Hundreds of Haitian Canadians crowd around a Montreal law office in the hope of fast-tracking their family members into Canada. Some waited up to seven hours.Peter Mccabe
With Haitian Montrealers lining up in the cold for hours in a desperate attempt to bring family members to Canada, Ottawa is being urged to do more to help Haitians leave their ravaged country.
Some Montrealers with family in Haiti began lining up before 5 a.m. outside a downtown consultant's office that promised to handle immigration requests. Despite warnings from Montreal police officers on hand that it wouldn't help their chances, people waited and clung to whatever hope they had.
"Our families here can eat while people there are suffering," said Emmanuel Julien, 24, who has a younger sister in Haiti. "They're not eating and they're sleeping outside."
Meanwhile, immigration groups and Haitian community members say they're disappointed with Ottawa's response to the crisis so far, and called for the government to relax its rules to make it easier for Haitians with family in Canada to enter the country.
Ottawa is promising to expedite immigration requests from Haitians with Canadian relatives in the aftermath of the earthquake. In all, as many as 5,000 Haitians could come to Canada under the accelerated process, according to estimates by Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney.
But critics in Montreal yesterday called Ottawa's response inadequate and said the government should extend eligibility for family reunification to include relatives such as siblings, aunts and uncles. Many families in Haiti have been decimated by the earthquake, leaving few immediate family members.
Groups also called on Ottawa to waive processing fees for applicants, which rise to as much as $550, as Canada did for victims of the 2004 Asian tsunami. And Canadian immigration officials should be flexible about requiring proper papers, since in some cases documents lie beneath the rubble of Haitians' homes, the critics said.
"The measures promised [by Ottawa]so far are really quite limited," said Janet Dench, executive director of the Canadian Council for Refugees. "Haitians are in a state of deep distress and they're looking for a positive message from the Canadian government. So far, the message seems to be quite cold and unsympathetic."