Stephen Kaduuli is CPJ's former refugee rights policy analyst. Stephen passed away suddenly from COVID-19 on April 15, 2021. CPJ, along with Stephen’s family, wish to honour his dedication and passion for refugee rights by establishing a permanent fund to help enhance and deepen CPJ’s refugee work. To make a donation, visit: https://cpj.ca/the-stephen-kaduuli-memorial-refugee-rights-fund
World Refugee Day is marked internationally on June 20 annually. This is an occasion to educate the public about refugee issues and to mobilize political will and resources to address problems and celebrate achievements thus far.
Over the past decade, refugees have been called all sorts of names in Canada. Refugees have been labeled: “queue jumpers,” “asylum shoppers,” “illegal immigrants,” “economic migrants,” and “illegal border crossers.”. To mention “illegal” when describing refugees is to paint them with criminality. To call them “asylum shoppers” implies that they are economic migrants and not genuine refugees. When a minister labels refugees with such denigrating names, it makes the populists think that they have allies in government.
