Migrant crisis shapes federal election as party leaders spar

OTTAWA — The Syrian crisis is beginning to crystallize Canada’s political perspectives on when and how the country should go to war — and how best to help ease the suffering of innocent civilians pouring out of the Middle East.

The foreign policy implications of the violence in Syria and Iraq stalked the three federal leaders Thursday as a tidal wave of refugees continued crashing over Europe, leaving the Canadian campaign trail awash in the question of what to do about it.

NDP Leader Tom Mulcair was unequivocal: Canadian military personnel would be immediately withdrawn from Iraq and Syria this fall — months earlier than planned — if the NDP wins the Oct. 19 federal election.

Stephen Harper, meanwhile, suggested that Canada will do more to help Syrian refugees, in the face of mounting public pressure on the Conservative government over the past week.

Harper has been steadfast that accepting more refugees and sending humanitarian assistance to the displaced people in the Middle East is not enough, and that taking the military fight to Islamic militants responsible for the carnage is essential.

Justin Trudeau pushed the Liberals squarely into the middle ground, arguing that Canada needed to do more to ease the suffering of refugees, but still had to play a role training the Iraqi fighters to do battle with Islamic militants.

Canada has a half-dozen fighter jets flying bombing missions in Iraq and Syria, and several dozen special forces military trainers working with Kurdish fighters in Iraq to fight Islamic militants — a commitment that now extends to March.

Mulcair said the mission falls neither under the umbrella of the United Nations nor NATO, and a New Democrat government wants no part of a U.S.-led coalition.

It’s a stance that raises questions about the potential future of Canadian foreign policy under what would be the country’s first New Democrat government.

“Multilateralism has always been part of the Canadian approach, but this is neither a UN nor a NATO mission. This is an American-led mission,” Mulcair said in Winnipeg.

Mulcair also promised to bring 10,000 Syrian refugees to Canada by the end of 2015, saying logistical hurdles would be partially overcome by appointing a commissioner who would go to the region to speed up the process.

Harper hinted that steps are being taken to speed up refugee resettlement — an issue that has been front and centre in the campaign since the image of three-year-old Alan Kurdi lying dead on a Turkish beach emerged last week.

“The position of this government has been we have been the world leader in refugee resettlement and we intend to do that in a responsible way, a responsible and affordable way for Canadians,” Harper said in Prince Edward Island.

Trudeau said the Conservatives and New Democrats hold extreme positions on what is needed, while the Liberals have “a balanced and reasonable position” that is more in line with what Canadians want to see their country doing.

“We have a federal government right now that thinks military action is the only solution to the humanitarian crisis in the Middle East,” Trudeau said in Vancouver.

“And we have an opposition party that takes the opposite extreme position that there is never a military role to play in solving challenges like the crisis in the Middle East.”

WASHINGTON — The United States is making plans to accept 10,000 Syrian refugees in the coming budget year, a significant increase from the 1,500 people who have been cleared to resettle in the U.S. since civil war broke out in the Middle Eastern country more than four years ago, the White House said Thursday.

The White House has been under heavy pressure to do more than just provide money to help meet the growing humanitarian crisis in Europe.

Tens of thousands of people from war-torn countries in the Middle East and Africa are risking their lives and dying en masse during desperate attempts to seek safe haven on the continent.

The refugees from Syria, however, would be people who are already in the pipeline and waiting to be let into the U.S., not the thousands working their way through eastern Europe after landing in Greece. It was not immediately clear how admitting a larger number of Syrian refugees who are in the processing pipeline would help alleviate the crisis that European countries are grappling with.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said about $4 billion US that the administration has provided to relief agencies and others is the most effective way for the U.S. to help shoulder the crisis, but that President Barack Obama has decided that admit- ting more Syrian refugees in the budget year that begins Oct. 1 would also help boost the U.S. response.

About 17,000 Syrians have been referred over the last few years to the U.S. for resettlement by the UN refugee agency. About 1,500 are in the U.S., with another 300 scheduled to be allowed in this month. That leaves about 15,000 Syrians waiting for the clearance process to conclude, the State Department said.

Obama would like to admit 10,000 of those, according to Earnest’s announcement.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told lawmakers Wednesday that the U.S. will increase its worldwide quota for resettling refugees by 5,000, from 70,000 to 75,000 next year.