Smugglers Beware!

The pundits assess the Conservatives' new bill aimed at deterring seaborne migrants.

According to Sun Media's Michael Den Tandt, not only the Liberal Party but Canadian liberalism itself is on the verge of destruction thanks to Michael Ignatieff’s refusal to support the Conservatives’ anti-human smuggling bill. “Understand that, for most Canadians, this bill doesn't go nearly far enough,” he writes. That’s a pretty bold statement, considering most Canadians have no idea that Bill C-49 even exists, but presumably Den Tandt has a red phone next to his desk through which Canadian Liberals call him up and tell him their opinions on things. Den Tandt complains that the bill “does not propose somehow rolling back the Supreme Court's 1985 Singh decision” granting Charter rights to anyone on Canadian soil. How exactly MPs are supposed to legislate the reversal of a Supreme Court decision he doesn’t make clear. Just, you know, “somehow.”

Because the bill imposes stricter penalties on migrants even if they’re found to have a legitimate refugee claim, the National Post’s editors argue that “the bulk of the punishment would be reserved for the would-be refugees themselves” rather than the smuggling ringleaders who will remain untouchable in their home countries. The Conservatives’ rationale appears to be that news of the law would spread and deter smugglers, but the Post rightly points out that migrants’ desperation is such that each year hundreds of Mexicans die trying to reach the U.S., yet “that fact doesn't prevent their friends and family members from becoming clients of human smugglers.”

The Post’s Chris Selley also dislikes the bill, saying “it makes no sense except as a desperation manoeuvre … in that it's designed to address a PR problem, not a refugee problem.” The bill targets the embarrassing sight of migrants arriving en masse in boats, but Selley argues that many more immigrants walk over the U.S. every year with false documents so why “obsess about boat people and not airplane and on-foot people?” Despite supporting Ignatieff’s opposition to the bill, Selley wonders why the Liberal leader seems to pick and choose when to fight battles over issues dealing with the Charter. On prostitution and polygamy, he’s remained oddly silent.