Leaders will not meet for refugee talks
TORONTO — Both the NDP and Liberal party leaders say they want to sit down with the prime minister to discuss Canada’s role in the Syrian refugee crisis.
On Monday, New Democrat Leader Tom Mulcair told a crowd at Toronto’s Labour Day parade that only Stephen Harper has the power to address the matter.
“The person who can take these decisions is the prime minister,” he said. “My chief of staff has reached out to his to try and get a discussion rapidly.”
He appeared to showed little interest in a meeting that included Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, who a day earlier also called for a sit-down with Harper.
“We must put partisanship aside and avoid becoming mired in the politics of this crisis,” Trudeau said in a letter to Harper, Mulcair and Green party Leader Elizabeth May that the Liberals released late Sunday.
“That’s the type of thing I was calling for last week when I said we should be a little bit less partisan and start concentrating on helping people who are in desperate need,” said Mulcair.
Mulcair said the NDP wants a commissioner to deal specifically with the issue of Syrians fleeing the chaos in their country. The party would also increase the number of immigration agencies on the ground, expedite private sponsorships with no cap, provide health care and issue temporary residence permits for Syrians staying with family.
But at a campaign event in nearby Mississauga, Harper rejected both parties’ overtures as “partisan games” at a time when the federal government is already taking action.
“The government is seized with this issue. I already made announcements before these headlines,” Harper said.
The Syrian crisis gained renewed prominence Wednesday after the drowning deaths of two young Syrian boys and their mother, who wanted to join family in British Columbia.
New Democrats have said the government should bring more than 46,000 government-sponsored refugees to Canada by 2019, while the Liberals say Canada should take in 25,000 Syrian refugees before Jan. 1.
The Conservatives have committed to 10,000 Syrian refugees over the next three years.
“I’ve already announced that we’re increasing that number and we are working to expedite this,” Harper said. “We’re obviously very pleased Canadians are seized with this issue and Canadians want us to respond. That’s what we’re doing.”
But Harper cautioned the government will take the necessary time to vet the refugees coming from that war-torn region.
“Let me also assure Canadians that we’ll make sure we have the processes in place so that we make sure we help the most vulnerable first. This is not firstcome, first-served,” he said. “We make sure we know who everybody is. We help those who are most vulnerable. Let me also assure Canadians that when we’re bringing people from a war zone, an area controlled by terrorists, we’ll make sure Canadian security is properly protected.”
Millions have fled war-ravaged Syria since 2011, but fewer than 2,400 Syrians have been resettled in Canada during the last two years as part of an overall commitment to accept 11,300 people.
Pro-refugee marches and demonstrations were planned in more than a dozen Canadian cities through the Labour Day weekend.
In Montreal, several hundred people marched downtown Saturday, brandishing signs reading “refugees welcome,” or bearing the now-famous photo of the drowned Syrian toddler with the caption “our child.”
Catherine Ouellet, who brought her four-year-old son, broke down in tears. “I find Canada isn’t doing its part,” she said. “Please, let’s open our doors to refugees and ask questions later. This is an emergency situation.”