Pressure grows over asylum seekers

Tories seek study to review federal response

As tensions over asylum seekers mount between Ottawa and Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s new PC government, Conservative MP Michelle Rempel wants to give provincial immigration ministers another chance to air their grievances — and Lisa MacLeod says she’d happily do so.

As Ford’s community and social services minister, MacLeod is butting heads with the Liberal government over its handling of the asylumseeker issue, and she was at it again Friday after the main federal, provincial and territorial players gathered for a meeting on the matter in Winnipeg.

She walked out of the meeting after a testy exchange with federal Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen, who later publicly accused Ontario of fearmongering on asylum seekers. She called his comments “mean-spirited” and demanded an apology.

At Monday’s emergency meeting of the House of Commons immigration committee, opposition members will try to put some political pressure on the government by urging their Liberal counterparts to examine the problem, as well as the pressure it is putting on provinces.

Rempel will introduce a motion calling on the committee to “undertake a study to review the adequacy of the federal government’s response to the impact of increased asylum seekers crossing into Canada from the United States.”

She and NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan are calling on the committee to hold two more meetings this summer in hopes of learning more about what the government intends to do.

The motion calls on Hussen to testify, for the committee to meet at least twice more this summer and that the study be concluded before Aug. 3. Rempel also wants provincial ministers to either testify or provide written submissions to the committee. MacLeod said she’d happily oblige.

Rempel called for Monday’s meeting after hearing Ontario and Quebec say they’ve run out of room for migrants. The Ontario government said it is facing a “looming crisis” next month if Ottawa doesn’t help find space for refugees and asylum seekers currently sheltered in college dorms. Ford has demanded the federal government foot the entire bill for the province’s costs.

Canada’s Safe Third Country agreement with the U.S. stipulates that asylum seekers are required to make their claims in the first “safe” country where they arrive — meaning those who cross into Canada at an official land border crossing are sent back to make their claim in the U.S.

The agreement does not cover “irregular” or “illegal” asylum seekers — those entering Canada at unofficial points, most notably in Quebec.