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Canada unlikely to meet target of 25,000 Syrian refugees by year end
OTTAWA CITIZEN
Published on: November 23, 2015 | Last Updated: November 23, 2015 11:49 PM EST
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau emerged from a historic first ministers meeting Monday to say he and the premiers are united in their commitment to bringing Syrian refugees to Canada, while acknowledging provincial leaders raised “precise” questions about security and funding.
But despite narrowing the criteria for potential refugee claimants, the federal government is expected to say on Tuesday that it’s unlikely to reach its target of 25,000 Syrian refugees to Canada by year’s end. The Liberal government will unveil its plan to on a campaign promise that has sparked concern among some premiers about whether proper security screening can be done so quickly and who will pay for it all.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister John McCallum was to release details of the ambitious program. Syrians have been steadily arriving in Canada for months and some of them will count against the Liberals’ election promise to resettle 25,000 people by Dec. 31 – a milestone the government is now expected to concede it likely won’t meet.
Indeed, in a press release Monday announcing he had briefed several of Canada’s mayors, McCallum held to the 25,000 number but dropped all mention of a deadline.
Trudeau said Canada “is going to be there for Syrian refugees” who are desperately seeking safety, noting the discussion around the table with the premiers was on the “safe and efficient arrival” of refugees, and building toward successful resettlement and participation in Canadian society.
“The security of Canadians remains at the very core of our planning to accept 25,000 Syrian refugees. Robust security planning continues to be an extremely high priority,” Trudeau told reporters late Monday following a working dinner.
Trudeau said premiers raised questions that were “responsible” and “precise” around security, funding, integration support and other issues about the refugee resettlement.
“But there was never a question of whether or not Canada should be doing more, whether or not Canada should be continuing in the long tradition that Canada has always had of welcoming in people from disaster zones or conflict areas,” he said.
Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard said federal officials provided a “very exhaustive” presentation on the refugee plan and associated security checks being conducted. “It’s being done very quickly, but without any compromises and it is being done well.”
Security concerns over extremists potentially slipping in to Canada mean the Liberal government will likely exclude unaccompanied males from its planned resettlement of thousands of refugees. But gay men will be among the Syrian refugees the government is willing to bring in under a plan that will otherwise welcome primarily women, children and families.
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.
After Islamic militants claimed responsibility for the recent terrorist attacks on Paris, the political pressure for airtight security screening as part of the Canadian plan took on new impetus. It’s one of the reasons a planned rollout of the program last week was delayed, sources told The Canadian Press.
The plan is likely now to see all screening conducted overseas, which will set back efforts to reach the Dec. 31 milestone. Some security experts have said this deadline was not feasible.
Last week, Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall sent a letter to the prime minister urging him to suspend the Syrian refugee plan because there might not be enough time to do sufficient security screening by the end of December.
In Ottawa Monday, Wall told reporters he felt the “fast-approaching deadline” and the quota of 25,000 was “probably not the best public policy.
“My counsel would still be to the prime minister that we ought to just suspend the deadline. We don’t have to stop the initiative, but we shouldn’t be working towards a deadline.
“Let’s just make sure we’re driven … to ensure good settlement results for the refugees themselves in the communities to which they’re moving – and also from a security perspective.”
Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, who has been publicly supportive of the federal government’s refugee initiative, said she would hold off commenting on specifics until they are unveiled Tuesday.
Gerard Van Kessel, a former director-general of the government’s refugee resettlement program and the separate refugee determination program, said while the decision to exclude unaccompanied mails from the refugee process eliminates some security concerns, “What do they mean by families?
“If you have an 18-year-old son that’s part of a family, is that person coming in? Also, the husband? What’s going to be done there?”
Van Kessel was involved in the 1999 emergency airlift to Canada of 5,000 Kosovars fleeing the war in the Balkans. Some of the processing took place after they arrived here.
He said “there’s no way” the government can meet a Dec. 31 deadline “without shortcuts.
“If they don’t do (all) the processing abroad and end up doing it in Canada, like we did with the Kosovars, there is a risk because once they’re in Canada, quite frankly it’s too late,” he said.
“If we get a terrorist in the group and, say they get to Canada, that terrorist is not going to wait to be identified, he will disappear and end up in the woodwork and the next time we hear of him, either here or in the States, will be because he’s been nabbed or because of some other violent act that will make it all apparent that a mistake was made.”
But in a statement Monday, NDP Leader Tom Mulcair worried about a sweeping ban on lone-male refugee claimants.
“While security concerns remain of vital importance, will a young man, who lost both parents, be excluded from the refugee program?” Mulcair asked.
“Will a widower who is fleeing Daesh (another name for the extremist Islamic State) after having seen his family killed be excluded? This is not the Canadian way.”
Conservative immigration critic Michelle Rempel said whatever the government has planned, it urgently needs to explain the details.
Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale last week said no refugees will be brought to Canada until thorough background checks with Canadian police, intelligence and allied nations are completed.
