Marty York: Canadians wary of Liberal plan to expedite Gazan visas

A Citizenship and Immigration Canada office. Photo by Handout/Immigration Canada Services

Article content

According to a recent poll, just under half of Canadians are opposed to the federal government’s recent decision to expedite Gazan student visa processing.

Article content

And I must say, I don’t blame them.

Article content

Article content

Article content

The Leger poll, commissioned by the HR Canada Charitable Organization, asked respondents whether, like some, they believed the policy would help students whose education had been disrupted by war, or whether they thought “speeding up the process could make it more difficult to adequately identify potential security risks, including individuals with extremist affiliations.”

Article content

Article content

Forty-three per cent of respondents opposed the decision to expedite visa processing, 38 per cent supported it, and the remaining 19 per cent answered, “I don’t know.” These results demonstrate significant public concern and uncertainty for accelerating Gazan student visa processing because of perceived security risks of allowing radicalized Palestinians into Canada.

Article content

Article content

The survey was conducted last month, between June 19 and June 26, among a representative sample of 1,528 Canadian adults.

Article content

Respondents’ opposition and uncertainty should not be surprising. Gaza, after all, is governed by the terrorist group Hamas, which was responsible for the heinous attack of Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, during the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah. At least 1,500 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists breached Israel’s borders by land, air and sea. In total, 1,195 people were killed, including infants, children, elderly and peace-festival attendees. Families were murdered in their homes, some, burnt alive, while others were executed in bomb shelters. Those kidnapped and taken hostage numbered 251.

Article content

Article content

Keep in mind that polls conducted inside Gaza revealed that 72 percent of respondents felt the decision for Hamas to conduct the October 7 massacre was “correct” given the outcome.

Article content

Article content

“Canadians have witnessed an explosive rise in extremist rhetoric, ideological radicalization, and politically motivated violence, along with an unprecedented rise of antisemitism,” the HR Canada Charitable Organization commented in a statement. “As concerns about public safety have grown. . .so too have questions about how governments balance humanitarian objectives with security considerations.”

Article content

“The purpose of this research is not to tell Canadians what they should think,” the HR Charitable Organization said. “It is to help illuminate what Canadians do think, and to contribute a more informed discussion about the complex issues affecting Canadian society. Understanding public attitudes toward security, extremism and social cohesion is an important part of understanding the environment in which antisemitism and other forms of (hate) emerge and evolve.”

Article content

Amanda Eskenasi, education director at HR Charitable Organization, told me in an interview that the poll was commissioned to provide context.