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.
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.
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.
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.