2009-09-22
CBC
Immigrant women's advocates are concerned that proposed federal legislation aimed at protecting foreign caregivers in Canada will just create more problems.
CBC News
Immigrant women's advocates are concerned that proposed federal legislation aimed at protecting foreign caregivers in Canada will just create more problems.
New legislation was drafted earlier this year.
Bill C-45, if passed, would give Canadian visa officers the power to deny entry to live-in caregivers if they suspect there is any possibility the caregivers might be mistreated.
"The visa officer would be able to say, 'Look we're concerned you might be going in to face a degrading situation. We're going to withhold your work permit,' and then that caregiver could find a different legitimate situation," said Immigration Minister Jason Kenney.
But Cecilia Diocson, executive director of the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada, says that's no protection at all.
According to Diocson the new bill will "just give the visa officer the power to refuse entry [into Canada] if he thinks or she thinks the person is not desirable to come."
Kenney denies that is the intention of the legislation and says in most cases, C-45 won't be a barrier.
"Our objective is not to use this additional power to get in the way of legitimate caregiver-employer relationships, but only in really extraordinary circumstances where a caregiver may go into an abusive situation," he said.
But Diocson wonders how a visa officer would know in advance that a caregiver would be headed for an abusive situation. She says that the legislation will put too much power in the hands of one person.
"I'm not allowed [to enter Canada] because some visa officer, for some reason, decides that I'm not the right person to come?"
Kenney says the new bill is just a start and that other reforms to the live-in caregiver program are on the way.
Bill C-45 will go to second reading sometime this fall.
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