Thank you.
At the last meeting of this subcommittee, we received an update on the situation in Sudan. One of the witnesses spoke about the difference in Canada's response to the conflicts in Sudan and Ukraine in terms of how we accept people who are being displaced.
Mr. Diamond from the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights noted that not a single Sudanese displaced person had been resettled since the launch of a financially burdensome program, capped at 3,250 people, that was released in February by the government. He compared that with the approval of nearly one million people under an emergency family reunification program for Ukraine that had no eligibility or financial requirements. Mr. Diamond stated, “This widely disparate response to the war in Ukraine and to Sudan is a scandal of the first order and can only be explained by a discriminatory and, frankly, racist implementation of policy towards communities fleeing conflict.”
Do you believe there is systemic racism in Canada's refugee intake policies? If so, what can be done to ensure that Canada implements inclusive policies in this area?