Sanctuary
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RECENT SANCTUARY CASES
Canada’s refugee sanctuary movement began in 1983, when a Guatemalan was given safe haven in a Montreal church. There have been approximately 40 incidents of sanctuary since 1983. The average duration in sanctuary was 150 days. 70% of those who sought sanctuary received legal status. Sanctuary has as much to do with the actions of those within church communities as community members, refugee advocates, and grassroots movements. (“Sanctuary, Sovereignty, Sacrifice” by Randy Lippert)
o Shree Kumar Rai (Nepal) Feb 2007. First Unitarian Congregation, Ottawa
o Raza family (Pakistan) Aug 2006. Fort Rouge United Church, Winnipeg
o Ali Reza Monemi (Iran) May 2006. Evangelist Anglican Church, North Vancouver
o Moti Nano (Ethiopia) Jan 2006. All Saints Lutheran Church, Ottawa
o Abdelkader Belaouni (Algeria) January 2006. St. Gabriel’s, Montreal
o Portnoy Family (Israel) November 2005. Catholic Sacred Heart Parish Marystown, NL (Alexi Portnoy deported Jan 2006 after he left church temporarily, Angela Portnoy and five children remain in sanctuary)
o Alexi Kolosovs (Russia/Latvia) May 2005. West End Baptist Church, St. John’s Newfoundland
o Ololade Labiyi (Nigeria) Nov 2004. Cecilia’s Catholic Church, Calgary
o Costa rican family Sep 2005. St. Philip Neri Church, Toronto
o Amir Kazemian (Iran) June 2004-Feb 2007. Anglican St. Michael’s, Vancovuer
o Maoua Diomande (Ivory Coast) June 2005-June 2006. St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic parish, Ottawa
o Esperanza Rivera Vaquerano (El Salvador) May 2005 -June 2006. Emmanuel Pentecostal Church, New Westminster B.C (deported after she temporarily left sanctuary)
o Sergio Loreto (Guatemala) Sep 2004-Oct 2006. San Lorenzo Anglican Church, Toronto (deported after he temporarily left sanctuary)
o Ayoub family (Palestinian camps in Lebanon) Jan 2004- Feb 2005: Notre-Dame-de-Grâce church, Montreal
o Mohamed Cherfi (Algeria) Jan 2004- Feb 2005. Saint-Pierre United Church, Quebec City (sanctuary violated-deported to US, he was in detention for over a year, granted refugee status in US in July 2005)
o Menen Ayele (Ethiopia) Aug 2003- Dec 2004: Union United Church, Montreal
o Samsu Mia (Bangladesh) July 2003-Dec 2004: First Unitarian Church, Ottawa
o Vega family (Colombia) July 2003-Feb 2005: St. Andrew’s-Norwood United Church, Montreal
o Borja family (Colombia) July 2003- October 2003 Unitarian Universalist Church, North Hatley QC.
o Sanja Peceljs (Serbian from Kosovo) April 2003-Aug 2004: St. Mark’s Anglican Church, Halifax.
o Bourouisa/Seddiki family (Algeria) September 2002- October 2002. Union United Church, Montreal
o Dorothy Dube (Zimbabwe): Jan 2002-Summer 2002, Union United Church, Montreal.
BACKGROUND
Sanctuary is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as “a holy place†where under medieval justice “a fugitive from justice or a debtor was entitled to immunity from arrestâ€. Sanctuary is predominantly understood within a Christian context in North America, with its roots in the Old Testament. Numbers 35: 9-15, and Joshua 20: 1-6 speak of six asylum cities where sanctuary was offered (Diocese of New Westminster). The original concept of sanctuary, essentially identical with that of a right of asylum, meant that forcible removal constituted ‘sacrilege’ as Ecclesiastical Law states that church property is sacred and therefore inviolable.
In recent years there has been a revival in the sanctuary movement for refugees. Supporters have been willing to defy their governments in order to protect refugees and prevent their forced deportations. The sanctuary movement is premised on the profound recognition that refugees are not to be hidden, made invisible, or be forced to go ‘underground’ as non-status peoples. Sanctuary is based on a public and assertive act of faith and of conscience. In the past few years, the provision of sanctuary has drawn the ire of successive deportation ministers, who have called on churches not to engage in this practice. The fact that only five or six churches providing sanctuary draws such a critique speaks to the power of the practice to not only highlight the flaws in the refugee determination system, but gives us a sense of where we may gain negotiating room with respect to fixing the systemic flaws.
