Confusing Facts With Propaganda

"We make sure that they are safe and we are taking care of them. I'm proud to be in this position."
"[The asylum seekers] crossed borders and we know it is very difficult. They've made hard choices. And just being there to help them and say, 'Hi, welcome to Canada, the Red Cross can take care of you, we're going to provide you shelter, food and just make sure you are safe, for now,' I know there were some volunteers who were there who were saying they are honoured to just help other humans, even for a short time."
"It wasn't very sad. They were saying, 'We're trying to find a better future for our families,' and I saw many smiles."
"They said, 'It's a hard time. We don't know where we're going, but we hope we have a better future.' That's what I saw on site."
Carl Boisvert, spokesperson, Canadian Red Cross, Montreal

Migrants from Somalia cross into Canada from the United States by walking down a train track into the town of Emerson, Manitoba, where they will seek asylum at the Canada Border Services Agency early Sunday, Feb. 26, 2017. (John Woods/The Canadian Press)

"It's certainly not something that we can't handle or incorporate."
"Most people can understand why there would be apprehensive individuals in the U.S. Because the increase [here] has coincided with what's happening under the Trump administration, it may seem more dire than it is."
Aris Daghighian, Toronto lawyer, executive, Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers

Lawyers always support and seem to take delight in matters where they specialize. And it's no surprise that when their bread, butter and caviar is linked to refugee access and the need to take on the services of lawyers skilled in the byways and wherewithal of refugee laws, both specific to Canada and of international agreement, why would they not be supportive of opening Canada's generous social services to all that aspire to enriching their lives in this uniquely Canadian way of open-arms acceptance?

The thing of it is, though, there is an obvious legally acceptable way to go about applying for refugee status. The opposite of which is clearly illegal and which in its deliberate side-stepping of normal steps to apply at established government posts in position for that very purpose flouts good order and sensibility in a show of arrogant entitlement to declare oneself needful of asylum. Bypassing official ports of entry should be enforced as an illegal assault on the civility that Canada offers.

On the other hand, it appears to be a matter of general knowledge that Canadian authority is soft-hearted and doesn't in fact, place much value in its own laws, much less the need to support security at Canadian borders. The Safe Third Country Agreement signed a dozen or so years ago with the United States represents a mutual agreement between neighbours recognizing that each represents a country of haven for legitimate refugee claimants, that once within the borders of one, it is unacceptable to approach the borders of another for like purposes. The E.U., in fact, holds a similar agreement.

What the illegal entrants are doing, however, is leaking across the borders of one country where their presence is due to temporary haven, temporary visitors' visas or illegal, undocumented entrance to begin with, compounding the issue by entering through an illegal crossing. By setting aside the contempt displayed by would-be refugee claimants through their deliberate and planned decision to avoid normal legal channels of entry, it is puzzling to figure how Canadian authorities might view these law-breakers as future good citizens, should their claims be accepted.

A sign warning asylum seekers is seen at the Canada/U.S. border at Roxham Rd., May 9, 2018 in Champlain,N.Y.    Ryan Remiorz / THE CANADIAN PRESS

Many, on the other hand, coming from countries not known to produce refugees, in other words where people are not faced with egregious discrimination, oppression, threats and conflict situations, will not be recognized as genuine refugees and they will be returned to their country of origin. But that process will take anywhere from a year-and-a-half to three years and perhaps longer given various appeals processes that denials of status may result in. Canada is not merely soft-hearted but soft-headed in this respect.

Thousands of illegal entrants have already strained the capacity of official Canada to serve the interests of those streaming across the border illegally, who are given legal status nonetheless because they claim to be refugees. These are not, however, refugees in the meaning of the status of those escaping threats to their existence, but migrants who seek the opportunity to find a better economic future for themselves, but haven't the decency to use normal immigration channels. In so doing they create not only havoc and expense for the host country, but tie up normal legal channels in long delays processing those who have applied with the courtesy of legal channels.

From East to West, Canada is strained to meet the challenges brought by this influx of illegal migrants. Canada Border Services struggles along with the Immigration and Refugee Board to deal with an existing backlog, let alone the current crush. There is polarization growing within Canadian society among those who instinctively support what they feel is the human right to a decent way of life that Canada can support for the millions whose lives have been disrupted by war and those resentful of the contempt which haven seekers show for law and order.

Having taken in tens of thousands of legitimate refugees Canada still struggles to settle them adequately.

Ahmed Hussen‏ @HonAhmedHussen

Thread: In #Winnipeg to meet with Provincial & Territorial counterparts. We discussed how to continue to use immigration to grow our economy and our government’s clear plan to manage irregular migration.

Refugee claimants legally making applications saw an orderly process taking place, with its own long waiting list for processing of 36,856 in 2008, 33,426 in 2002 and 44,640 back in 2001. Not to mention the estimated 50,000 Syrian refugees settled in Canada. These have not been "irregular migrants" as the current government insists the illegal entrants be addressed in respect of their 'humanity', but respectful applicants recognizing the internal authority of a legitimate government to have control over who enters their country.

Montreal and Toronto still cope with the effects of those streaming illegally into the country, putting them up temporarily in public buildings meant for other purposes, but having no room left at the shelters meant to house those seeking public services where Canadians themselves falling on hard times are desperately in need of assistance at every level of government, those social assistance avenues now having to cope with refugee declarants who have no respect for normal process or Canadian law.

A group of asylum seekers arrive at the temporary housing facilities at the border crossing Wednesday May 9, 2018 in St. Bernard-de-Lacolle, Quebec.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz

"It makes it illegal but also says it's not illegal at the same time", stated Janet Dench, executive director of the Canadian Council for Refugees, speaking of the 'irregular' crossings into Canada wherein Canadian law recognizes the right to claim refugee status, nullifying the illegal aspect of crossing the border at non-appointed entry points. In a history lesson she speaks of the 1951 U.N. refugees convention drafted in the bleak aftermath of the Holocaust in recognition of safe haven denied Jews attempting to flee Nazi Germany.

With all due respects, this was a targeted ethnic/religious group knowing the carnage that awaited them should they remain in Europe; denigration, dehumanization, threats, public humiliations, unemployment -- not yet in full possession of the facts yet to come that after ghettoization and dispossession would come the Final Solution. And even when the world was given notice through word to the League of Nations that a genocide was unfolding, there was no room at the stable globally -- including Canada -- for the presence of Jewish refugees.

To compare those terrified, frail and abandoned people who were refused entry anywhere, to those now being scattered worldwide in mostly Muslim, dysfunctional countries where lives are made desolately miserable and continually threatened, with Europe opening wide in acceptance until it occurred to them that what was happening was an invasion, and one that many wealthy Islamic nations were simply ignoring or encouraging, to the utterly terrifying disaster that afflicted European Jews is an insult to their memory.

A group of asylum seekers walk down the street as they are escorted from their tent encampment to be processed at Canada Border Services in Lacolle, Quebec, Canada August 11, 2017.
REUTERS/Christinne Muschi