this post was submitted on 19 May 2024

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120

Canadian immigration asks medical worker fleeing Gaza if he treated Hamas fighters (kitchener.citynews.ca)

submitted 5 months ago by NightOwl@lemmy.ca to c/canada@lemmy.ca

11 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Kelly O’Connor, an immigration lawyer in Toronto, said she gasped out loud when she saw the text. Any medical worker who denies care to someone hurt in a war zone is committing a “serious breach of the Geneva Convention,” she said in an interview.

“It’s completely outrageous that the government would ask these kinds of questions because it’s trying to promote that someone would violate the Geneva Conventions in wartime, which is really not something that the Canadian military stands for,” O’Connor said.

Vancouver-based immigration lawyer Randall Cohn said the questions in the letter are “patently illegal and absolutely egregious.” He has seen two such letters asking about medical treatment of Hamas members — sent to a doctor and a nurse — and he is aware of two more, he said in an interview.

The people who received these letters and brought them to lawyers were afraid to do it, Cohn said, because they worried they would be penalized by Canadian immigration officials. He wonders how many other people have received similar letters but haven’t shown them to anyone out of fear.

The federal Immigration Department said that an interview with its minister, Marc Miller, was not possible.

top 11 comments

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[–] girlfreddy@lemmy.ca 22 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Fuck the bureaucrats and fuck the government for allowing such utterly illegal questions be asked of immigrants.

Trudeau is gonna lose the next election, all because he seems to have misplaced his balls.

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 14 points 5 months ago

This isn't a Trudeau issue. This is a "now we investigate the shit bureaucrat who drafted this memo and remind him which lane he's in". And if we try hard enough, he's unemployed.

Trudeau, polievre, neither would have known beforehand; the only difference is we'll get some correction now, but under polievre it'll just become unstated policy.

[–] psvrh@lemmy.ca 16 points 5 months ago

Look, it's only a war crime if it's done to "white people" (depending on your definition of white people, which Israelis seem to be at the moment, subject to change without notice)

[–] theacharnian@lemmy.ca 4 points 5 months ago

This is outrageous.

[+] Smk@lemmy.ca -21 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Hamas is considered a terrorism organization by Canada. 70%+ of Palestiniens support Hamas. I don't think it would be normal to not ask questions to Palestinians, especially what they did in Egypt and Jordan.

You wouldn't want Hamas activism in Canada. Even if the Genocide must be stopped, Hamas still cold bloodily killed 1200 civilians.

Like, imagine having Hamas activism in Canada. They wouldn't just protest. They would probably be much more violent.

[–] Timecircleline@sh.itjust.works 14 points 5 months ago (1 children)

But asking if they provided medical care to injured members of Hamas is beyond the pale. This isn't an application for a car loan, this is trying to escape an active war zone and cobble together some semblance. I doubt political affiliation came up during medical assessments, but even if it is the Geneva convention would forbid turning anyone away.

[–] Smk@lemmy.ca -2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Yea, I would assume Canada is not breaking Geneva convention here. Just assessing what kind of people are in the country. Unless I missunderstood, they are not excluding these people because they gave medical attention to Hamas soldier/activist.

[–] Timecircleline@sh.itjust.works 2 points 5 months ago

Even if they are just trying to gather that information, immigration is the absolute wrong place to do it. So much is riding on this for the individuals coming in, and the fear that it might disqualify them when they were acting the way any good healthcare worker would is real.

[–] psvrh@lemmy.ca 9 points 5 months ago

Hamas is considered a terrorism organization by Canada

Doesn't matter. Telling medics who they can and can't treat is a war crime.

There's a reason we have international rules and standards for conflicts, and a huge number of them have to do with how medics and aid-workers operate. If you start perverting that, then medics dies and war gets worse than it already is.

Similar things apply to how civilians and prisoners are treated, and for the same reason: mistreat non-combatants and you can expect the same in return. When the Americans brutalized Iraqi combatants, it resulted in American troops and civilians, both in and out of conflict zones, dying. All because of Bush's "You're either with us or with the terrorists" absolutism that not only didn't end the war sooner, it wrecked American soft power for the following quarter-century at least.

War is awful, but at least it can be less awful is basic rules get followed. This is one of them.

Israel is finding this out the hard way, just like the Americans did when they flushed their reputation after the second gulf war. Netanyahu probably knows this, but because he's not the one who's at risk he's happy to put targets on doctors, aid-workers and the Jewish diaspora world-wide to save his cowardly political skin.

No one says Hamas isn't a terrorist organization, but that's not what's being argued, here, and if Netanyahu hadn't shot his wad Israel woud enjoying broad international support and sympathy right now, with help and aid and assistance and lot of goodwill. But if he did that, he'd probably be unelected by his own supporters, because his staying in office and out of jail on corruption charges depends on the support of Israeli neo-fascists.