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ACTION ALERT: Bill C-49 – Anti-smuggling or anti-refugee?

A reminder of an action alert issued on October 25 by trade campaigner Stuart Trew:

The Council of Canadians is concerned that the Harper government’s new immigration and refugee legislation — Bill C-49, Preventing Human Smugglers from Abusing Canada’s Immigration System Act — will unfairly punish those fleeing persecution abroad, including children. We stand with the Canadian Council for Refugees and Amnesty International Canada in calling on Members of Parliament to defeat this bill.

Bill C-49 would discriminate between refugees based on how they arrive in Canada, which is prohibited under the Refugee Convention. It also proposes mandatory detention without independent review (arbitrary detention) which is contrary to the Charter and international law. None of these measures will help stop real human smuggling. But they will punish legitimate refugee claimants entering Canada by newly ‘designated’ modes of travel.

TAKE ACTION
Please contact your Member of Parliament by telephone or email (as soon as possible — debate on the bill began Thursday, October 28). For talking points, and to find your MP’s contact information, visit: http://ccrweb.ca/en/c-49-contact-your-mp.

Read more about C-49 here: http://ccrweb.ca/en/bulletin/10/10/21.