Refugee Appeal Bill Mysteriously Dumped
A bill that would have set up an appeal process for refugees who think they have been unfairly rejected has been quietly abandoned. Bill C-291, which passed second reading this spring, has since been parked without additional debate after being forwarded to a Citizenship and Immigration committee. Now that summer is here, the bill has been effectively killed, left languishing on the table. Bill C-291 is of particular importance to gay refugees, as Canada has a terrible record of handling gay claimants. Those seeking to gain refuge from countries where homosexuality is illegal are often asked for exhaustive evidence of their gayness despite a pressing need to have hid all such evidence for their own safety. It’s not all bad, though; as consolation, rejected claimants are given a complimentary copy of Joseph Heller’s Catch 22.
