Physical Disability is not a Hurdle to Live in Canada

Ahmed Hussen, Immigration Minister of Canada, is determined to remove medical grounds as a judging ground for immigrants entering the country. Earlier, it was thought that if an immigrant with a disability is a huge burden on Canada’s public health scheme. But to think that is discriminating on the government’s behalf since everyone deserves an equal chance.

Jenny Kwan, an NDP immigration critic, said that the Liberal government must repeal the act that allows applicants to reject on medical grounds because the can be an excessive burden on the country’s national health funds. The government took it up as an issue back in 2016 but still hasn’t done anything about it. In fall 2017, Hussen told to the immigration committee to look into the matter and abolish the 40-year old discriminative policy. It took several months for the committee to take action but Hussen finally announced that the new policy will be announced on April 12, 2018. He said that it is very important how the government does it because it also affects the health schemes of all provinces. The health and social service budgets change, and the policy should be such that all provinces agree with that.

A representative of the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada said that the government wants to treat everyone in a fair and equal manner and that is why wants to remove the 40-year old policy at the same time recognize the need of the public-run health system.

Asked about Romania and Bulgaria

At the press conference where Hussen announced about removing the 40-year old policy, he was asked a couple of questions about Canada lifting visa requirements for Romania and Bulgaria. Michelle Rempel from Conservative Party said that before lifting the visa requirements, refugees from Romania were virtually zero but after doing so, Canada received 232 Romanian refugees in just a couple months.