Tuesday, Aug 31

JEFF SALLOT
Parliamentary Bureau
Tuesday, August 31, 1999

Ottawa -- About half the Canadian public believes the Chinese boat people who arrived on the British Columbia coast this summer should be deported immediately, a poll for The Globe and Mail and CTV suggests.

An even higher proportion -- about 70 per cent of respondents -- reject the idea that simply because the boat people are from mainland China they automatically have a legitimate claim to be political refugees fleeing a repressive Communist regime.

However, the poll also found that about half said the boat people should be allowed to stay until their claims for refugee status are assessed by the current determination system.

The results show "Canadians really want the process tightened up," said John Wright, a senior vice-president with the polling firm Angus Reid Group.

"The whole notion that these are people escaping from a repressive Communist state doesn't wash with Canadians . . . maybe because we see China as a trading partner," Mr. Wright said.

Sympathy for the boat people was weakest the closer respondents were to the B.C. coast and strongest in Quebec and the Maritimes.

Nationally, about 49 per cent of the respondents said that the illegal immigrants should be deported without delay. Another 49 per cent said the boat people should be allowed to stay until their refugee claims are heard.

The recent arrival of more than 250 Chinese aboard two boats has ignited a fierce political debate about whether Canada should adopt a tougher approach to deal with people-smuggling operations and to speed deportations.

Under current law, foreigners arriving without proper travel documents or visas can claim they are victims of political persecution and can stay until the backlogged refugee-determination system deals with their cases, a process that can take more than a year before legal appeals are exhausted.

The poll indicates just how difficult it will be for Ottawa to find a consensus on whether the refugee-determination system needs fixing.
Only 28 per cent said Chinese mainlanders should automatically be considered refugees. But even among this minority, support for political asylum was soft (only 6 per cent strongly agreed and 22 per cent somewhat agreed).

A slight majority of respondents -- 53 per cent -- said Canada's immigration policy makes it too easy to be accepted as a refugee. Only 8 per cent thought the policy was too tough. Thirty-four per cent said the refugee policy was just about right.

The poll highlighted another sharp division among Canadians on the question of which is the bigger concern -- accidentally letting illegal immigrants stay in Canada when they aren't really refugees or forcing people to go home when in fact they really deserve refugee protection. About 49 per cent said authorities should be more concerned with illegal immigrants accidentally being allowed to stay. By contrast, 47 per cent said the bigger worry should be sending real refugees back home by mistake.

On another question, about 51 per cent said Canada should do no more or less than what most other countries do to take in political refugees. They think Canada should do what the average country does. But 34 per cent said they thought Canada should do more for refugees than other countries. Eleven per cent of those polled thought Canada should do less.

The poll sampled the opinions of 1,502 adult Canadians last week. The pollsters say a sample this size should be accurate within 2.5 percentage points 19 times out of 20.

British Colombians were slightly more inclined to want the boat people deported immediately. Quebeckers and those in Atlantic Canada more often said they would allow them to stay until their refugee claims were assessed.

Men were also more inclined than women to want the boat people deported immediately -- 52 per cent versus 46 per cent.

GLOBE AND MAIL / CTV / ANGUS REID POLL

Should the two boatloads of illegal immigrants from China be allowed to apply as refugees or should they be immediately deported back to China?
1. Allowed to apply as refugees/Stay here while applications reviewed
2. Immediately deported to China
3. Did not know / Would not say
-***

                      1       2       3


TOTAL                49%     49%      2%


British Columbia     42      56       2


Alberta              41      56       2


Sask./Man            45      54       2


Ontario              46      51       3


Quebec               56      43       1


Atlantic             63      38       1

-*Note: Figures may not add up to 100 due to rounding.
Source: Angus Reid Group
-***

ATTITUDES ABOUT CHINESE REFUGEES

China is a repressive Communist state, therefore, anyone from China who manages to make it to Canada should be accepted as a refugee.

                    Agree    Disagree


TOTAL                28%       70%


British Columbia     17        82


Alberta              26        72


Sask./Man            36        62


Ontario              25        73


Quebec               34        63


Atlantic             40        59

Note: Figures may not add up to 100 due to rounding.
Source: Angus Reid Group

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