Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair and honoured members of the committee.
We are really pleased to be here tonight, and are delighted that you are taking up this important issue. We are here to recommend in the strongest possible terms that the excessive demand clause in the immigration act be repealed, and having made that comment, I'm tempted to rest my case right there, but of course I'm not going to.
Let's look at it from a number of perspectives, first of all, philosophical. The existing provision, in our minds, is mired in outdated ableist, offensive, and stereotypical notions about disability, in which it seems that we are considered automatically to be a burden upon society. Needless to say, as an organization of persons with disabilities, we reject, out of hand, that notion. However, the continuation of that phrase in the act is demeaning, and if you think about it from where we sit, basically that phrase is saying that we aren't wanted in Canada. That's not the Canada that I understand that I live in, nor the Canada that I want, nor do I believe it is the Canada that you and your fellow members want either. So, this provision must go.
When the Canadian Human Rights Act was proclaimed, we hoped that would signal a new era; it did not. When the Charter of Rights came into force, again we were hopeful but again disappointed. When Canada signed and later ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, again we were hopeful, because prior to ratifying it, the Government of Canada consulted its provincial counterparts. But again, we've seen no movement.
Today we are on the verge of a promised national accessibility act. We suggest to you that this repeal is long overdue and very timely, and can be done either through legislation proposed by you or as part of the national act. In order to make the kinds of tangible differences in our lives that we want, and that you folks have led us to expect, that bill needs to include the amendment of a number of pieces of legislation.
In practice we have an immigration system that runs several different ways. If you're a refugee, the excessive demand clause doesn't apply. If you are rich and have lots of resources, you can argue that you can cover whatever excessive demand costs may exist. If you are neither, you are often forced to almost beg the minister, on compassionate grounds, to let you stay in Canada. It seems that in that case, the squeaky wheel gets the minister's permit. If a person raises enough trouble and threatens to go to court a lot of times, the permit is issued.
We don't think Canada should have a “several streams” kind of process. We do support the need for refugees to be fast-tracked. We understand where they're coming from.
With regard to the numbers game, we suspect some people are concerned that if we repeal this offensive section, Canada will be flooded with applicants for landed status. We see no evidence to support that idea, so we consider this an outdated provision whose time to end has come.
I want to leave you with one final thought. Consider this list of Canadians; it's not exhaustive. You will know many of these names.
There's the Honourable Carla Qualtrough and the Honourable Kent Hehr. Catherine Frazee is the former chairperson of the Ontario Human Rights Commission. Yvonne Peters, I think, is the current chair of the Manitoba Human Rights Commission, and Jim Derksen was formerly with Disabled Peoples' International. Sandra Carpenter is the leading spokesperson in the independent living movement in Canada and around the world.
That's not an exhaustive list by any means, members.
Consider this though. We in Canada have benefited from their work and their expertise partly because through good luck they were born in Canada. What would have been the result had they not been? One thing that is common with those individuals and others such as Rick Hansen is that they all have an ongoing permanent disability. If they had lived outside of Canada and had applied to immigrate to Canada, how would their applications have been viewed and dealt with by immigration officials? How would they have been?
I ask you to ponder that question tonight and as you go forward, and I submit that Canada would not have been able to benefit from at least some if not all of the work of those important and significant Canadians, because a lot of them would have been denied the opportunity to come to Canada.
That's not the kind of Canada I want. We need to be able to benefit from the interest, the aspirations, and the contributions of everyone, and we reject any notion that disabled people are automatically a burden. The work and contributions of those individuals put the big lie to any such contention. I invite you to ponder that point if not others.
Thank you for the opportunity to be here.