals?

AND
Duh, think way back dear, way back……last mini ice age was???
Suvey says:.
A P R O X – 12 thougsand years ago- try to keep up.
How long ago EXACTLY were the pyramids built? No records there either.

You're one of those loser who think the Europeans showed up 200 years ago and killed all the Indians…
Go get better educated or shut up, you're an embarassment to Indians of Canada.

alice

We have enough Canadians who want jobs, clothing, shelter, health care- It may be cold hearted of me but I say enough is enough- these people are going to end up with a better life style than our elderly senior citizens- We need to take care of our own citizens instead of spending millions on refugees-

WictorWictor

False dichotomy. There would be more than enough money money to care for the elderly if their spoiled boomer children hadn't spent the last 30 years demanding tax cuts.

A_READER_

Guess you don't have a lot of hard working men/women in your life. After 30-35 years you should have a nice tidy retirement nest egg, (nest paid for & egg about to hatch!) despite being overtaxed at 48-52%. Sucks to be you then eh?
Or heh, get a job, build your own wealth and stop whinning like a little welfare bum.

Lyle Henderson

It's the job of our refugee board and the mounties to check these people out – get rid of the Bad and Approve the good and do it in a reasonable time frame. I just hope that after all their promises that Our Conservative government has gotten the system fixed in time……….
veertje

these Sri Lankans each paid someone $50,000.00 to be sailed to canada!!!! So they knew they were going to be allowed here, they knew they did something illigal to begin with!!! and again, we, the tax payers, are going to pay for all their care and needs. What about us??? we can't even get proper care or have to wait months to get treatment and here we're giving these strangers free care and at once! docters and health care givers waiting to "serve" these people! I'm so sick of this! let them come into this country the proper way, like everyone else!!!! they seem to have enough money!!!! send them packing please!

wictorwictor

Average income in Sri Lanka is $2000 so, no, I don't think they "paid" 50 grand

They sold themselves into debt slavery so they could escape brutality, disappearances and mass murder

A_READER_

Perhaps they shouldn't have suppored the terrorist of their own country then…so why should we have to have them?
Only going to bring their old hatreds here and start crap again like they already have.

Piracy is what this is.

wictorwictor

If you've found your healthcare to be inadequate you should complain about the gutting of social programs that has taken place over the last 3 decades

wictorwictor

"After all if I am accepted as a refugee,I could receive twice what I get on Can.Pension and Ontario Old Age Security."
What? You just made that up didn't you
Tomwindsor

Feed um Clean them up load them back on their boat and point them toward the good old US of A, I know Homeland Security will take good care of them and save our welfare system the expense
Concerned

What makes any of you pro people think this is okay…it is not okay to pay someone to help you come to Canada for whatever reason – you did not come from where you claim but from Thailand (and paid for this to someone making money) – all immigrants MUST come to Canada through the right process, not by the "back door" – this country
does not need immigrants not able to speak English/French and put another strain on the welfare/health system. This country was populated by immigrants who came here through due process and did not depend on government, etc. to help them out. This is just another "ploy" to enter the country and then 'disappear' either to other parts of Canada or to the U.S. Our Conservative Government is correct in putting harder measures in place!!!
A_READER_

CC
I'm guessing you're either an idiot or just young and uneducated.
Your rant otherwise is too ignorant to respond to.