The United Church of Canada’s 34th General Council endorsed “the moral right and responsibility of congregations to provide sanctuary…†The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops declared in 2005 “Sanctuary is never a solution for asylum seekers, but may be a step along their journey toward social justice.†According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 2242, ‘The citizen is obliged in conscience not to follow the directives of civil authorities when they are contrary to the demands of the moral order…â€
Denise Nadeau, an educator with a Doctorate of Ministry in International Feminist Theology and member of the Interfaith Sanctuary Coalition in Montreal, writes, “The Canadian government has reasserted control over categories deemed less desirable, such as refugees and women. The result is an exclusion of the poor and working class, and especially those who are non-white. In this situation of grave injustice, supporting the claims of asylum seekers and refugees may be one of the most effective things we, as Christians, can do to challenge the forces of empire. The spiritual basis for solidarity is the basic fact of our interconnectedness as human beings. This means we do not see the asylum seeker and refugee as a “tragic†victim whom we are saving by our good works. Rather it means we acknowledge we are in a relationship, one shaped by our location in a country and a religion with more than five hundred years of a colonial past and present.â€
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SANCTUARY: CHALLENGING EMPIRE
Since this summer six church communities across Canada have opted to make the commitment to provide sanctuary – opening their doors to asylum seekers who are about to be deported, giving them shelter, food, emotional and financial support. An Ethiopian mother and her three children have found asylum in a Montreal United church; two Colombian families have been received, one in a Unitarian church in North Hatley, another in a second Montreal United church; while an Anglican church in Halifax has provided sanctuary for a woman from the former Yugoslavia and a Catholic church in Edmonton is a temporary home for a Nigerian woman. On September 15 a Syrian Muslim man has found sanctuary in a Catholic church in Winnipeg. In the fall of 2002, Union United in Montreal provided sanctuary to an Algerian family. This summer an Interfaith Sanctuary Committee formed in Montreal. By late July this committee had received calls from six other churches across Canada requesting information about sanctuary.
The term sanctuary, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, identifies “a church or other sacred place†where, under medieval law, “a fugitive from justice or a debtor was entitled to immunity from arrest.†As used in this article, sanctuary refers to the practice of churches providing a secure place of refuge or protection for those seeking asylum. Providing sanctuary is done in opposition to the state and is linked to appeals to a higher law – be it international and/or moral law.
In taking the moral high ground, these five faith communities join a growing movement of grassroots groups opposed to racial profiling and the increasing misuse of the Canadian state’s security and legal apparatus against asylum seekers and refugee claimants. In Montreal alone, 100 Palestinians, 200 Pakistanis, 100 Algerians and an undisclosed number of Colombians are slated for deportation. As well, many others who are now arriving at our borders requesting asylum- women and men from other countries in the Two Thirds World besides the above- are now being immediately placed and kept in detention – that is criminalized and incarcerated- both before, during and after their hearings.
Besides the fact that seeking asylum is not a crime, there is at present no appeal procedure in Canada for any refugee claimant whose claim has been refused. As Janet Dench of the Canadian Council for Refugees has remarked, “you have more rights to appeal when you get a parking ticket than you do as a refugee claimant.†For most asylum seekers your life, your security and your livelihood are at stake. The refugee determination procedure recently established by the new Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, allows only one person to hear and decide on a claim, thus leaving a claimant dependent on the prejudices and biases of a single individual. Through detention, lack of appeal procedures, and the limited rights accorded to non-status persons waiting for hearings – for example, no right to health insurance with your children having no right to family benefits, even if born in Canada—the Canadian state is violating fundamental human rights of asylum seekers to a fair hearing and freedom of movement, as well as equitable access to education, health services, housing and legal services.
In harmonizing our immigration policies with the U.S. in the “Smart Border Declaration†of December 2001, with the proposed “national security perimeter†around North America, and with the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, Canada has opted for an increasingly racist and imperialist immigration and refugee policy. As we align ourselves with the agenda of the U.S. empire, the Canadian government has reasserted control over categories deemed less desirable, such as refugees and women (in the family class), favouring highly skilled, well-educated, English-or French-speaking, upper class men. The result is an exclusion of the poor and working class, and especially those who are non-white.
NO LONGER STRANGERS
In this situation of grave injustice, supporting the claims of asylum seekers and refugees may be one of the most effective things we, as Christians, can do to challenge the forces of empire. It is important to explore the spiritual and theological motivation for why and how we can support and act in solidarity with those who arrive on our borders seeking asylum.
