Justin Trudeau’s latest headache is unusual for a country bounded by three oceans and just one neighbor: the border.
Canada has seen a steady flow of asylum seekers since Donald Trump’s election, with people who fear the U.S. will deport them or reject their bids for asylum crossing the 4,000-mile undefended border and filing a claim. While the total numbers are relatively modest, the influx has strained resources and prompted calls for more funding.
The issue has the Canadian prime minister caught between demands for tighter security and his own pledge of open arms. The controversy has ramped up in recent weeks, in part because of Ontario’s election of a conservative government led by populist Doug Ford. He and two other premiers have called on Trudeau to act, and a political sparring match is underway over what values are more Canadian: welcoming refugees, even those arriving illegally, or securing the border?
Trudeau moved to quiet the storm last week by naming Bill Blair, a former police chief, as minister for border security. “When conservatives across the country are playing the fear card, we need strong, reassuring voices to counter that,” the prime minister said Wednesday after shuffling his cabinet. He warned that his rivals have begun “a very dangerous game” by “pitting Canadians against each other and raising the kinds of anxieties that quite frankly don’t help solve problems.”
More at Bloomberg
Aw, Canada is having problems handling a couple thousand illegal immigrants a month. Maybe they should consider the problems of handling a hundred thousand a month, thanks to liberal invitations.
We can feel sorry for their problems just the other day a 10 year old girl and a recent high school graduate was shot in a terrorist attack, Faisal Hussain described by his parents suffered from serious mental health challenges and had struggled with untreatable psychosis and depression most of his life. We keep hearing that about these shooters what is wrong with the mental health care industry? We continue to attack guns but that isnt helping. Gun control has often sparked divisive debates in Canada, which has a large rural population where guns are widely owned and used. Perhaps we should look deeper into medications that start sometimes in early childhood.
@kitt: “Hussain”… what is that, Irish?
Canada has some of that admirable gun control… how could anyone possibly shoot people there?
@Deplorable Me: The gun laws in Canada are not as strict as the US, but they are working on it, will the see it doesnt help in situation like the last…liberals do not have the capacity.
@kitt: The capacity to always address the wrong problem.
@Deplorable Bill: The capacity is to remove rights of those that did nothing wrong