We can do much more

The following is an excerpt from a commentary this week by Adrienne Clarkson, governor-general from 1999 to 2005:

When I saw the photo of 3-year-old Aylan Kurdi lying dead, facedown, on a Turkish beach last month, I felt an electrifying stillness.

At the same age as that toddler, I came to Canada as a Chinese refugee soon after Hong Kong fell to the Japanese in late December, 1941. Thanks to the Red Cross, my family took two ships and a train and arrived in Canada in August 1942. The voyage took us through Mozambique, South Africa and Brazil before we arrived in New York harbor and, eventually, Ottawa.

In 1979, Canada responded to another refugee crisis: the plight of the Vietnamese boat people. Our public servants went to the refugees, rather than waiting for the refugees to come to us.

They worked 20-hour days in hot, humid refugee camps throughout Southeast Asia. They identified, selected and approved 60,000 refugees on site. Then they put them on 181 charter flights, paid for by the Canadian government, and flew them to military bases in Edmonton and Montreal.

This needs to happen again. Rather than waiting for people to risk their lives by making dangerous crossings in flimsy vessels, the only solution is for diplomats to go to crisis zones.

We have retired immigration officers who would likely jump at the chance to offer their experience to German and Swedish officials struggling to manage this horrendous crisis. Canada is not likely to take 800,000 refugees as Germany has announced it will.

But in addition to offering our expertise on screening and resettlement to other nations, we must do our part to welcome more. We could — and should — accept at least 100,000 per year.

After all, we are a country of immigrants, built on the foundation of the Aboriginal peoples. We must be reminded to love the stranger, as we ourselves were once strangers.