Unlike regular refugees, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Ukrainian refugees’ stay in Canada will only be temporary. European refugees without family in Canada will need to leave as soon as Russia stops bombing their country.
“We’re creating a new program for Ukrainians who want to come to Canada temporarily. This will eliminate many of the normal visa requirements – and it’ll be the fastest and safest way to come to Canada,” Trudeau writes in a Tweet.
“And for Ukrainians with family members who are Canadian citizens or permanent residents, we’ll implement a special family reunification sponsorship pathway towards permanent residence.”
Of course, this was not Trudeau’s stance regarding Syrian refugees.
According to a Government of Canada document last updated in 2019, “Once in Canada, all resettled [Syrian] refugees are permanent residents, and as such they have access to the full suite of federally-funded settlement services that help them integrate successfully into their new communities and Canadian society.”
Trudeau’s government also spent $690 million for additional programs for the more than 40,000 resettled refugees. These programs included using IRCC-funded organizations to help Syrian refugees find “affordable permanent accommodations” and “[secure] permanent housing”.
The document also states, “All of [the] government-assisted Syrian refugees who were resettled to Canada by the end of February 2016 had found permanent accommodations by the summer of 2016.”
However, according to Liberal Immigration Minister Sean Fraser, Ukrainians fleeing to Canada are only receiving “safe harbour for up to two years.”
Clearly, some refugees are viewed more favourably by the Canadian government than others.
And unfortunately for newly arrived Ukrainians, who share a much more similar culture to those in Canada, the red carpet to citizenship is only being rolled out for those with immediate or extended family already here.
With that said, given Ukraine’s low vaccination rate of 35 per cent, Ukrainians likely won’t mind being sent home.
After all, Canada has one of the most abysmal track records of discrimination against the unvaccinated globally, and it’s unlikely Ukrainians would appreciate such abuse.
