Breaking an election promise isn’t generally considered a smart move, but the Liberal government showed sound judgment when it announced Tuesday that it will not meet its self-imposed deadline of December 31 for bringing in 25,000 refugees from the Syrian conflict.
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The Ottowa Citizen reports: “The government is aware that gays could be persecuted, and therefore plans to include them in the selection process aimed at rescuing some of the region’s most vulnerable refugees”. People to be resettled in Canada have likely already been going through the screening process weeks or months in advance.
On Monday, the National Post reported Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with his cabinet to address security concerns regarding his plan to grant asylum to 25,000 Syrian refugees.
The five phases are identifying Syrian refugees to come to Canada, selecting and processing Syrian refugees overseas, transportation to Canada, arrival and welcoming in Canada, and settlement and community integration.
In total, 25,000 refugees will be accepted by and transported to Canada under the new plan.
Rahim Othman with the organization says despite the government reducing the number coming to Canada by the end of the year, they understand the magnitude of the task.
The officials said only that the province of Quebec accounts for 13 of the cities, and the rest are located across the country.
The refugees will be subject to extensive security and health screening at multiple stages on their journey to Canada.
It is important that Canada respond and demonstrate clear action.
Canadian Forces spokeswoman Dominique Tessier said in an email that the military has personnel on the ground working with diplomats in Ankara, Turkey; Amman, Jordan; and Beirut, Lebanon.
Refugees are seen at the port after arriving in Athens, Greece on September 24, 2015. This will include the collection of biographic information and biometric screening of all refugees, verified against databases.
The United Nations refugee agency estimates that more than four million Syrians have fled the civil war that has ravaged their country and killed more than 250,000 people. Private sponsors put up thousands of their own dollars to house and help support refugees for the first year after their arrival.
These refugees will be admitted into Canada, in either Montreal or Toronto, and then continue directly on to their destination community. Pursuant to that commitment, approximately 10,000 refugees had either been processed or were in the final stages of processing.
Plans expected to be unveiled mean only whole families, single women or children on their own will be accepted.
The government says it is no longer married to its goal of resettling all 25,000 refugees by the end of the year.
In an announcement Tuesday the federal government says it will take a mix of government-assisted and privately sponsored refugees and will be identified by the end of next month. The federal government has already poured $800 million into stabilization and humanitarian efforts in Syria. People who have not left Syria can not be considered refugees.
“We just looked at the logistics, we looked at what it would take to bring them in by January 1, and we had options around that”, Trudeau told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
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“We choose the most vulnerable whatever their religion might be”, McCallum said.
