Proponents fear visa problems ahead of COP15 in Montreal

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OTTAWA—Montreal is set to host a major international summit next month, and supporters have blocked some African delegates from attending meetings in the city over the summer, saying federal immigration policy could hurt people. It warns of possible repetition of issues that lead to claims of species discrimination.

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Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) said it had no problems processing visa applications at the International AIDS Council conference last July. Some delegates from Africa were denied visas or were waiting for a response before the conference began.

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“The whole system is designed to keep people out,” said Maduka Pai, Canadian Research Chair for Translational Epidemiology and Global Health at McGill University.

Next month, the UN conference on biodiversity COP15 will be held in Montreal, but representatives of the most species-affected regions fear being stranded at home.

“There’s something in our government system that I call anti-African or anti-black, and it worries me a lot,” Pai said.

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For years, Pai has attended conferences, but his African colleagues had more difficulty obtaining visas than his Latin American and Asian counterparts.

It’s a problem he saw at events held in the US, UK and Canada, and one he was particularly concerned about last spring when Ottawa was struggling to handle everything from asylum applications to passport renewals. is.

“I don’t know if the government really learned much from the AIDS conference debacle,” Pai said. “The anger is palpable, all the empty chairs of African representatives have gone missing.

“Recently, I’m worried about an international conference being held somewhere in Canada.”

Immigration officials do not share his concerns.

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“IRCC will use all the tools at its disposal to facilitate the processing of thousands of visa applications in a short period of time,” spokesperson Jeffrey MacDonald said in a statement.

The ministry said it has a special events unit that works with conference organizers to ensure that overseas visa offices have a list of people registered for the event. Use the correct code to ensure your request gets priority.

“The IRCC is working closely with the Canadian Border Services Agency and event organizers to ensure that the application process and immigration and immigration requirements are understood to ensure that visa applications are processed in a timely manner and admission for attendees goes smoothly. We will make sure that it is done,” wrote McDonald.

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The ministry suggested that those invited to the AIDS conference may have failed their applications.

“If you wait too long to apply or omit a special event code, your application may not be ready for the start of the event,” McDonald wrote, and the department would not go into details about the July event. .Privacy Law.

“There are always compelling reasons why some individuals are not allowed into Canada.”

Global health and gender consultant Lauren Dobson-Hughes said Canada and other Western countries need to go beyond technical fixes and recognize “broader patterns” at these summits. rice field.

“This is a systemic issue around the world, and we tend to split between the Global North donors, who host the conference, and the Global South, who work on these issues and should own those issues. Yes, but the meeting on them is not done with them.

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Dobson-Hughes recalled that at the 2016 and 2019 summits, African delegations had invitations on Canadian government letterhead, but did not actually get visas.

“I can’t imagine Global Affairs Canada being particularly pleased to have personally respectful and meaningful relationships with our African colleagues.

“I haven’t seen anything that gives the sense that they[IRCC staff]are addressing a sense of the problem, especially as African participants are aware of the problem.”

The department said it would train officers to evaluate applications equally against the same criteria.

“As part of our commitment to anti-racism, fairness and inclusion, we ensure that our programs and policies are fair, equitable and culturally sensitive. We are scrutinizing these criteria through the lens of how they affect applicants who have been tested,” McDonald wrote.

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Dobson-Hughes hopes Canada will review its visa policy as part of MP Rob Oliphant’s proposed Africa strategy next year.

“There are technical solutions, but only if they address the underlying problems: attitudes, prejudices and racism,” she said.

Canada rejects the majority of visa applications from more than a dozen African countries, according to a 2018 analysis by The Globe and Mail.

The problem is exacerbated by Canada’s poor diplomatic presence on the continent. Many people have to travel thousands of miles and cross borders to submit documents and have their fingerprints scanned.

Isseu Diallo, who heads the Association of People Living with HIV in Senegal, presented online at a conference in Montreal in July as part of a panel hosted by the Toronto group Realize.

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She was invited to attend, but thought it wasn’t worth the trouble of applying for a visa as multiple peers had already been turned down.

“When there’s a meeting like that, it’s the Canadian government’s fault because it’s to get together. People have to come to organize seminars and conduct workshops,” Diallo said.

She wondered if the authorities simply didn’t want too many people gathering during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Maybe it’s not a racism issue. Maybe it’s just too many requests,” she said.

“I was a little disappointed, but I thought maybe one day I would go to Montreal again.”