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Head Tax

Resolution number
12
Whereas
  1. The Right of Landing fee is discriminatory, exclusionary and racist because of the vast variance in country and individual income around the world;
  2. A refugee is accepted or selected for landing in Canada in order to provide protection against persecution, and usually has neither the cash nor a source of income with which to pay the right of landing fee;
  3. Refugees processed through the inland determination system are already subjected to other heavy processing fees;
  4. The Minister in his address to Parliament in November 1994 acknowledged that refugees have special needs and problems;
  5. The UNHCR has documented that no other country in the world charges landing fees to refugees;
Therefore be it resolved

that the CCR:

  1. Call for a repeal of the Right of Landing Fee for all newcomers accepted for landing in Canada;
  2. Urge the federal government to recognize the distinctive burden that the "head tax" lays on refugees and their families.
Working Group
Inland Protection