Leadership needed
Re: ‘Why Are Muslim Countries Doing Nothing To Help The Refugees?’, letters to the editor; Germany Steps Up, both, Sept. 8; Charity Begins Close To Home, letter to the editor, Sept. 10; Drowned Boy’s Father Blames Canada; Tories Plan To Fast-Track Refugees, John Ivison, both, Sept. 11. The humanitarian crisis of the refugees makes politicians everywhere fall over each other, pledging money, raising quotas, telling everyone else what they should do, feeling generally sorry and so on. These leaders — “country managers” rather — act like deer frozen in the headlight of bad and worse choices: sit idle and have a humanitarian disaster unfold on their watch, or allow the biggest influx of refugees ever to overwhelm their countries and hasten a demographic change in Europe most of them dread.
What is missing in this chest-beating exercise is a willingness from any of them to lead toward the real, if probably temporary, solution and root out the cause of the problem: kick our Bashar Assad out, and deploy whatever it takes to eradicate ISIL. That is the real solution to the refugee crisis — or at least to the war refugee crisis, not the “let’s leapfrog from the Middle Ages to the most prosperous country available” crowd masquerading as such. Could it be Russian President Vladimir Putin is actually right? What will the West do if he beats ISIL and removes Assad?
Adrian Abramovici, Thornhill, Ont. Had Alan Kurdi’s father not decided to leave the safety of Turkey, where his family was living, and properly equipped them with life jackets before venturing onto dangerous waters, this sad episode would never have occurred. For him to try to shed his responsibility and reckless behaviour by blaming Canada does not cut it, especially with records showing his family never applied for refugee status. Canada is taking in far more refugees from Syria and Iraq than many others, including the U.S.
Larry Comeau, Ottawa. Statistically, Islam is the fastestgrowing religion in Canada because Muslims have large families. Why are all the Syrians fleeing west and burdening Christian countries with their plight, rather than Muslim countries? I agree 100 per cent with Prime Minister Stephen Harper in limiting their numbers. Why are the Islamic states not taking their own, while the Judeo-Christian countries being subtly intimidated and obligated to rush into welcoming action? What is it these countries know that we don’t. Since the three political parties are apparently in a close race, once the election is decided by all Canadians, then the refugee issue can be addressed by the new government and those who voted them in.
Paul MacArthur-Oshawa, Ont. Letter-writer Jerry Steinberg asks why wealthy Middle Eastern countries, such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, refuse to accept Syrian refugees. I suggest it is because they fear members of ISIL and other terrorist groups will be embedded among the refugees and will cause havoc and instability in their host country.
The reason refugees are not clamouring to get into these rich Middle Eastern countries is because only Western European countries, notably Sweden and Germany, offer the level of financial support they require to move to a new way of life. This includes subsidized housing, free language training, welfare entitlements, free education and the right to practice their own brand of Islam, without persecution by the religious majority.
Robert Lamoureux, Navan, Ont. I don’t envy Stephen Harper in dealing with Canada’s response to the Syrian crisis. I doubt there is a Canadian alive who does not want to display his or her genuine compassion for the plight of the Syrian refugees, and I believe he is no different. Many people have joined the Hate Harper bandwagon and Elizabeth May, Tom Mulcair and Justin Trudeau are all pandering to this audience.
The easiest thing in the world to do is to spend other people’s money. That is the core big government promise and the reason why every politician can make such casual, off-the-cuff campaign promises. Furthermore, this recent political display of cheap compassion by our big government political leaders is just one symptom of the No. 1 issue in this election — the lack of confidence by most Canadians in the mainstream parties and their leaders. Real change will only come when Canadians vote to rein in the powers of big government and return more responsibility and autonomy to all citizens in the governance of their own lives.
Gene Balfour, Thornhill, Ont. Stephen Harper would rather spend millions of dollars dropping bombs on Syrian targets rather than reach to help Syrian refugees. Our prime minister painted himself into a corner when he started exaggerating the threat of jihadi terrorists for his political purposes. Germany’s leader, Angela Merkel, is not paralyzed by an irrational fear of terrorism. She is showing real leadership by championing the resettlement and integration of hundreds of thousands of the war-ravaged refugees.
Even a cold-hearted economist like Harper should realize many of the refugees are highly trained and include doctors, scientists, technologists and tradesmen. If Canada had been led by xenophobic leaders in the past, our country would never have survived long enough to achieve its unique ethnic diversity, but would have disintegrated into an assortment of resource-rich territories belonging to the U.S.
Lloyd Atkins, Vernon, B.C.