Hope still lingers as Canada ratifies the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

Canada ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, on March 11^th, one day before the official opening of the Paralympic Games in Vancouver. This long-awaited ratification made Canada the 78^th nation to have adopted the Convention.[1] In addition to requiring provincial governments to update a number of laws, the document imposes a fundamental shift of the focus from institutionalization to integration of people with disabilities. Further, the convention will empower individuals to challenge laws and policies, deemed in conflict with the convention. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has important implications in Canadian immigration and refugee law. How far can its remedial stretch extend in offering hope to disabled immigrant and refugee applicants who seek permanent status or asylum in Canada?

The blatant exclusion of people of disabilities from immigration to Canada on the basis of disability stems back to the 1910 Immigration Act which altogether banned the immigration of people with mental disabilities. The 1927 Immigration Act expanded the basis for refusal to entry to Canada to physical disabilities as well. The subsequent amendment of the Act in 1976, introduced a less blatant discriminatory provision. Under this Act, people with disabilities could be excluded from immigration because they might place “excessive demands” on health or social services. This practice acquired a new dimension with the passing of the 1985 Immigration Act, which had s.…

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The individualized assessment: how the Hilewitz and De Jong cases played out in Abdelkader Belaouni’s struggles against immigration controls and ableism

Abdelkader Belaouni’s struggle for status in Canada lasted 3 years, 9 month and 22 days. This is the amount of time Belaouni spent at Montreal’s St Gabriel Church since January 1, 2006 until the long-awaited granting of his status in September, 2009. Prior to the legalization of his status, Belaouni found sanctuary in this Montreal Church as his only alternative to evading a deportation order. Having lost his vision earlier in life, Belaouni’s story has become a living example of a hero who not only won the victory against immigration controls, but also surmounted ableism within Canada’s immigration system.

Belaouni’s legal struggles showcase many of the obstacles that disabled applicants face in pursuit of legal status in Canada. What is the attitude of Canada’s immigration system towards disabled applicants? What does medical inadmissibility entail in the context of Canadian immigration law? In order to address these questions, it is important to describe Belaouni’s legal struggles in relation to two commonly cited cases on disability and immigration law in Canada, the Hilewitz and De Jong cases.[1]

The Algerian man who had lost his eyesight in his mid-twenties, fled to New York City in 1996 after a civil war unraveled in his country. Apprehensive about his future in the USA, a country where racial prejudice had spiked following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Belaouni sought refuge in Canada in March 2003. He was denied status on the…

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Should Canada Gyp the Roma?

Surprisingly for such a boring country, Canada has on occasion been described as “cool”.[1] But if we want to stick with the cool international crowd, we have to keep up with the latest trends. Most Canadians probably think that discrimination against minorities went out of fashion years ago, but lately one old classic has come back in vogue: persecuting the Roma (also known as Romani, or Gypsies).

Many Canadians may find picking on members of a small diaspora community unappealing. But like other trends such as Ugg boots or skinny jeans, just because we find them distasteful doesn’t mean we can ignore them. And there’s no denying that discrimination against the Roma is back in style – just look at Europe.

According to Amnesty International, and despite a 2007 ruling against the practice by the European Court of Human Rights, Roma children in the Czech Republic and Slovakia are still routinely placed outside mainstream schools in “special schools,” ordinarily reserved for children with mental disabilities. In Serbia and Romania, groups of Roma have been evicted from their “unlawful settlements” (which, in Serbia, were then bulldozed), and forced into even more makeshift accommodations. To be fair though, as one Romanian Vice-Mayor noted, this was really positive discrimination since the evicted Roma were provided with free metal barracks to live in – the lucky devils! In Hungary, incidents of violence against the Roma have been…

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