Hugs are not enough
Canadian Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale knows what he’s going to tell U.S. officials about the influx of refugee claimants at border crossings in Manitoba and Quebec.
Mr. Goodale told CBC radio his American counterparts will be “fully informed of the circumstances that Canada is dealing with” and “fully apprised of the consequences that we’re dealing with on our side of the border.”
What Mr. Goodale hasn’t told Canadians is what Ottawa expects the U.S. to do about the situation. Nor has he been decisive about how Ottawa is going to manage the influx of refugee claimants (more than 100 people in 2017 alone).
The Safe Third Country Agreement between Canada and the U.S. hasn’t been much use here. It requires claimants to seek refugee protection in the first safe country where they arrive. The agreement, designed to stop “asylum shopping”, is based on the premise that both countries have fair and rigorous refugee-processing protocols.
These policy niceties have been lost on the migrants themselves, who have been trekking from Minnesota to Manitoba (and across the border in Quebec) in hope of finding refuge north of the border. The narrative spinning out in Canadian media is that claimants are Trump refugees who don’t feel they would be treated fairly under the new administration in Washington and see Canada as a kinder, safer nation.
This is part of the story, but not the whole one. As J.J. McCullough points out in The Washington Post, refugee claimants (many from Somalia) have been crossing into Manitoba since 2013. Neither nation tends to deny status to expats from Somalia, due to the level of violence there.
Mr. Trump clearly isn’t the only factor at play here. Mr. Goodale knows then, that this is a challenging and complex situation. Certainly, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau cannot solve it by showing up at a border point to hug newcomers.
Yes, most Canadians want their government to deal compassionately with people crossing the border on foot in the harshest month of winter. This is as it should be.
Mr. Goodale must do more. He could start by working with the Americans to see if there’s a way to make the Third Party Agreement work as intended. Inside Canada, he should take steps to speed up the processing of refugee claims. Our existing process is rigorous but slow.
This problem will become more acute if (as predicted) more migrants from Mexico and other Central American nations try to pole-vault into Canada over Donald Trump’s U.S.A. This is one crisis Canada should prepare for now, instead of trying to play catch-up later.