I'm not sure I can design the best way, but I'll give you a few suggestions.
It seems to me that one of the real challenges here is that most of the Ugandans who are facing serious persecution and threats to their lives are still in Uganda, so that's challenge number one. These are not individuals who will meet the convention refugee definition, because they are not outside of their country of nationality.
We need some kind of program that will be willing to resettle individuals who have not been able to leave their country. In any case, I would hesitate to encourage Ugandans to leave. One of their biggest fears is to find themselves in some refugee camp or detention place where their lives will continue to be in danger, because they will not be able to live openly and may be there for years. That's just not an option, and many of them are well aware that leaving Uganda could actually make things worse for them.
The first thing is to find a way for Canada to set up an in-country resettlement process. The current process, the one that lists countries and that has been used in the past, is not flexible enough to create a program for this particular need. It would be based on the country, and I'm not sure that Canada is willing to designate the whole of Uganda as an in-country class. We would have to change the regulations. The regulatory process would need to be modified, and that option would not be an effective response to this urgent situation.
However, there is a provision in the Immigration Act that might allow a more flexible program. It's the one that I think was used to create the program for the Afghan interpreters. Once given their permanent resident status, they were given access to the same services refugees have once they're settled here, with up to one year of financial support and interim health benefits. If we were able to do it for that class of individuals, I wonder if it's not a possibility in this case. It's not clear to me what the legislative basis for that program is, but I would encourage you to pursue it.
There are also credible and reputable refugee organizations that are working with sexual minorities in Uganda and Kenya. I can mention a couple. There is the HIAS Refugee Trust of Kenya, which is the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. They have been working with this vulnerable population in both Kenya and Uganda. There is a refugee law project that represents refugee claimants in Uganda at the Makerere University. It is a credible organization that could assist Canada in identifying individuals who need immediate assistance.
I think there are resources on the ground that have been quite aware of the situation. They are working with the individuals we want to help, and they're the ones who are probably sending those individuals to knock on the door at the U.S. embassy as opposed to the Canadian embassy.
I think there are possibilities, but they probably need to be investigated further.