Grudging aid for refugees
Conservative Leader Stephen Harper is finally being shamed by the sheer force of public opinion into addressing the Syrian refugee crisis, but not in a way that does Canada or his party proud. The Tory response has been grudging, shabby and slow.
As former prime minister Jean Chrétien put it on the weekend, many are asking themselves: “What’s happening to Canada? Where is the Canada that we have known?” That generous Canada has largely disappeared on Harper’s watch.
Yes, International Development Minister Christian Paradis did pop up on Saturday to announce that Ottawa will match up to $100 million in charitable donations from Canadians for desperate refugees who are stuck in the Middle East, and who are being helped by the Red Cross, Red Crescent and other relief agencies. That’s something.
But it doesn’t bring a single Syrian family here. Rather, it will help keep Syrians stuck in squalid refugee camps in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and elsewhere by giving them meagre shelter, food, water and health care. It also puts the onus on private individuals to pony up first; government will kick in its share only reactively.
Worse, two weeks after Alan Kurdi’s small body washed up on a Turkish beach, and four years after the Syrian civil war erupted, the federal government’s refugee resettlement plan remains “a work in progress.” Paradis couldn’t even say whether Ottawa intends to take up Premier Kathleen Wynne’s offer to bring 10,000 refugees here over two years, at a cost to the province of $8.5 million.
Canada has resettled only 2,500 Syrian refugees to date, a shamefully small number out of a refugee population of four million in a conflict that has left 250,000 dead. It took the pressure of an election campaign to get Harper to promise to take in a total 20,000 Syrians, Iraqis and others over four years, provided his party is re-elected. That would average 5,000 people a year.
It’s a pale shadow of Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau’s demand for “immediate action” to resettle 25,000 Syrians, and New Democrat Leader Thomas Mulcair’s plan to bring in 46,000 over five years. It also pales beside Germany’s intake of 44,000 Syrians so far this year alone. It falls well short of Canada’s past mobilizations to bring in Southeast Asian “boat people,” Czechs, Hungarians, Iraqis and others.
At every turn, Harper has found excuses not to open Canada’s doors more than a crack. He says that Canada can’t take in everyone, exaggerates the risk of terrorists sneaking in among the refugee moms and children, and plays up the bureaucratic hurdles. There’s a grain of plausibility to all of his excuses. And Canadians recognize that the complex Syrian crisis can’t be solved simply by taking in refugees. This war needs to be ended. But like Germany’s admirable if overtaxed Willkommenskultur, we can aspire in the meantime to help bring as many as possible to a better life, not as few as possible as is the case so far.
Sadly, the Harper government has proven unwilling to respond with compassion to the crisis at hand, unlike past Progressive Conservative and Liberal governments that rose to the occasion.
That may play well with Harper’s hardcore conservative base. But not with the majority of Canadians who have demonstrated they want change in this election. A Forum Research poll found that a clear majority — 52 per cent — feel Ottawa can do more for refugees. And 37 per cent prefer the Liberal and New Democrat helping-hand approach, to 24 per cent for the Tories’ shrug.
Harper is doing the least good possible, at a time when Canadians want bold action. But that is hardly surprising. His party has never had much ambition, beyond downsizing government and working itself out of a job.
The Conservative response to the refugee crisis has been grudging, shabby and slow