According to the plan, Canada will take in 10,000 refugees by year’s end and will aim to bring in 15,000 more by the end of February.
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“We have a responsibility to significantly expand our refugee targets and give more victims of war a safe haven in Canada”, Trudeau said in the statement.
“Our commitment to diversity and inclusion isn’t about Canadians being nice and polite, although of course we are”, he said.
The Canadian initiative and the positive rhetoric of Trudeau’s government stand in stark contrast to what is taking place south of the border, where Republican politicians and presidential candidates have to varying degrees urged the rejection of Syrian refugees. A similar bipartisan Senate bill awaits a vote.
Administration officials say security and humanitarian constraints are concerns for the leaders, with as many 5,000 migrants reaching Europe each day over the so-called Balkan migrant route. However, it said that such a large program can not be carried out within the given timeframe.
These countries require exit permits of the refugees and the process was particularly slow in Lebanon.
The first refugee flight is expected to take off in early December, but a precise date has not yet been set. Temporary accommodation will be provided by the military if required, but the government aims to have lodging in place in the host cities and towns.
Also last week, the heads of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the Canada Border Services Agency insisted that the government’s refugee-resettlement plan would not compromise national security.
“We’ve worked with the refugee movement for a very long time”, said Vialard.
Officials said only whole families, women in vulnerable position, or single men who are gay – therefore deemed at risk of persecution – or accompanied by parents as part of a family will be accepted.
Single men are still allowed to come to Canada as privately-sponsored refugees.
Many of those in the crowd at the West Vancouver United Church Monday were there to hear how they could either sponsor refugee families or help once those people arrive in Canada, said Alison Dudley with the North Shore Immigrant Inclusion Partnership.
Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard, whose French-speaking province is prepared to accept 3,650 mainly private-sponsored Syrian refugees, has said that while security is “essential”, it should not become “an excuse to reject refugees”.
More than 4 million Syrians have fled their country since the conflict began in 2011.
‘The resettling of vulnerable refugees is a clear demonstration of this. It airlifted more than 5,000 people from Kosovo in the late 1990s, more than 5,000 from Uganda in 1972 and resettled 60,000 Vietnamese in 1979-80.
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But Rempel said: “Today’s announcement by the Liberals still leaves Canadians with many unanswered questions about plans for caring for refugees upon arrival, and specifically, the real costs of the plan, impacts on provincial governments, and the involvement of our Canadian Armed Forces”.
