Tragedy casts light on callous Tory policies
OTTAWA— The story of little Alan Kurdi and his brother, Ghalib, two young Syrian boys who wanted new bicycles and whose family dreamt of the safety and peace that we take for granted in our country, has spawned a gut-check question being asked at home and by those watching us from afar.
Are we no longer the compassionate and welcoming country we once were? The answer is, yes, we are. The entire country felt the anguish of Abdullah Kurdi as he wailed at a Turkish morgue after identifying his family, just as we shuddered a day earlier at the iconic photo of the little boy who had slipped from his hands.
Our reaction to this heartbreaking saga and calls for this country to do something — anything — for people willing to risk everything to escape the horrors of Syria shows we are still that compassionate nation.
We should not be tarred internationally by those who represent us on the global stage — Conservative Leader Stephen Harper, whose world is built on dispassionate political ledger sheets that will not be moved by personal tragedy, and his inept immigration minister, Chris Alexander, the thin-skinned, overly combative master of obfuscation and doublespeak.
The Canadian reputation was taking a beating from media outlets the world over before it became clear that it was Abdullah Kurdi’s brother, Mohammed, who had sought refuge in Canada and been rejected. That provided some solace to Conservatives on the campaign trail but did not alter the fundamental question of whether this country was doing what it could.
Speaking shortly after Tima Kurdi broke a nation’s collective heart, recalling her brother’s account of the last moments of his family’s life on a dinghy flipped by raging waters as they sought dry land on the Greek Island of Kos, Harper showed rare emotion.
His voice cracking, he said the photo of Alan’s lifeless body washed up on a Turkish shore brings “tears to your eyes.’’
But he would not be prodded into speeding up or expanding an inadequate refugee settlement program, something most of this country was surely hoping to hear.
Harper maintained that a bombing mission against Islamic State, to save those trapped in a war zone, was as important as welcoming refugees and providing humanitarian aid.
He ably delivered his political message, but this was a time for a heartfelt reaction in the middle of an election campaign. Harper let the moment pass.
His minister Alexander returned to Ottawa hours after making a fool of himself on the CBC trying to defend his indefensible refugee performance by blaming the media for not covering the story.
But the snarling Alexander is a perfect Harper cabinet minister for these times. He’s cut from the same cloth as former natural resources minister Joe Oliver, who branded anyone concerned about a pipeline crossing British Columbia as “radicals,” or former Veterans Affairs minister Julian Fantino, who branded those who fought for this country and were unhappy about their treatment as stooges of a public service union.
If one sees the performance on the refugee file by Harper and Alexander as shameful, Canada is not alone in its shame.
Britain, where an anti-migrant sentiment had been whipped up by the right-wing press, has resettled a grand total of 216 Syrian refugees, although it has provided asylum or other forms of humanitarian protection to nearly 5,000 others. In the wake of Alan’s death, Prime Minister David Cameron pledged he would accept thousands more.
The United States has accepted about 1,500, but there were calls Thursday for the Obama administration to admit tens of thousands more.
Canada has accepted 2,300, relying heavily on private sponsorships.
But Alexander has never been sufficiently forthcoming about his government’s performance after promising 10,000 Syrian refugees a home in this country. His one consistency is his umbrage when being held to account.
In June, 2014, he hung up the phone on Carol Off, the host of CBC Radio’s As It Happens, when she pressed him on how many of the 200 government-sponsored Syrian refugees at that point were actually in the country.
When Maclean’s magazine sought an update in July on how many of the promised 10,000 Syrian refugee spots in Canada had been filled (Harper has pledged 10,000 more if re-elected), Alexander’s office made the reporter go through access to information, then told him he would have to pay for the research to get the answer.
Alexander’s move to limit refugee claimants’ access to public health care, which put him at odds with Ontario’s Kathleen Wynne, was struck down by the Federal Court, which deemed it “cruel and unusual.”
Then there was the ill-timed and unseemly encounter Wednesday with the CBC’s Rosemary Barton.
Tima Kurdi expressed the hope that the photo of her dead nephew would be a “wake-up call” for the world. In the middle of a federal election campaign, it could be a most unwelcome wake-up call for Harper, who now has Canadians studying a refugee policy that seems unnecessarily hard-hearted. Tim Harper is a national affairs writer. His column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. tharper@thestar.ca Twitter:@nutgraf1