Canada remains committed to taking in 25,000 Syrian refugees but only 10,000 of them by year’s end, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government said on Tuesday.
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Ben Lobb tells Bayshore Broadcasting News that the Liberals’ math was flawed from the outset, and the plan was unworkable.
Bringing 25,000 refugees on board here will cost much more than originally budgeted and likely take more time. The country will, however, accommodate another 15,000 people by February next year. Families and vulnerable individuals, including those from the LGBT community are priorities, while single men wil be excluded from the Canadian government resettlement program.
All screening will take place overseas and once that’s complete, refugees will be flown to Toronto and Montreal largely on chartered aircraft. “Like I said, we want these families arriving to be welcomed, not feared”, he said during an interview Tuesday with the CBC.
The message provided a sobering counterpoint to his morning audience with the Queen, where Trudeau presented his two youngest children Ella-Grace and Hadrien just as his own prime minister father, Pierre, had once introduced a young Justin to the monarch.
He added that in 2016, the government will bring its refugee intake up to 25,000 and with private sponsorship the figures will total more than 25,000, although he did not put a number on it.
The decision to abandon original year-end deadline to resettle the entire 25,000 was due to nothing more than a need to institute the best possible program, Immigration Minister John McCallum said. Trudeau also acknowledged that in the US, among the public and state governors, there is a strong opposition to bringing in Syrian refugees.
The northern USA border as a whole is patrolled by 2,200 American agents, compared with 18,000 who monitor the U.S frontier with Mexico, Reuters reported.
“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”.
Although some people will be disappointed that the Liberals have compromised their commitment, the truth is that there is certainly more popular support for the slower approach, even among some refugee groups.
Watts – who received flak in her home riding during the election campaign for a Conservative Party flyer issued on her behalf that stated “We will fight Jihadist terrorists at home and abroad” – said she has not received feedback that indicates her constituents are against accepting refugees.
Former Conservative Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who lost the October 19 election to Trudeau, had declined to resettle more Syrian refugees, despite the haunting image of a drowned 3-year-old boy washed up on a Turkish beach that focused global attention on the migrant crisis stemming from the civil war.
“Finally, we remain prepared to provide temporary lodging for up to 6,000 Syrian refugees at military bases in Ontario and Quebec, and more if necessary”, Sajjan said.
RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson and CSIS director Michel Coulombe had both gone on record as saying it is feasible to safely screen that number of refugees by the end of the year.
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Those who will be considered refugees will include families, women at risk, and gay men and women, BBC reported.
