Canadian Prime Minister Harper met with his Czech counterpart Petr Nečas and, according to the Czech press, discussed the return of failed Czech asylum seekers now in Canada. Canada wants a new treaty with the Czech Republic to facilitate that process.

The Czechs are more interested in getting Canada to drop its visa requirement on Czech citizens. This is all part of an effort to clear away irritants as Canada tries to negotiate a free trade agreement with the European Union (EU). The folks who are getting in the way of the trade deal are the Roma (or "Gypsies"), who started coming to Canada from the Czech Republic in the 1990s, seeking asylum. At that time the Roma refugee acceptance rate was very high - often exceeding 80 per cent.

Officials of the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board judged that the Czech Roma were victims both of severe social and official discrimination and of violence at the hands of skinheads and others, from which the Czech government could not adequately protect them. Read more on http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/karl-nerenberg/2012/05/hill-dispatches-media-and-politicians-fail-investigate-facts-a

Czech Government and Hungarian government are hindering free trade and Canada-EU relations!

If the Czech and Hungarian governments were doing their jobs properly, that is providing equal access to police protection, housing, health care, and education to ALL of its citizens then they would not be whining to Canada about visa retrictions. The fact is, these two small countries which carry little economic weight in trade relations are flexing their muscles to benefit from their membership in the EU.

Unfortunately, the EU has little political will to insist that its new member states be accountable for maintaining a civil society where pogroms against the Roma are not tolerated. Hungary and the Czech Republic are reaping the benefits of EU memebership without being held responsible for fulfilling their requirements as members.

If the EU as a whole supports this by forcing Canada to accept visa free relations with these member states, then the EU is complicit in ignoring and worsening of the problems the Roma are facing. The benefits of free trade will not trickle down to help the Roma. We have no stake in supporting free trade with Canada.

By requiring Canada to accept these conditions and satisfy these smaller member countries, the EU has forced Canada into considering a legal reform of immigration and asylum, that will essentially nullify Canada's responsibilities under the Geneva Convention. The EU will accept Canada as a free trade partner if Canada changes its laws to not recognize who is a refugee the same way as it has been doing since 1951. Is this the EU that we are supposed to believe in and support? The EU that erodes human rights on an international basis?

This will be a big step backwards for the international community and refugee rights world-wide, if it takes place. When politicians prefer to make these types of choices rather than addressing the human rights issues that are causing the displacement of persecuted people, then civil society is at risk.

No, Roma are not the root cause of the problem in Canada EU relations. They are the scapegoat.

(Valery Novoselsky )