Canada's "Irregular Immigration" Solution

"In preparation for that [another summer influx of illegal border crossers], we want to make sure there are safeguards. We want to have this buffer in case of mass arrivals."
"We have been privileged to have the Nav Centre as a partner -- the services we get there are second-to-none. The fact that Cornwall [Ontario] is also the first major city in Ontario also plays a role."
"In an ideal scenario, a person would stay at the Nav Centre for only one week. We were looking for quick solutions and we found one here in Cornwall."
"Canada has many obligations toward the principles of asylum. When people come to Canada they do so because they have a credible fear."
"We have an obligation to asylum seekers but we also have an obligation to the Canadian public and anyone who is not a legitimate asylum seeker will be removed."
"I'll say it again, again and again. Seeking asylum is not a free ticket to Canada."
Louis Dumas, director general, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada

"Our federal government is clearly unwilling or unable to stop the flow of asylum seekers entering Canada illegally from the United States. Once on Canadian territory they can apply for refugee status, because unlike most countries we allow anyone who manages to get into Canada to submit a claim. Once they are in, whether found to be a refugee or not, it is unlikely they will be removed."
"It is difficult to estimate the enormous costs of processing and caring for the thousands of asylum seekers who enter Canada each year. Officials now estimate the costs range from $13,000 to $20,00 each. But this estimate doesn't take into account the long-term costs of maintaining claimants who are awaiting their refugee hearings or who have been accepted but still require financial help."
"Canada has no obligation to accept asylum claims from people who are not in danger of persecution. People who enter illegally should be arrested and quickly returned to where they came from -- the United States, primarily -- after a removal order has been issued."
"The asylum problem has preoccupied Western governments for more than 40 years. The true victims have been genuine refugees, mainly women and children, who desperately need help, but the enormous costs of dealing with asylum seekers who won't meet that standard bog down this vital system."
James Bissett, former ambassador, head of Immigration Service Canada

In this Aug. 7, 2017 file photo, a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer informs a migrant couple of the location of a legal border station, shortly before they illegally crossed from Champlain, N.Y., to Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle, Quebec, using Roxham Road. AP Photo/Charles Krupa

This is the federal government's reassuring line being spouted. Not a free ticket to Canada by barging across an international border with not so much as a by-your-leave? The government politely names this 'irregular crossing', what it truly represents however, is a contempt for Canadian law and order by people who do not, in fact, despite Mr. Dumas's statement, 'fear' for their lives. There is nothing credible about people with their families from Haiti or young men in hordes from Nigeria, both seeking economic advantage for themselves, declaring themselves refugees after deliberately bypassing legal entry points. Neither Haiti nor Nigeria are considered refugee sources.

Montreal and Toronto [which certainly qualifies for "the first major city in Ontario" to play a role] have taken in as much of the declared 'refugees' as they possibly can; housing is in short supply, and accommodating the needs of thousands of declarants is expensive, draining municipal and provincial social welfare systems, including health and education, meant to meet the needs of legitimate residents. Anyone wishing to legally apply for entry to Canada as a refugee or an immigrant has recourse to legal means to do so, and most do through regular channels.

It is the rank overflow and anticipation of more to come that has lassoed Cornwall into acceding to the federal government's quest to accommodate this illegal entry. Canada received 50,000 asylum claims in 2017 of which 50 percent arrived through regular, or legal channels through official ports of entry, while the remaining 21,000 were those intercepted crossing the border between ports of entry. Close to 26,000 asylum claims were registered in the first half of 2018, leading the government to send the mostly Haitian overflow asylum seekers to Cornwall.

More than 25,000 asylum seekers crossed into Quebec from the U.S. in 2017, according to the Quebec government. So far this year, a total of 12,378 individuals have filed asylum claims after entering Canada illegally. (Charles Krupa/Associated Press)

The United Nations Refugee Convention established in 1951, designates a refugee as "anyone who owing to a well founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it..." The definition clearly and for obvious reasons does not include economic aspirations as being a sufficient reason for refugee status. A genuine refugee may not be returned to any country presenting a life or freedom threat.

No UN member-state is required legally or even morally to accept refugees, their acceptance is purely voluntary, but needless to say Western democracies respond to the perceived plight of those who feel their lives are forfeit in their countries of origin, with generosity. An attitude of humanitarian largess that has inspired a flood of refugee declarants irrespective of the nomenclature and description being far off from their personal situations. Illegal entry from one country to another does not constitute a legitimate form of immigration, and nor does the UN recognize it as such.

Canada, in its bid to 'punch above its weight' in all spheres of international relations, and under this Trudeau government, anxious to demonstrate just how virtuously compassionate it is, deliberately chose to regulate its response above and beyond what the UN Convention conveys. Which has added immeasurably to the common perception among would-be refugee aspirants that Canada is an easy country to claim status in. And the response of the Trudeau government has affirmed that to be a fact. Justin Trudeau's impulsive 'sunny' nature (that also never forgets a slight) led him to signal just how much more munificently generous he was than Trump's immigrant policies.

The government of Canada has the legislative power to designate countries as "safe" for refugees, generally defined as those countries which are signatories to the UN Convention, who follow the rule of law, are democratic in nature and possess a decent record of human rights recognition. No one who is not in danger of persecution fits the bill of asylum claimant.