Jose Figueroa. | Photo courtesy of We Are Jose

How Harper’s policies are hurting two B.C. families

With Stephen Harper’s Conservatives teetering under the weight of the Senate expenses scandal, it’s easy to forget about the many routine injustices that result from this right-wing government’s policies.

Amidst the fraudulent expenses, the payoffs and cover-ups, let’s not forget that the biggest scandal of all is a government that serves the rich and powerful at the expense of everyone else. The system itself is the real scandal.

Let me illustrate with two concrete examples of local B.C. families who are suffering because of government policy. In both these cases, right-wing policies play out through the bureaucratic and policing mechanisms of Canada’s immigration system.

Rodney Watson Jr. is an Iraq War resister who came to Canada because he refused to redeploy as part of the US war on Iraq. He’s at risk of deportation because the Harper government has refused to accept Iraq war resisters as legitimate refugees. The Conservatives’ treatment of Iraq War resisters is the opposite of Canadian policy towards resisters of the US war on Vietnam; during that era tens of thousands of Americans who refused to fight in Vietnam were welcomed into Canada.

Rodney has a Canadian wife and young son. For the past four years, Rodney Watson has lived in the First United Church in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, taking sanctuary there to avoid deportation – four years of confinement and hardship, due entirely to the stubborn refusal of the federal government to do the right thing. More than a decade after the start of a war the whole world now recognizes as immoral, this young family continues to be punished for having made a moral decision.

The case of Jose Figueroa is another example of scandalous government policy hurting a family. Jose – an immigrant from El Salvador who has lived in Canada for over 16 years and who has a wife and three school age Canadian children – was recently forced to take refuge in Walnut Grove Lutheran Church in Langley to avoid deportation.

What was the transgression of this long-standing member of the community? Canadian authorities have justified the deportation by citing Jose’s membership in a student group of the FMLN, a progressive political party that helped lead a liberation struggle during an era of dictatorship and civil war in the 1980s and early 90s. A 2010 ruling by the Refugee and Immigration Board ruled him inadmissible on the grounds of his involvement with this organization, despite the fact the FMLN is not on the Canadian government’s list of terrorist groups or entities. In fact, the FMLN is currently the democratically elected government of El Salvador.

Last week there were rallies held in Vancouver and a number of other Canadian cities in support of Jose Figueroa and his family. I attended the support rally outside the federal court during a hearing in Vancouver, and the crowd was delighted when the family’s lawyer emerged to share the news that the deportation order had been stayed. Another hearing will take place early in 2014 to determine if Jose Figueroa can remain in Canada.

Both Jose Figueroa and Rodney Watson have widespread community and public support. The former even has the support of his local Member of Parliament, Mark Warawa, who is part of the Conservative Party.

“Under these same immigration policies, Nelson Mandela would not be accepted into our country either,” according to a statement made by Warawa to the Langley Times on the absurdity of Jose’s plight. Mandela, of course, has been recognized with honourary Canadian citizenship.

It’s good that Harper’s taking heat for the skulduggery and corruption carried out by his office and the Senators he appointed, but the bigger scandal is the everyday suffering that results when those in power put corporate profits ahead of fairness and human decency.

Thankfully, this city and province are full of decent, fair-minded people who have stepped up to help in these two cases, including the faith groups that have generously agreed to open up their facilities as sanctuary.

It’s past time for Canada to recover some honour and grant Jose and Rodney the right to stay permanently in this country.

You can learn more about these two cases at WeAreJose.com and Resisters.ca