At a foundational level, the spiritual basis for solidarity is the basic fact of our interconnectedness as human beings. In knowing our own humanity, who we are, and our own pain, we can be more “with†rather than “for†the other, because we see and feel our interrelation in and through our bodies. This means we do not see the asylum seeker and refugee as a “tragic†victim whom we are saving by our good works. Rather it means we acknowledge we are in a relationship, one shaped by our location in a country and a religion with more than five hundred years of a colonial past and present.
In inheriting this colonial and paternal relationship, as colonizers, we learned to distance our hearts from our own humanity as well as that of the “Other†– be it the indigenous person, the immigrant or the refugee. We learned to think and live out all the dualisms that underlie western imperialism – “we†are superior, developed, democratic, legitimate, while “they†are inferior, undeveloped, undemocratic and illegal. These judgments are based on an internalized relationship of dominance.
To change this thinking and way of being, we must redefine this relationship with the “Other†by first being honest with ourselves and recognizing that we are still colonizers. As Christians, in particular, we are part of a colonial mission history that displaced and excluded indigenous peoples in this land. For decades our churches have been part of white Western missionary efforts that supported the expansion of Christian European civilization in Asia, Africa and the Americas, implicitly carrying the message of the superiority of our religion and culture. We are also part of global systems of domination by the very fact we live in the North, which exploits the resources, land and labour of the Two Thirds World. We are complicit in the new colonial relations of global capitalism by the fact that Canada is part of the G8, is a big player in the WTO and the FTAA negotiations and supports the US “War against Terror.â€
In acknowledging our imperial past and present we can read our biblical texts differently. Now when I hear Deuteronomy 10:19, “ Love the stranger therefore for you were strangers in the land of Egypt,†I now realize that I am in fact the Egyptian and I was never a stranger in Egypt. In this more honest relationship with myself, I must find a biblical witness that challenges me to create more equitable relationships with those who have been treated so far as strangers in this country. Ephesians 2: 17-19 comes to mind: “So Christ came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through Christ both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father-Mother. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God.â€
This is a call to interreligious solidarity with the oppressed. In a new relationship, a relationship of non-judgment, where we are all citizens in the household of God together, we can support the claims of asylum seekers both as an act of reparation and because these are my sisters, my brothers. We are not here to judge or to screen refugee claimants; rather we are called to accept our common humanity and interconnectedness, whether we are Muslims, Jews, poor, rich, colonizer or colonized, economic or political migrant.
This means we extricate ourselves from the dynamic of looking for the “good†or “bad,†“genuine†or “bogus,†refugee claimant. As British writer, A. Sivanandan argues, the categories of “political†and “economic†migrants are collapsing as capitalist globalization creates mass poverty, displacement and civil unrest. Who are we to judge a young Fujianese woman of 22, who may have 2 children living in poverty in China, and who is desperate enough to risk her life on a perilous ocean journey in a leaky boat with 500 men, only to face detention in Canada because she is considered a “bogus†claimant? Enduring much suffering in her home country for gender and class reasons, she represents all the men and women who embark on often life-threatening journeys to get here, only to experience further financial hardship and emotional distress. They are criminalized and humiliated, asked to provide endless documentation, justification of present and past activities, and endure security checks and reviews of their economic and political background. Perhaps we can only stand in solidarity and in awe for anyone who has risked their lives to provide a better life for their children.
The other piece we can do is to act on what Musa Dube, the Botswanan Biblical theologian , calls our “ ethical responsibility in a world where there is unjust social relations, one which requires an ethical commitment to and identification with those struggling under global structures of domination and exploitation.â€(Postcolonial Feminist Interpretation of the Bible, p. 102. )This involves challenging unjust immigration and refugee laws, laws which are being harmonized throughout the Western world in order to limit and control the movement of peoples while promoting the free flow of capital.
In September the “Safe Third Country†agreement with the US comes into effect, allowing Canada to turn back any claimant who came here through the US, condemning them to instant detention and eventually deportation from the US.
What can we do? We can support or join with the churches already doing sanctuary and publicize these situations, putting pressure on the Canadian government to address not only these cases but also the unjust system that has caused them. We can join with the larger movement of groups who are challenging racial profiling and unjust deportations, demanding a just and fair refugee determination system and the right to free movement and basic human rights for all asylum seekers and refugee claimants. And we can pause and meditate on the words of Ephesians, “you are no longer strangers,†pondering what they may mean in our hearts.
Denise Nadeau writes from Montreal.