But we are deeply troubled by the backlog and the processing time, and we feel the program is at the point of collapse. It needs an overhaul and systemic change, far more than what is being addressed at this moment, and there is a deflection of all problems at the feet of sponsors.
The United Church believes that responding to desperate refugees is our moral imperative. We want refugees in need of protection, or a durable solution, to arrive in Canada. We emphatically would absorb visa-office-referred cases, if only they were made available to us.
As it is, we spend hours assessing congregational submissions so that only “good” applications go forward. The department is asking us to screen even more intensely and to further restrict our numbers—in effect, discouraging private sponsorship.
Submitting applications for refugees with family members in Canada is not wrong. The Geneva Convention definition does not define a refugee as someone with no relatives in the country of resettlement.
We feel that the fixation the government seems to have with our referring cases to this program is much akin to—and I don't know who may have seen the Yes Minister series, when Sir Humphrey Appleby would not let the patients go to the hospital because he wanted it to stay clean and pristine. At times, we feel that is the impression we get about the refugee program: they don't want refugee referrals.