OTTAWA CITIZEN
Published on: November 23, 2015 | Last Updated: November 23, 2015 11:49 PM EST
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau emerged from a historic first ministers meeting Monday to say he and the premiers are united in their commitment to bringing Syrian refugees to Canada, while acknowledging provincial leaders raised “precise” questions about security and funding.
But despite narrowing the criteria for potential refugee claimants, the federal government is expected to say on Tuesday that it’s unlikely to reach its target of 25,000 Syrian refugees to Canada by year’s end. The Liberal government will unveil its plan to on a campaign promise that has sparked concern among some premiers about whether proper security screening can be done so quickly and who will pay for it all.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister John McCallum was to release details of the ambitious program. Syrians have been steadily arriving in Canada for months and some of them will count against the Liberals’ election promise to resettle 25,000 people by Dec. 31 – a milestone the government is now expected to concede it likely won’t meet.
Indeed, in a press release Monday announcing he had briefed several of Canada’s mayors, McCallum held to the 25,000 number but dropped all mention of a deadline.
Trudeau said Canada “is going to be there for Syrian refugees” who are desperately seeking safety, noting the discussion around the table with the premiers was on the “safe and efficient arrival” of refugees, and building toward successful resettlement and participation in Canadian society.
“The security of Canadians remains at the very core of our planning to accept 25,000 Syrian refugees. Robust security planning continues to be an extremely high priority,” Trudeau told reporters late Monday following a working dinner.
Trudeau said premiers raised questions that were “responsible” and “precise” around security, funding, integration support and other issues about the refugee resettlement.
“But there was never a question of whether or not Canada should be doing more, whether or not Canada should be continuing in the long tradition that Canada has always had of welcoming in people from disaster zones or conflict areas,” he said.
Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard said federal officials provided a “very exhaustive” presentation on the refugee plan and associated security checks being conducted. “It’s being done very quickly, but without any compromises and it is being done well.”
Security concerns over extremists potentially slipping in to Canada mean the Liberal government will likely exclude unaccompanied males from its planned resettlement of thousands of refugees. But gay men will be among the Syrian refugees the government is willing to bring in under a plan that will otherwise welcome primarily women, children and families.
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.
After Islamic militants claimed responsibility for the recent terrorist attacks on Paris, the political pressure for airtight security screening as part of the Canadian plan took on new impetus. It’s one of the reasons a planned rollout of the program last week was delayed, sources told The Canadian Press.
The plan is likely now to see all screening conducted overseas, which will set back efforts to reach the Dec. 31 milestone. Some security experts have said this deadline was not feasible.
Last week, Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall sent a letter to the prime minister urging him to suspend the Syrian refugee plan because there might not be enough time to do sufficient security screening by the end of December.
In Ottawa Monday, Wall told reporters he felt the “fast-approaching deadline” and the quota of 25,000 was “probably not the best public policy.
“My counsel would still be to the prime minister that we ought to just suspend the deadline. We don’t have to stop the initiative, but we shouldn’t be working towards a deadline.
“Let’s just make sure we’re driven … to ensure good settlement results for the refugees themselves in the communities to which they’re moving – and also from a security perspective.”
Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, who has been publicly supportive of the federal government’s refugee initiative, said she would hold off commenting on specifics until they are unveiled Tuesday.
Gerard Van Kessel, a former director-general of the government’s refugee resettlement program and the separate refugee determination program, said while the decision to exclude unaccompanied mails from the refugee process eliminates some security concerns, “What do they mean by families?
“If you have an 18-year-old son that’s part of a family, is that person coming in? Also, the husband? What’s going to be done there?”
Van Kessel was involved in the 1999 emergency airlift to Canada of 5,000 Kosovars fleeing the war in the Balkans. Some of the processing took place after they arrived here.
He said “there’s no way” the government can meet a Dec. 31 deadline “without shortcuts.
“If they don’t do (all) the processing abroad and end up doing it in Canada, like we did with the Kosovars, there is a risk because once they’re in Canada, quite frankly it’s too late,” he said.
“If we get a terrorist in the group and, say they get to Canada, that terrorist is not going to wait to be identified, he will disappear and end up in the woodwork and the next time we hear of him, either here or in the States, will be because he’s been nabbed or because of some other violent act that will make it all apparent that a mistake was made.”
But in a statement Monday, NDP Leader Tom Mulcair worried about a sweeping ban on lone-male refugee claimants.
“While security concerns remain of vital importance, will a young man, who lost both parents, be excluded from the refugee program?” Mulcair asked.
“Will a widower who is fleeing Daesh (another name for the extremist Islamic State) after having seen his family killed be excluded? This is not the Canadian way.”
Conservative immigration critic Michelle Rempel said whatever the government has planned, it urgently needs to explain the details.
Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale last week said no refugees will be brought to Canada until thorough background checks with Canadian police, intelligence and allied nations are completed.
