1977-08-02
Canada was reluctant to increase the small commitments to Vietnamese refugees that it had already made in 1975. This is the first time that the original quota was increased:
In response to a request from UNHCR, Canada agreed to accept an additional 450 Indochinese refugees.
"[This decision] held to the fundamental Canadian stance of limiting the response to the fall of Saigon."
"Anti-Communism was not a factor: if anything, anti-Americanism was."
(Adelman, 1982, p.34)[212]
"Media coverage of the program and public concern with it seem negligible. What can be said is that if Canada had announced a large aid program, there might have been considerable antagonism from numerous Canadians unsympathetic to the war in Vietnam". "it appeared that Canada did not wish to become too closely involved in a situation which was interpreted as being the result of American involvement in the Vietnam War."
(Adelman, 1982, p.34)
Apparently wary of negative public reaction, the government did not announce this publicly. It was revealed in a small page 11 story in the Toronto Star four months later, on December 24, datelined Washington. Apparently Canada wanted the US to know what it was doing, but no one else.
(Star, 1977-12-24, p. A11)[406]
1977-11-10
"Canadian officials began to realize that the continuing flow of refugees from Vietnam was not a direct result of the conclusion of the Vietnam War."
Canada agreed to the admission of up to 50 Vietnamese families per month in 1978.[2] The "Vietnamese small boat program" began on January 1, 1978. Under this program, refugees no longer had to qualify under the 1951 refugee convention.
(Adelman, 1982, pp. 34-35)
Again this story was given a low profile in the media. A small story appeared on page 6 of the Toronto Star on 1978-01-27. The story reported "Refugees must be admitted through the regular selection system which grants priority to persons with certain work and language skills." It also noted that the decision had been taken in consultation with UNHCR.
(Star, 1978-01-27, p. A6)[407]
1978
The ethnic Chinese in Vietnam always suffered from certain pressures, but two things happened in 1978 that changed things significantly.[1]
"By early 1978, formal measures were being taken to expropriate businesses of
private entrepreneurs, most of whom were ethnic Chinese. These actions coincided
with a marked deterioration in relations between Viet Nam and China. … Official Vietnamese attitudes towards the ethnic Chinese (or Hoa) became increasingly
hostile."
(UNHCR, 2000, p82)[15]
"the organization of the exodus in 1978 indicated at least semi-official sanction, particularly with regard to the migration of ethnic Chinese in exchange for sums averaging $3,000."
(Adelman, Le Blanc, and Therien, 1980, p. 137)[408]
1978-02-28
As Canada started ramping up its response to the refugees, care was taken to avoid any political criteria in the selection of refugees.
A report to parliament on 1978-02-28 explained the selection criteria for families being admitted under the 1978 program:
"Preference will be given to escapees meeting normal immigrant selection norms or those whose personal attributes and family configuration will permit early self-sufficiency."
(Adelman, 1982, p. 171)
1978-04-01
A new immigration act comes into force. The act was the result of a long study and consultation commissioned in 1973, i.e., this was not a reaction to events in Vietnam. The act was a reflection on Canadian thinking about immigration and refugees that had evolved over many years.
The one feature of the new act that had a significant impact on the upcoming boat people crisis was the provision for private sponsorship of refugees.
Another important provision, "designated classes", just provided a more expedient mechanism to define flexible admission criteria for refugees than what had just been used for the "small boat escapee" program. This provision was formally applied to the Indochinese refugees in December, 1978.
(Adelman, 1982, p. 36)
1978-07
Following the lead of other countries engaged in SE Asia, Canada increases the monthly refugee quota for 1978 from 50 to 70 families in order to accommodate overland refugees in Thailand.
"Humanitarianism was beginning to play a role alongside international pressure, but there was still little evidence of interest in the refugee program, either by the media or the public."
(Adelman, 1982, pp. 34-35)
1978-11-08
The Hai Hong arrives in Malaysian waters overloaded with 2,500 Vietnamese refugees, three quarters of whom were ethnic Chinese, and is refused permission to land. This "the Hai Hong" incident marked a turning point in the course of the refugee exodus in SE Asia.
(Adelman, 1982, p. 35)
UNHCR learned from the refugees on board that Hanoi, in a move to gird the country for the coming clash with China, had reached the decision that Vietnam’s 1.5 million ethnic Chinese were, at worst, reactionary fifth columnists and, at best, expendable.
(Robinson, 1998, p. 29)[193]
UNHCR for the first time declared the boat people to be international refugees.
After interviewing the Hai Hong refugees, the UNHCR proclaims ‘in the future, unless there are clear indications to the contrary, boat cases from Viet Nam are to be considered prima facie of concern to UNHCR’.
(UNHCR, 2000, p. 83)
1978-11-18
"On 18 November, nine days after [the Hai Hong] had first dropped anchor in Port Klang harbour with its cargo of Vietnamese and the Malaysian authorities had threatened to turn everyone back to sea, Canada’s immigration minister, Bud Cullen, announced that his government would accept 600 of the boat people for resettlement."
"The Canadian government’s offer of help was both dramatic and decisive in breaking the diplomatic deadlock."
(Robinson, 1998, p. 138)
An academic paper covered the Hai Hong incident in detail. What is important about this paper is that it analyzed the impact that the incident had on public opinion about the refugees. This is what made the incident a turning point. There are some minor issues that arise with this paper because of its publication date being well into the Harper revisionist period.[3]
(Marcus, 2013)[1]
The Canadian press starts to pays attention to the boat people: for the public, this is the beginning of the "boat people crisis" and the attention led to large increases in the number admitted to Canada starting in 1979.
"Pity and compassion for them was first aroused by articles in November 1978, which described the flight of the ethnic Chinese and the wretched conditions of the refugees aboard the Hai Hong. This led to the Toronto Star's “Exodus” series, with Gerald Utting’s dramatic and sympathetic portrayals of the refugees, their life-risking escapes, and the appalling conditions in the camps. "
(Adelman, 1982, p. 24)
1978-12-11
Canada passes designated class regulation, which effectively implemented the UNHCR proclamation above.
The regulation was designed to encompass the whole Indochinese refugee population so that immigration officers could continue to make individual selection decisions based on the informal policy had been the policy in effect since the beginning of the year.
Adelman quoting Mike Molloy: "the question who was or who was not a ‘Convention’ refugee was largely irrelevant. The whole group, persecuted or not. was in need of urgent resettlement so our 'definition’ was designed to encompass the whole ‘Indochinese refugee’ displaced person population in order to allow our officers to concentrate on making individual selection decisions based on likelihood of adaptation."
(Adelman, 1986, p. 167)
1978-12-21
Thus plans were laid to substantially increase the flow of refugees in 1979, without reference to any political motivations. It was a result of favorable public reaction.
Canada decides to take 5,000 government-sponsored Indochinese refugees in 1979 (200 families per month).
(Canada LAC, 1978)[334]
"Under the new provision in the recently passed Immigration Act, any refugees sponsored by private groups would be over and above this total [of 5,000]."
"This shift [in policy] was not simply a matter of humanitarianism, since the federal government had already become concerned about the declining rate of suitable immigrants. … The intake of larger numbers of refugees would offset this. Humanitarian concerns and economic self-interest thus became inextricably intertwined."
(Adelman, 1982, p. 36)
This same Cabinet decision also dealt with related matters: financial contributions to UNHCR, to look at ways to get families of Canadians out of Vietnam, to consider to possibility that the commitment to resettle 5,000 refugees might have to be increased.
(Canada LAC, 1978)
Vietnamese admitted to Canada in 1978: 659.
(of whom 604 were from the Hai Hong).