Montreal Haitians urge Canada to do more

Canada is not doing enough to help Haitians leave their earthquake-ravaged homeland, members of Montreal's Haitian community said Tuesday.

They were reacting to federal Immigration Minister Jason Kenney's announcement in Montreal on Monday that Ottawa will fast-track certain immigration applications and the adoption process for Haitian children. The community says those measures are not enough and is urging the government to go a lot further to bring Haitians to Canada and help those who are already here stay.

"An exceptional situation calls for exceptional measures," said Keder Hippolyte, president of the National Council of Citizens of Haitian Origin.

The measures the groups are calling for include:

• Extending eligibility for family sponsorship to siblings, aunts, uncles and cousins.
• Immediately providing permanent resident status for asylum seekers whose deportations have been put on hold and for other Haitians temporarily in Canada, such as students.
• Flexibility in the enforcement of immigration regulations.
• Lifting the fees for immigration applications.

Similar measures were applied by the Canadian government following the 2004 tsunami, said Janet Dench of the Canadian Council for Refugees.

"The government has a lot of flexibility that it can use," Dench said. "But what we need is a strong message from the minister that he expects his officers to use their discretion favourably towards the people that were affected by this disaster."

About 130,000 people of Haitian origin live in Quebec, according to Maison d'Haiti's website.

Must exercise 'vigilance': Kenney

The federal government is suspending immigration fees for applications made by Haitians, said Albert Deschamps, Quebec regional director for Citizenship and Immigration Canada on Tuesday.

The government is prioritizing new and existing immigration applications from Haiti, Deschamps said.

He said those who already have some sort of temporary status in Canada are not being prioritized.

Meeting with members of the Haitian community on Monday, the federal immigration minister said applications would be processed more quickly than in previous disasters, adding the government has temporarily suspended all deportations to Haiti.

But Kenney said the federal government must follow Canadian immigration law, even if it's trying to be more flexible.

He said Canada is opening a second immigration office in the region — likely in neighbouring Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic — to handle requests. But he was unable to say how long it would take to process applications under the new accelerated system.

"Not a matter of days, not a matter of years. I hope it will be in the short term, though," Kenney said.

Asked how officials would process requests from people who might have lost all their documentation, Kenney said Canada has experience in these situations.

"You know, this is not the first time we've had to deal with that problem of people who've lost documents and lost passports," he said.

"Our officials, both in my ministry and Foreign Affairs, have become very expert at being flexible but also exercising vigilance because we, obviously, need to make sure people coming here are who they claim to be."