Thousands of refugee claims from asylum seekers remain unprocessed: federal immigration officials
Only 300 refugee claims filed by the thousands of asylum seekers flowing across the Canadian border in Quebec in recent months have been processed by the federal tribunal that decides who gets refugee status, officials told the House Immigration and Citizenship Committee on Tuesday. Only half of those 300 asylum seekers have been granted refugee […]
Why one procedural change is putting asylum seekers at risk
Canadians are recognized around the world for their hospitality and generosity, especially when it comes to refugees and asylum seekers. Many asylum seekers flee to Canada because of our reputation as a humanitarian country. Unfortunately, the same system that is working to assist these refugees is also re-victimizing them once they have entered Canada and […]
Illegal border crossings can no longer be overlooked
GATINEAU, QUE.—The influx of mostly-Haitian asylum seekers across the Quebec border could hardly have come at a more delicate time. In the United States, of course, the embers of racism and xenophobia are regularly fanned by an unstable president with no moral centre and little common decency. While Canada isn’t immune from the contagion, so […]
Surge of asylum-seekers has MPs seeking information for constituents, newcomers
It’s been a learning experience for Liberal MP Brenda Shanahan, whose riding is where scores of asylum-seekers have recently crossed over from the United States and where a temporary camp has been set up for these migrants. “Let me tell you there are a lot of nuances [to the asylum process], especially here in Quebec. […]
Canadians want Trudeau to offset Trump on welcoming refugees
OTTAWA—Damned if you do. Damned if you don’t. Such is the dilemma facing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with the increase in ambulatory migrants arriving from the United States in the wake of American removal rumblings. News reports say that more than 7,500 people have streamed across the Canada-United States border in the past three months. […]
PM’s words unlikely to stem flow of U.S. asylum seekers
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau travelled on Wednesday to Montreal—ground zero of the intense media coverage of the asylum-seeking issue—to try to unknit some of his own knitting. He met with the interprovincial task force set up to co-ordinate the logistics of the response to the influx of would-be asylum seekers who have been crossing the U.S. border […]
Trudeau government must fix inland refugee system
If Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is going to tweet that refugees are welcome in Canada, he needs to ensure the system that determines whether asylum seekers are legitimate refugees works well. Backlogged claims at the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB), the independent refugee-claim decision-making body, include so-called legacy claims that have languished since before 2012, […]
Turkey is fighting Daesh, not helping it
Re: “Trump’s ‘principled realism’ is anything but” (The Hill Times, May 31, p. 9) Turkey’s resolve to wipe out Daesh (also known as ISIL, ISIS, and the Islamic State) and other terrorist organizations in Syria cannot be logically brought together with a claim that it kept its border open so that weapons, money, and recruits could be […]
‘I’m writing articles, and I’m being tried as a terrorist,’ exiled writers in Canada pushing feds for quicker refugee processing of families
A group that advocates for threatened writers who’ve sought asylum in Canada says the federal government should expedite the process for bringing their family members, who are still in danger abroad, to join them in Canada. Members of PEN Canada’s Writers in Exile Committee brought this message to immigration and foreign ministry officials they met with […]
Bernier gets endorsements from Alberta legislators
Conservative leadership candidate Maxime Bernier last week announced some new support from the heart of Conservative country—Alberta. He announced endorsements from seven Wildrose Party Members of the Legislative Assembly, being Scott Cyr, Jason Nixon, Rick Strankman, Wes Taylor, Angela Pitt, Don MacIntyre, and Leela Aheer. He also snagged support from one Progressive Conservative MLA, Mike […]
