A while ago in his CBC Massey Lectures, Conor Cruise O’Brien compared the West to a lifeboat. Actually, it’s Andre Gide’s metaphor: the lifeboat is full, it’s surrounded by soon-to-drown men, and is in danger of capsizing if many more are brought onboard. Of course, desperate men try to climb aboard. As they do, the captain orders out the hatchets. Problem solved–for those in the boat. Those in the water will continue to try to win a place in the lifeboat.
What criteria should count when it comes to deciding who gets in?
Regardless of the criteria, should sacrifice or service tip the scales in an applicants’ favour?
Take a look at the story below. When this family’s case is reviewed, perhaps the information available will be more favourably read in light of their son’s deed… but if their claim–on its own merits–still falls short, should the boy’s actions tip the balance in his family’s favour?
(I believe there’s a program to fast-track citizenship for those who serve in the US military. Does this spontaneous act provide an analogous justification for acceptance?)
[quote=“Toronto Star”]Victim’s kin face deportation
Despite drowning, father ‘proud’ of son’s efforts to save friend, but worries about the future of his other four children
The family of an 11-year-old boy who drowned while trying to save a friend who plunged through the frozen surface of a Scarborough pond is fighting deportation after a failed claim for refugee status.
Surrounded by grieving relatives and friends, Muralidaran Nadarajah and his wife Sathyasri Ratnasingham, originally from Sri Lanka, said they are still trying to come to terms with the death of their son Birunthan on Sunday.
“On the one hand, I’m proud of him because he didn’t run away and went to try and help,” said an emotional Nadarajah, 47, who arrived in Canada in the late 1990s with his wife. "He was not scared to try to go and rescue (his friend).
“On the other hand, I’m still trying to absorb his loss,” Nadarajah said about his son, who was in Grade 6 at Thomas L. Wells Public School and was a star player for the Scarborough Rangers in the Ontario Soccer League.
"He was brilliant and smart, involved in sports. He wanted to be a doctor or a scientist.
“Every parent wants their kids to become successful,” he said as his wife sobbed uncontrollably beside him."
As for the rest of his family, which includes two other sons and two daughters, Nadarajah said he doesn’t know what the future holds. “We still don’t have status,” he said, adding that the family has been fighting the deportation order in Federal Court.
[…]
Friends said the nightmare began when a group of five friends were taking a shortcut as they headed toward an impromptu soccer game. As the boys passed the pond, Kishoban stepped out on to the ice and began skipping stones across the surface.
When he fell through the ice, Birunthan, a strong swimmer, stepped on to the ice and grabbed his friend’s hands, but the ice broke and he also fell in.[/quote]