Father Ho Lung and Friends have applied for visitor visas for nine of its members to travel to Canada for a goodwill tour. It’s been two months since the request. Plane tickets increased in price, we tried several times to telephone the authorities at the Canadian High Commission and even tried to physically visit them in Kingston, to no avail.

I tried to get an appointment over the phone but we were told everything must be done online. We decided to pre-book tickets for our trip to Toronto. We are scheduled to perform on December 15, 2024 from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the Saints Peter and Paul Banquet Hall. It is a concert of goodwill for the poor. This is in gratitude for food, clothing, medicine and a fellowship meeting. In the past, before the COVID-19 pandemic, our performing group had organized numerous concerts and productions in Canada. On the other hand, Canadians have visited and lived with Missionaries of the Poor in our monasteries and gone to our apostolates to serve the poor.

Father Ho Lung and Friends is a well-known artist group in Jamaica. Our first overseas tour was in Peterborough, Canada. After that, we expanded our operations to Toronto. We are now known in the United States and we have played in Germany, England, Brazil, the Philippines, etc.

In Jamaica, we have performed every year since 2000 at the National Arena. Audiences ranged from 30,000 to 50,000 people. The productions are put on with the aim of offering theater with music, dance and drama. We receive financial assistance to provide for the needs of the homeless and destitute under the vow of free service. People from embassies and high commissions attended our shows.

We were visited by hundreds of Canadians, some of them young people, who expressed that it was a life-changing experience and a wonderful socio-religious exchange. Many containers of food are sent to us every year from Canada, and the poor have been greatly helped. We therefore do not understand why this Jamaica-Canada relationship, which has been so valuable, now appears to be diminished. I am surprised that we are being treated like foreigners in our attempts to obtain visas for our goodwill tour.

I have been hearing complaints recently from fellow Jamaicans that there seems to be bias against Jamaicans when applying for a Canadian visa. These are not people trying to emigrate illegally to Canada or export crime and ganja.

The singers in our group are good citizens, Christians who put their talents at the service of the poor every year.

There are intelligent middle-class people who are concerned that it takes a long time, sometimes eight to nine months, for their visa application to be processed. This begs the question: “Is the High Commission biased against Jamaicans?”

Based on our experience and expectations, Canadians are not an inefficient people, nor are they discourteous. Yet I feel there is a deliberate policy that the Canadian attitude towards Jamaicans must seek to exclude.

In comparison, the visa application process in the United States is quite the opposite.

Jamaica is a small country with too much crime and too much violence. Canada is a big country with fewer difficulties. We cannot remain alone and isolated. We are part of a Western Hemisphere with similar cultures and breathe the same air.

I’m asking Canada’s High Commissioner to Jamaica, Mark Berman, to tell us what your country’s position is and where you stand.

Father Richard Ho Lung can be contacted at 876-550-8987