Tory government must be bolder in response to Syrian refugee crisis
At times, Canadian governments have acted decisively in the face of refugee crises. Take the 37,000 Hungarian refugees in 1956-57, 7,000 Ugandan Asians in 1972-73, more than 60,000 Vietnamese boat people in 1979-80, and 20,000 Soviet Jews between 1970 and 1990.
Today, the Syrian refugee crisis is the worst the world has faced in decades. One million refugees are now in Lebanon alone, a country that is only twice the size of Prince Edward Island. It is as if half a million refugees descended on Charlottetown.
While the government’s response to this crisis has so far been modest, it is not too late for Canada to seize the bull by the horns and make a real difference consistent with our history as a place of refuge for the oppressed.
The most dramatic example of Canada’s past refugee activism is Hungary, where, following invasion by the Soviet Union in 1956, some 200,000 Hungarians fled the country. The Canadian government’s initial reaction was timid. Hungarian refugees would be given precedence over others, but with no change in the system, delays would be long and refugees few in number.
Then, in the face of pressure from the public and from then opposition leader John Diefenbaker, the government had a change of heart and sprang into action. It offered free passage to Hungarian refugees, it chartered ships and airplanes, and it told its Europe-based immigration officials and RCMP officers to approve all applications unless there were solid reasons not to do so.
The immigration minister, Jack Pickersgill, flew to Vienna to take direct charge of the operation. Within a year, some 37,000 Hungarian refugees had arrived in Canada. And this was in 1956, when the population of Canada was a mere 15 million.
Canadian government decisions on Syria today are not unlike the initial timid government decisions on Hungary in 1956.
Last year the government said it would give some priority to Syrian refugees and admit 1,300 by the end of 2014, but because Canadian processing times are two years or more, a month ago the minister stated that less than 10 such refugees had so far arrived in Canada.
Ten! These numbers exclude Syrians arriving in Canada on their own to seek asylum, but in 2013 there were only 493 such asylum seekers, or less than 1 per cent of the 56,351 Syrian asylum seekers in 44 industrial countries.
Other countries have already responded creatively to the Syrian crisis. Germany evacuated 5,000 Syrian refugees to Germany and will likely allow those people to become permanent residents. Sweden has given permanent resident status to more than 5,000 Syrians who had been living on a temporary basis in that country.
There is no reason why the Canadian government cannot pursue a 21st-century version of our response to the Hungarian crisis in 1956 or replicate a quick German-style evacuation of Syrians to Canada. There are more than 30,000 Syrian Canadians who could play a central role in this process and whose efforts to reunite with family members are now thwarted by bureaucracy.
Now is the time for the government to take fast action. Fly to Beirut, Chris Alexander!
Chris Alexander, Canada’s Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, should act decisively to bring Syrian refugees to Canada, says John McCallum