Harper discounts adding resources to speed flow of refugees,
Trudeau, Mulcair critical of Conservatives’ reluctance to accept more refugees
OTTAWA— Worldwide grief over the image of a drowned Syrian toddler in Turkey focused on Canada’s shores Thursday as the tangled story of the Kurdi family’s desperate flight unfolded and rocked the federal election campaign.
Canadians awoke to news the little Syrian boy and his family had names and faces and a Canadian connection: an aunt, to Alan Kurdi, 3, and his brother Ghalib, 5, who drowned with their mother Rehan while trying to leave Turkey. The boys’ grieving father, Abdullah Kurdi, survived, telling reporters abroad he had tried and failed to come to Canada.
The governing Conservative party denied that, and moved to defend itself against any suggestion it had failed the family, other Syrian refugees, or Canada’s allies such as Turkey, which are trying to cope with an overwhelming humanitarian crisis.
Still, the struggle of one family soon became a potent symbol of the struggles of many, and drew calls from the NDP, the Liberals, refugee advocates, and even the Turkish ambassador to Canada for help for those who have fled violence in Syria and Iraq.
The two boys and their mother were among 12 migrants who drowned when two boats carrying them from the Turkish coast to the Greek island of Kos capsized. Conservative Leader Stephen Harper defended his government Thursday, saying it has accepted nearly 2,300 refugees, supports the military mission to bring peace to Syria, and been the “most generous” donor of humanitarian aid while “most countries are simply not doing their part and they need to do more.”
For the Kurdi family, such assistance comes too late.
Tima Kurdi, the stricken aunt of the drowned boys, told reporters she had enlisted the help last spring of New Democrat MP Fin Donnelly to appeal to Immigration Minister Chris Alexander on her family’s behalf. Donnelly told the Star he walked her letter directly across the Commons aisle and handed it to the minister.
Kurdi provided the Star with a copy of the letter on Thursday.
It didn’t include Abdullah’s name but referred to her brother and his family.
There followed other correspondence with the minister’s office to ascertain details with Tima Kurdi. Abdullah’s name was mentioned to federal authorities, the Star has learned, although the department denies that any formal application by Abdullah to enter Canada was filed. Alexander said Thursday he never personally intervened, as that would have been improper, but handed the case off to officials.
By Thursday’s end, it appeared the Conservative minister and bureaucrats had not turned aside the case of
“I don’t know how you look at these images and say we should walk away and let those people be killed.” STEPHEN HARPER “You don’t get to suddenly discover compassion in the middle of an election campaign.” JUSTIN TRUDEAU
“It’s a failure by the international community, it’s a failure for Canada.”
THOMAS MULCAIR
the small boy whose lifeless image was pictured on front pages everywhere. Yet immigration authorities had rejected the family sponsorship application for Tima’s and Abdullah’s older brother, Mohammed, a decision that — according to Tima’s account — set in chain the tragic events that followed.
Jean-Bruno Villeneuve, a spokesman for the federal immigration department, said the department received an application for “Mr. Mohammad Kurdi and his family,” but that it “was returned as it was incomplete and it did not meet regulatory requirements for proof of refugee status recognition from the UNHCR or from a foreign state. There was no record of an application received for Mr. Abdullah Kurdi and his family.”
Weeping, Tima Kurdi said that upon learning Mohammed’s application was rejected she despaired of helping Abdullah immediately, so she sent him money to bring his family to safety elsewhere in Europe.
Now she blames herself, saying she told her brother, “I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have sent you the money to go; if I didn’t send you the money you won’t go. And he said ‘don’t blame yourself.’ ”
Asked if she blamed the Canadian government, she said “To be honest, I don’t want to just blame the Canadian government; I’m blaming the whole world for not helping enough.”
The family’s story jolted the election campaign. NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair teared up at a news conference, declined to “assign blame,” but said, “As a dad and a grandfather, it’s just unbearable that we’re doing nothing.
“It’s a failure by the international community, it’s a failure for Canada.” He called on Ottawa to immediately take in 10,000 Syrian refugees, as he said the UN has asked Canada to do, and “act now.”
Speaking in Montreal Thursday morning, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau criticized the Conservatives’ response. “You don’t get to suddenly discover compassion in the middle of an election campaign,” Trudeau said. He said that, if elected, the Liberals would bring 25,000 Syrian refugees to Canada.
The Conservatives cancelled two announcements, including one by Harper.
Speaking at a Conservative rally in Surrey, B.C., Harper said he and his wife, Laureen, found the photos of the little boy “heart-wrenching.”
“I think our reaction to that, the first thing that crossed our mind was remembering our son Ben at that age,” Harper said.
But the Tory leader adopted a steely stay-the-course approach, arguing his government had already agreed to take in thousands of Syrian refugees and last week, pledged to take in 10,000 more from Syria and Iraq.
And Harper turned aside questions of adding more resources to speed up the flow, saying that is not “of itself a reasonable moral reaction or solution to this problem.”
“We could drive ourselves crazy with grief; obviously we try to do what we can do to help.”
Harper emphasized Canada’s military campaign against the Islamic State as key to help stop the refugee crisis, and dismissed the other parties’ unwillingness to engage in the military coalition fighting the Islamic State Group in the Middle East.
“I don’t know how you look at these images and say we should walk away and let those people be killed because we don’t want to participate in a military engagement. I think that is completely irresponsible. Our reac- tion is we are doing everything. We need to do more; we will do more on every front.”
In an interview with the Star, Turkish Ambassador to Canada Selçuk Ünal said the shocking photo has forced “all the world” to realize “once again” the tragedy going on in Syria “but we in Turkey have been facing this issue almost four and a half years.”
Ünal acknowledged there is a long wait for displaced persons to get screened and registered as refugees in Turkey, but he said if third countries like Canada want to resettle Syrians and their embassies designate families for acceptance, the exit procedures are easier.
Turkey is faltering under the burden of feeding and sheltering more than two million refugees from Syria and Iraq, said the ambassador, and needs more direct bilateral assistance from countries such as Canada, who direct much of their humanitarian aid to international organizations such as the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.
“In that boat there were seven other children,” Ünal said. “One of them was 9 months old.” With files from Jacques Gallant