Select Refugee?

The Globe and Mail reports the following:

Canada is prioritizing some refugees based on characteristics that include their religion, the age of their children and whether they have a business background, using increasingly specific criteria over the past year.

These criteria are used in a complex triage that attempts to put some groups at the front of the refugee assessment line, The Globe and Mail has learned.

While an unidentified government official speaking on background maintains that the criteria set are not discriminatory, the fact is,

[u]nder these criteria a Sunni Muslim single mother with an 11-year-old child who didn’t meet an area of focus could be held back in the pile or bounced through another process, while someone who owned a business and speaks English fluently could be rushed through.

All of this puts me in mind of a poem that I used to teach which perhaps effectively reflects the mindset of the Harper regime:

“Select Samaritan”
by Robert Finch

We think we might adopt two children and
The problem is to know which kind we want,
Not Canadians, Refugees, But they can't
Be Jewish. A Couple of Spaniards would
be grand
If they were fair. My Husband hates dark hair.
Afraid they are mostly dark in any case.
Germans would do, we don't care about race.
Except Chinese, must draw the line somewhere.
So would you let us know soon as you could
What sort's available?
We have a car
And would be glad to come and look them over
Whatever time you say. Poles might be good,
Of the right type. Fussy? Perhaps we are
But any kids we take will be in clover