Claimants bewildered as face to face dealings cut across country are said
to save $5 million.
By Adam Pez, Today, TheTyee.ca
http://thetyee.ca/News/2012/06/15/CIC-Shut-Down/
The federal government shut down front desks and eliminated walk-in services in immigration and refugee offices across the country last week — a move that has left refugee claimants and advocates bewildered.
Unprecedented events being organized in 10 cities across the country
Health care workers united in opposition to planned reductions in health care coverage for refugees are holding a national day of action in hopes of persuading the federal government to reverse course. Physicians, nurses, community health workers and many others from a number of different professional health disciplines will be participating in demonstrations in 10 cities from coast to coast on Monday, June 18th. The health care workers are deeply concerned that the changes to the Interim Federal Health Program (IFHP) scheduled to take effect June 30, 2012 will lead to poorer health outcomes for some of the most vulnerable members of society, increase health care costs and threaten public safety.
Where: YWCA, 733 Beatty street, right next to Stadium Skytrain Station.
(Note: there are several Y’s, please make note of the address).
When: 6.30PM, Wed, June 27
Bill C-31, the Protecting Canada’s Immigration System Act, will result in the arbitrary detention, intimidation, failure to protect, and ultimate re-victimization of highly vulnerable people who seek asylum in Canada, especially the most vulnerable among them, women and children. If the changes proposed under Bill C-31 are passed into law, a significant number of women will never have their own risk of persecution or hardship assessed, prior to being deported from Canada. The Barbra Schlifer Clinic, METRAC, and LEAF, three organizations dedicated to women’s equality and to ending violence against women, presented their concerns about the Bill in a written Submission to the Commons Committee on Bill C-31, which concluded hearings this week.
CARLOS OSORIO/TORONTO STAR
Ontario nurses are urging the Harper government to scrap its plans to reduce health care coverage for refugee claimants or face the fact people will die. Ottawa announced in April it will strip thousands of refugees of health-care coverage starting in July unless their conditions pose a threat to public health. “Ontario’s nurses, like health-care professionals from across the country, are gravely concerned that these dangerous changes will threaten the lives and well-being of people who have already experienced trauma and hardship before they arrived in Canada,†Doris Grinspun, chief executive officer of Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario, said in a letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
