Canadian LGBT refugee program comes under scrutiny: 'It is a joke'

A post by former litigator Viva Frei’s X account has brought attention to Canada’s LGBTQI+ refugee program. Posted on Thursday, Frei said, “This is not a joke. Well, it is a joke. But it’s real. This is the absolute state of Canada,” with screenshots of the Government of Canada website.

“Canada has a proud history of providing protection to and helping resettle those most in need. That includes those in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and additional sexually and gender-diverse communities," per the website.

The government’s resettlement program aids those "who are persecuted because of their sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and sex characteristics (SOGIESC)" and are generally identified or referred to Canada by several groups, including the United Nations Refugee Agency, the Rainbow Railroad, and other referral organizations. The queer people are resettled into Canada through the Government-Assisted Refugees Program or other ways such as private sponsorship.

Private sponsors can identify LGBTQ refugees for resettlement “under the Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program” and can “get 12 months of income and settlement support from their private sponsor.”

“Just wondering, how do you test for admission?” Frei asks in the post. “Is there a ‘resettlement program casting couch’ where applicants have to show how 2SLGBTQIA+ they really are?”

According to the book Real Queer? by David A.B. Murray, “Much of the research on this population tends to be qualitative in character and is carried out with asylum seekers who already reside in Canada.”

In 2004, The Globe and Mail reported that between 2001 and 2004, almost 2,500 asylum seekers made claims based on sexual or gender orientation. These claims included 75 different countries.