Doug Thomas
Canada’s refugee policies discriminate against atheist refugee claimants. That policy includes a Less Complex Claims (LCC) category that applies to refugee claimants from certain religions, and from certain countries. It allows them to gain refugee status without a hearing, or with a shortened hearing, but atheists are excluded. Secular Connexion Séculière (SCS) is focusing lobbying efforts on this discrimination.
The Less Complex Claims category gives the following religious groups refugee status without a hearing: Ahmadis (Ahmadiyya Muslims), Christians, and Shia Muslims from Pakistan are given LCC status without hearings, provided other agencies from Canada do not intervene. Shias from Saudi Arabia and Coptic Christians from Egypt are given the same privilege. Even members of Hizmet, social variant of Islam from Turkey, are granted LCC status. Atheists are excluded in all these cases and must undergo lengthy hearings to establish refugee status. “Apostates or converts to Christianity or Zoroastrianism” from Iran are granted shortened hearings under the same policy. Again, atheists are excluded.
Every one of the countries listed is known to persecute atheists, sometimes declaring them terrorists, as does Saudi Arabia. But atheists are not listed as people who qualify for LCC status from these countries. This is clearly discrimination against atheist refugee claimants, and in spite of the Supreme Court of Canada’s declaration in 1984 that Section 2a of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees the right to freedom from religion — to be atheist — as much as it guarantees the right to freedom of religion.
Currently, CFIC is actively supporting Omer, a 32-year-old atheist refugee claimant from Pakistan. While he is now safe in another country and has a private Canadian sponsor, he continues to await hearings and acceptance of his refugee status by the Canadian government. If Omer were Ahmadi, Christian, or Shia, he could avoid all this delay, worry, and expense caused by Canada’s discriminatory LCC policy. For this reason, your support through CFIC for Omer is critical.
SCS is lobbying the Hon. Marco Mendicino, Minister of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship to end this discrimination. It has also sent emails to the opposition shadow immigration cabinet members, and to the members of the standing Parliamentary Committee on Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship. Those emails make the minister, the shadow ministers, and the committee members aware of the discrimination in the LCC policy and ask that they add atheists to the list of those eligible. We are formulating an e-petition for presentation to Parliament should we get no reasonable response from these emails.
Our campaign continues. You can join SCS’ campaign by signing up here. Do enter your email so you get an acknowledgement of receipt from the Minister of Immigration. This response will likely be automated, but it indicates that your vote has been recorded.
Secular Connexion Séculière (SCS) is a national secular humanist organization that focuses on lobbying the federal and provincial governments to end systemic discrimination against atheists in Canada. Doug Thomas is SCS’ president and an officially registered lobbyist with the federal government. He lobbies government officials and politicians to eliminate this systemic discrimination.