Ghosts of None is Too Many Haunt Gaza Temporary Residence Policy

By Matthew Behrens

Next month marks the 85^th anniversary of one of the most shameful episodes in Canadian history. In 1939, Mackenzie King's government refused to allow the oceanliner St. Louis dock in Halifax after it had been turned away from Cuba and the US. Its 937 Jewish passengers were forced back to Europe, leading to the deaths of 254 in what many saw as a plausible case of impending genocide.

As documented in the landmark Irving Abella/Harold Troper book None is Too Many (named for a bureaucrat’s infamous answer to the question of how many Jews should be admitted to Canada), the Prime Minister wrote “we must seek to keep this part of the Continent free from unrest and from too great an intermixture of foreign strains of blood.” 

The language employed by immigration officials of the day defamed Jewish refugees as an unassimilable people who “never cease their agitation,” “cannot comply with the law”, and “are so unpopular almost everywhere.” Such phrases bear striking resemblance to the ramped up xenophobic rhetoric of those who oppose welcoming Palestinian Canadians’ family members trying to flee starvation and a plausible case of genocide in Gaza.

Justin Trudeau’s 2018 apology for this World War 2 scandal sought to “ensure that its lessons are never forgotten,” but it was almost impossible not to draw  “None is Too Many” comparisons when Immigration Minister Marc Miller conceded before a March 20 House of Commons committee that not a single person had been successfully extricated under the Gaza special measures program he announced three months earlier.

While Miller has publicly shared his frustration and anger over what he admits is a failed program – a tiresome Trudeau-era performative replacement for easily enacted policy fixes – he constantly blames everyone except himself. Indeed, it strains credibility that after Canada was able to facilitate the exit from Gaza of 839 citizens and permanent residents in November and December, Miller has been unable to get a single Canadian’s sister, uncle, niece, spouse or parent across the same Rafah border crossing since the start of 2024.

 If, as Miller claims, Israeli and Egyptian officials are the roadblock, how does he account for the daily crossing of hundreds of Palestinians with family in the US, Italy, Australia and Turkey? Miller also cannot blame anyone but his own department for the failure to arrange travel documents and immediate transit for the hundreds of traumatized, Canada-connected Palestinians stranded for months in Egypt.

 Miller insists his program is intended to save lives yet, despite the ample headline evidence screaming for urgency, he seems unable or unwilling to speed up his snail’s pace bureaucracy and lift the prohibitive cap on program applications.

At the March hearing, Miller’s officials testified that over 2,300 loved ones of Gazan Canadians were waiting to receive the infamous codes that, upon issue by a parsimonious immigration bureaucracy, allow for the submission of life-saving temporary residence applications. Asked why so many remained in limbo, Miller replied that up to 250 codes per week would now be issued. But at that rate, many facing daily bombardment and starvation would have to wait up to 10 weeks (on top of the 10 weeks they’ve already been waiting) when they should be able to apply immediately.

Scores of people have been killed waiting for those codes, and Miller’s slow as you go approach is playing a game of Russian Roulette with the lives of Canadians’ Gaza family members.  

The number of Palestinian applications currently being processed, according to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, is 986, 50 more than the numbers who were exiled on the St. Louis in 1939. While Ukrainians who had far more options to flee the Russian invasion saw their million-plus temporary residence applications processed within 14 days, Palestinians still waiting to be safely reunited with Canadian family cannot help but wonder if they’ve inherited this generation’s unfortunate “None is Too Many” mantle.