The Department of Immigration disclosed 7,739 Gazans so far have applied for Canadian visas. A total of 179 received visas as of April 24, according to Blacklock’s Reporter. The department’s Inquiry of Ministry was tabled in the House of Commons Thursday as anti-Israel encampments have disrupted university campuses across the country in the last several days, including McGill in Montreal, the University of Toronto, and University of Victoria. “As of April 24, 179 temporary resident visa applicants under the public policy have been issued visas to come to Canada,” the department wrote. “A total of 304 applicants have been submitted for review by the coordinator of government activities in the territories to exit Gaza.”After the October 7 Hamas terror attack on Israel and subsequent war in Gaza, Immigration Minister Marc Miller in December waived immigration rules to grant permits to a limited number of Gazans to enter Canada.“We are thinking in the hundreds,” Miller said at the time. The number was later expanded to a thousand cousins, in-laws and other distant relatives of Canadians or permanent residents.Of the 7,739 applications filed, 1,421 were rejected. “Most web form rejections are as a result of missing information documents,” said the Inquiry. The Trudeau Liberal’s policy requires applicants to be photographed and fingerprinted before departing for Canada. Those who managed to leave Gaza were required to submit personal information to Israeli authorities including names, birth dates, gender, passport or national identification numbers and “location by district.”NDP MP Jenny Kwan, who ordered the Inquiry and had sponsored a Commons petition asking that 10,000 Gazans be let into Canada, asked “how many temporary resident visas have been issued to certain extended family affected by the crisis in Gaza since January 9.”There was no demographic breakdown of the 179 Gazans granted visas to date in the Inquiry documents, however an earlier Industry Inquiry tabled in the Commons confirmed most were men and boys.Minister Miller on March 20 told reporters he was frustrated that too few Gazans had received Canadian visas. “This is a program that we knew from the get-go could be a failure,” said Miller. “Up to now it is a failure and it’s something I think we need to realize.”“This is Canada’s effort to get people out. We will obviously lift the cap. The new number is not something we have figured out yet. We have a sense of what that is but are not prepared to speculate on what that new number is.”“We are all failing Gazans at this point. I think that is something we need to realize, that they are under — it’s probably the largest hostage taking right now in the world.”
