The Canadian Press
Joanna Smith
OTTAWA–The New Democrats are calling on the Liberal government to do more to fill the gaps left by U.S. President Donald Trump’s temporary immigration ban on people from seven Muslim-majority countries and his indefinite bar to Syrian refugees.
“Canada must step up to do its part,” NDP MP Jenny Kwan, the immigration critic for her party, said today.
Immigration minister Ahmed Hussen said Sunday that Canada would grant temporary resident visas to anyone who is stranded here because of the ban, but Kwan said this does not go far enough.
“There is much more that Canada can do and must do,” she stressed.
MPs had scheduled an emergency debate on the U.S. travel ban and how Canada should respond.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued a tweet over the weekend–seen as a thinly-veiled response to the move by Trump–that promoted Canada as a country that welcomes refugees, no matter their religion, and considers the diversity of its people to be a strength.
Kwan said she wanted to see him back it up.
“We now need to ensure that there is a plan to match those words,” she noted.
The NDP wants the Liberal government to lift the cap on the number of Syrian and Iraqi refugees that can be brought to Canada through certain kinds of private sponsorships known as “group of five” and “community sponsors,” which currently is set at 1,000–a target that was reached over the weekend.
They also want the government to fast-track the acceptance of refugees who had been approved to go to the U.S. and whose futures now are in limbo.
The office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees has said more than 800 refugees were expected to settle in the U.S. this week alone and about 20,000 might have been resettled there during the period covered by Trump’s suspension order.
As well, the New Democrats want the government to suspend the safe third-country refugee agreement with the U.S.
They say Canada should work with partners around the world to deal with the sudden shortfall in refugee resettlement.
