OTTAWA ­ The Harper government is readying for Parliament a package of reforms that for the first time could have Canada fast-tracking refugee claimants from countries where citizens are generally thought to be safe from persecution.

Though the proposal has yet to get the final nod from cabinet, Martin Collacott, a former Canadian diplomat who specializes in immigration issues, says such a move is long overdue.

“We are the only country in the world that will consider a (claim) from someone coming from the United States, from the Philippines, from Thailand, from South Korea,” said Collacott, a senior fellow at the Fraser Institute.

The proposal envisions senior immigration officers hearing the refugee claimants from safe countries more quickly, thereby easing the load on the Immigration and Refugee Board. There would still be an appeal option, but it would be more streamlined than at present and would not necessarily involve another hearing.

As it stands now, it takes an average of 17 months before a claim is heard by the Immigration and Refugee Board. Once the board makes a decision, claimants can launch appeals that can last for years before the claimant is finally deported.

“Essentially, an unsuccessful claimant who is determined to game the system can stay in Canada for several years with a work permit and/or welfare benefits, and this fundamentally undermines the fairness of our immigration system,” Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said.

The stepped-up talk of reform follows a months-long, carefully orchestrated campaign, led by Kenney, to focus attention on a refugee system that almost everyone agrees needs repair.

The campaign picked up steam last month, when Canada slapped visa requirements on visitors from Mexico and the Czech Republic, and climaxed when Prime Minister Stephen Harper sang a “blame Canada” tune while personally explaining to Mexican President Felipe Calderon why the Canadian government was forced to resort to such an unpopular move.

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Jason Kenney, the immigration minister, has had a heavy time clawing his way up thru Conservative congress ranks. But if he will achieve success in bringing fairness to Canada’s out-of-control refugee system his future will be set. Here’s something the New Democrats purposely do not get, the Liberals are oblivious to and the Conservatives dimly understand as if thru a glass, darkly : Canadians are noiselessly mad about our fat, porous and stupidly over-bureaucratized refugee system. No government, since the high court passed down its supposed “landmark Singh decision” on Apr 4, 1985, has had the nerve to face this problem, not to mention fix it. The Singh call established, based mostly on the Canadian Charter of Rights and Liberties , that any person who claims refugee standing in Canada has an inalienable right to a formal hearing. It also established de facto the charter is applicable to anyone that sets foot on Canadian soil.

In the space of some years it incubated a nearly improbable legal and official tangle, a sector to all intents and purposes dedicated to sorting valid refugee petitioners from fake ones.

The Process

If you are a convicted law-breaker or simply a businessman wanting to earn a better living ( vs a refugee fleeing persecution ) the machine finally may spit you back out. But that may drag on for years and often does. In one scandalous case, that of “pizza guy” Harjit Singh, it took seventeen years. Singh was a convicted criminal in his local India and a known card con artist here in Canada. But it took a state political scandal and the downfall of an immigration minister, Judy Sgro, before he was ultimately put on a plane and sent home in 2005. A foreign visitor steps ashore in Halifax and enters the customs lineup. Quickly he speaks one on one to a senior customs officer. The petitioner tells his story and presents any supporting proof. If the tale does not measure up, the refugee petitioner is kindly ushered into another waiting room.

He is offered a meal and a variety of in-flight mags.

As quickly as a flight is available off he is going home, thanks to the governing body of Canada. The stark fact is that folks who most need safe harbor sometimes do not have the means to get to Canada. We deserve to be finding refugees where they live — in refugee camps — not waiting for them to come to us. This is the nub of Ottawa’s call last week to foist visa limitations on visitors from Mexico and the Czech Republic. The overwhelming majority, according to the govt, are business migrants. Both Mexico and the Czech Republic are democracies, kind of.

But the system can be remade so that folks who require our help get it and economic migrants use the method in place for doing that.

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