Sign here, a petition sponsored by Maria Kartasheva
Or, just another day in the government comms machine
Dear Readers,
I have published previous columns about the handling of Maria Kartasheva’s case by IRCC (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada). I called it truly ‘Kafka-esque.’ (A reference to Kafka’s famous novel, The Trial, written between 1914-1915 and first published in English in 1937). Fortunately, following a CBC expose, and the Minister being put on a hot seat, the case was quickly resolved and Ms. Kartasheva was granted her Canadian citizenship.
Ms. Kartasheva has now generated a petition to the Government, using the Parliamentary procedure for e-petitions, sponsored by her MP, Anita Vandenbeld (Liberal, Ottawa West-Nepean). She asked me to help circulate news of the petition and I am more than happy to do so.
The petition can be found at this link:
https://www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-4758
While such petitions can be largely symbolic they serve the purpose of drawing public attention to an issue.
I found Ms. Kartasheva’s petition entirely reasonable and have signed. Its essence is to call on the Government to craft an “official” list, presumably through published regulation in the Canada Gazette, that would disallow a foreign state’s efforts at promulgating legal codes used transparently for political persecution purposes to be cause for denying Canadian citizenship applications or refugee determinations. The petition is aimed at Russian Federation laws passed after the Russian invasion of Ukraine to prosecute any anti-war dissent. But it could have wider application.
The CBC, to its credit, followed up on its coverage about the Kartasheva case by putting a question to IRCC.
The question, and the IRCC response, are posted verbatim below:
CBC:
“Good afternoon, I'm following up on our stories about Maria Kartasheva, the Russian woman who was granted Canadian citizenship earlier this week after the minister intervened in her case:
My question is: In light of this case, has IRCC implemented any new policies regarding citizenship applications from Russian nationals who have been convicted of this or similar crimes under Russian law, to prevent this from happening again? Can you please specify what measures have been taken to flag such applications? Will staff undergo additional training? If no measures have been taken yet, are they planned? When will they be implemented?”
*****
IRCC:
“Please find our response.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is committed to upholding the integrity of all our immigration and citizenship programs. All files are reviewed under the guiding principles of procedural fairness.
Following standard procedures, all foreign charges or convictions are carefully examined to determine whether the offence committed would have been an indictable offence under Canadian federal law if it had occurred in Canada. Individuals involved would be offered an opportunity to explain what transpired and provide any other information related to the charge or conviction, and the officer would take that information into account when making their decision.
Decisions are made on a case-by-case basis by highly trained officers who carefully and systematically assess each charge or conviction. Until a final determination is made, cases are subject to review.”
Thank you,
Isabelle Dubois
Communications Advisor / Media Relations / Spokesperson, Communications
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada / Government of Canada
Isabelle.Dubois@cic.gc.ca / Tel: 343-552-5286
Just another day in the fine art of not answering a question.
Shameful behaviour. They should be embarrassed to dismiss reasonable questions like these. Who do they think they are?! These are supposed to be public servants who work for us. Something is very very wrong in our government’s culture of accountability and transparency.
Oh my. I am surprised at the response to IRCC’s communication. To me it said, “Nothing wrong with the policy. In this case, it wasn’t followed.”