Canadian asylum-seekers do pose concern

Re Asylum-seekers are not causing a crisis for Canada, Opinion, May 2

Senator Ratna Omidvar’s opinion that the public’s concern with border crossings between official checkpoints is based on anti-immigration populism is diverting attention from the real basis of public concern, which I believe is twofold.

First, these border crossings are illegal. Despite the senator’s characterization of these crossings as “irregular” or “informal,” the bottom line is that they are illegal, since they violate the Canadian Customs Act and are done to avoid the Safe Third Country Agreement between Canada and the United States.

Second, the right to claim asylum under Canadian immigration law is reserved for those who are fleeing persecution on specific grounds or are in danger of torture, risk to their life or risk of cruel and unusual treatment or punishment.

Large numbers of these asylum seekers do not meet these requirements. They are economic migrants or are attempting to leave a country where they are uncomfortable with the current political climate. These are not recognized grounds for an asylum claim.

A fundamental principle of the Canadian Constitution is the rule of law and there is no reason that this principle should be abandoned. Greg Sheehan, Mississauga Do the numbers not warrant the creation of a proper border crossing at the Chemin Roxham? (More than 90 per cent of the 20,953 irregular asylum seeker crossings happened at the border with Quebec.)

Irregular crossings would then become “regular” and a bridge to a new beginning. True Canadians build bridges, not walls. Monika Buxton, Schomberg