July 04, 2009, Toronto Star

Alarm is growing among refugee advocates that Immigration Minister Jason Kenney is injecting politics into a system designed to give desperate people sanctuary. This comes after an explosion of Czech asylum-seekers, all of them Roma – once called gypsies – have flooded into Ontario this year to escape neo-Nazi firebombings and beatings. Peter Showler, former chair of the Immigration and Refugee Board, said yesterday, “The government would like to create a system where countries with high refusal rates can be dealt with quickly through some form of expedited process involving a decision by an immigration officer.

“Refugee law is about protecting people who have a well-founded fear of persecution. Minister Kenney is dead wrong when he keeps implying that the Roma do not require protection,” he said.

An Immigration and Refugee Board task force released its fact-finding report on the Czech Republic on June 24.

Kenney told the Star: “My understanding is the report essentially says there is no evidence of state-sanctioned persecution of Roma. If someone comes in and says the police have been beating the crap out of them, the IRB panellist can then go to their report and say, `Well, actually, there’s been no evidence of police brutality.'”

Czech Roma have arrived in a wave, 673 in 2009 so far and 853 in 2008, since Canada lifted visa requirements for Czech travellers in November 2007.

Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kohout said Wednesday in Prague that Ottawa is about to “take measures” to deal with the tide, but he didn’t know what they would be. However, it has been reported that Canada is considering reimposing the visa requirements.

Kenney has floated a two-tier system to deal with Roma and the flood of claims from Mexico, 8,069 last year, in which people from certain countries could be turned back at the border or detained.

“In essence, we would be slamming the door,” Showler told a refugee conference last month.

More than 30 per cent of the refugee claims decided last year were from Mexico; 89 per cent of the 1,958 total were rejected. From the Czech Republic, however, 95 per cent of the 89 cases were approved, but most Roma withdraw their claims.

“This is shameful to the Czech Republic, its own citizens running away from its own country,” said Marek Polak, a 24-year-old journalist who was allegedly beaten unconscious by skinheads outside a subway station in Prague. He and his family arrived in Canada one month ago and live in Hamilton.

“What’s happening is horrible and it’s increasing. My mother was a known person so they had to confess that it was racially motivated. ”

His mother Anna Polakova’s departure was national news in the Czech Republic, where she was chief editor of Roma broadcasting on the Czech equivalent of the CBC Radio.

Toronto immigration lawyer Max Berger, who handles many Roma claims, said Kenney is “undermining the board” with his statements about who has valid claims. Berger promised he would make Kenney’s politicization grounds for appeal in his next case before Federal Court.

A visa would “seriously and significantly” affect the $870 million in business between the two countries and millions of dollars in tourist revenue for Canada, said Czech Republic Consul General Richard Krpac in Toronto.

An announcement could come as soon as Tuesday.