IRCC admits no fault in Montreal’s AIDS summit visa failure

Canada is set to host a major international summit next month, with advocates saying some African delegates were unable to attend a meeting in Montreal over the summer and that federal immigration policies were racist. It warns that the issues that led to the allegation could be repeated.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada said it made no mistake in handling visa applications at the International AIDS Society conference last July. I was still waiting for a response.

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

With the United Nations conference on biodiversity loss set to take place in Montreal next month, fears are growing that delegates from areas most affected by species decline will be 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.

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’s seen at events in the US, UK and Canada, and one he’s been particularly concerned about this spring, when Ottawa was struggling to handle everything from asylum applications to passport renewals. .

“I’m not sure the government really learned much from the AIDS conference debacle,” said Pai.

“The anger is palpable, all the empty chairs of the African delegation have gone missing. It was terrible…I’m worried about an international conference taking place somewhere in Canada these days.”

Immigration officials do not share Pai’s concerns.

“IRCC uses all available tools to facilitate the processing of thousands of visa applications in a short period of time,” spokesperson Jeffrey McDonald said in a statement.

The ministry has a Special Events Unit that works with conference organizers to ensure that overseas visa offices have lists of people who have registered for the event. to give priority to your request.

“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.

The ministry suggested that those invited to this summer’s 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. I added that it would be according to the personal information protection law.

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

The problem is ‘systemic’, not technical, says gender and health experts

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. said.

“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. There are, but the meetings about them are not. We are done with them.”

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 them the feeling that they are who they are. [IRCC officials] A sense of the problem has been addressed, 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, equity and inclusion, we encourage racialized applicants to ensure our programs and policies are fair, equitable and culturally sensitive. We carefully examine these criteria through the lens of how they affect the

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 they are not effective as long as they address the underlying problems – attitudes, prejudice 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, made a virtual presentation at the Montreal conference this July as part of a panel hosted by the Toronto group Realize.

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.

“Because when such meetings are held, it’s for gathering. People have to come to organize seminars and conduct workshops,” Diallo said in French.

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 was too many requests,” she said.

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