by arthur Weinreb, associate Editor,
2/17/05
Besides preventing those who are likely to pose a danger to public health and public safety from entering Canada, the Immigration and Refugee Protection act makes persons who "might reasonably expected to cause excessive demands on health or social services" inadmissible to this country.
The latter provision, which has always been the subject of controversy, is in the news again and the matter is headed to the Supreme Court of Canada. David Hilewitz, a wealthy businessman from South africa applied to emigrate to Canada. His application was approved but his 21-year-old mentally challenged son was refused permission to come to Canada because his admission was found to likely result in excessive demands on health or social services.
Last Friday, the Toronto Sun’s Valerie Gibson, whose mentally challenged daughter is in England and unable to come to Canada, wrote a column about how the country of tolerance really isn’t that tolerant. Gibson referred to others, who, after hearing about this provision of the Canada’s immigration laws, reacted with "shock" and "surprise". according to Gibson, "this is a cruel law from the ignorant old days".
Gibson’s column was followed by an editorial in the Toronto Sun entitled, "Disabled policy is heartless".
There are a lot of things that Canada Immigration can be criticized for. There are thousands and thousands of failed refugee claimants that immigration has lost track of. There are convicted career criminals under deportation orders that are ignored by immigration until they surface, as did Clinton Gayle, after he killed a cop. a terrorist such as ahmed Ressam was allowed to walk free after being denied refugee status until he was apprehended trying to enter the United States to blow up Los angeles International airport. Suspected war criminals and those suspected of committing crimes against humanity, walk freely among us. In all likelihood, there will be a major incident on Canadian soil that will be the direct result of our lax immigration policies. But Canada Immigration is right to bar mentally challenged and others with serious health problems from entering Canada.
Ms. Gibson may be partly right when she harkens back to the "ignorant old days" when imbeciles as the mentally challenged were referred to, were treated as non persons. But Canada Immigration’s policies are firmly rooted in the present. as we all know, Canada is not solely defined by our tolerance and our diversity--we are defined by our health care system, where, being a Canadian means never having to pay for medical services. Our government run health care system is, with its long waiting lists and overcrowded hospitals, going through a financial crisis. Despite appearances to the contrary, the entire world does not have the "right" to come to Canada. To allow Canada’s overburdened health care system to expend excessive and scarce resources on those who are not yet here defies logic. Supplying the excessive demands of those like the children of Hilewitz and Gibson will mean less money and resources that can be used for citizens and permanent residents.
ah, but Hilewitz and others in his position say that they have lots of money and they are willing to take care of any medical expenses that their dependents require. There are two things wrong with this argument.
The first is that however genuine they may be, they can always decline to pay. Once a person becomes a permanent resident of Canada, he or she has the "right" to get all the benefits of our state-run medical system that everyone else does. It may only be a matter of time until the person who is paying decides they are being treated unfairly. and then the payments stop.
More importantly, if people like Hilewitz and Gibson are allowed to pay for the medical treatment of their children, we will in effect be creating two classes of Canadians; those who pay cash and have the chance to obtain more timely and better medical treatment and those who are prohibited from paying and must wait until public resources become available to treat them, assuming of course that they live that long. To allow this type of two-tiered medical system in a country that considers two-tiered medicine treasonous is grossly unfair and wrong.
People like Valerie Gibson would be better off attacking our one-tier health system rather than this immigration policy.