Toronto – Canada To Resettle 25,000 Syrian Refugees By End Of February

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    Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has his photo taken with students from a local school following an information session on climate change during a First Ministers meeting at the Museum of Nature on Monday, Nov. 23, 2015 in Ottawa. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press via AP)Toronto – Canada’s new Liberal government said Tuesday it will resettle 10,000 Syrian refugees by the end of the year and another 15,000 by the end of February.

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    Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had wanted to resettle 25,000 refugees in Canada by Dec. 31 but faced some pushback following the deadly attacks in Paris. Immigration and Refugee Minister John McCallum said they wanted to get it done fast but also do it right so they are taking a little bit more time to process and resettle the refugees.

    The government said health and security screening will take place overseas and once that’s complete, refugees will be flown to Toronto and Montreal, largely on chartered aircraft. Military aircraft will assist if needed.

    “We will welcome them with a smile,” McCallum said. “This is a wonderful humanitarian gesture by all Canadians.”

    Tuesday’s announcement could raise alarm in the U.S., where many Republican governors have said they don’t want any Syrian refugees.

    The U.S. plans to take 10,000 over the next year. Germany saw 758,000 refugees and other migrants arrive between January and October. Sweden is expecting around 200,000 this year.

    Canada will be working closely with the United Nations Refugee Agency which will be contacting some refugees by text message to ask if they want to come to Canada. Syrian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey are being targeted.

    McCallum said they will choose the most vulnerable whatever the religion might be.

    “We want to make sure there is no discrimination,” Heritage Minister Melanie Joly said.

    Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan said military barracks are being prepared only as a precaution if temporary accommodations are needed. The government said it will spend $678 million Canadian (US$510 million) over six years on the resettlement effort.

    Canada’s commitment reflects the change in government after last month’s election. Former Conservative Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who lost the Oct. 19 election to Trudeau, had declined to resettle more Syrian refugees, despite the haunting image of a drowned 3-year-old Syrian boy washed up on a Turkish beach that focused global attention on the migrant crisis stemming from the civil war. The boy had relatives in Canada and the refugee crisis became a major campaign issue.

    Brad Wall, the Conservative premier of Saskatchewan province, had said he had problems with the original deadline of bringing 25,000 refugees by Dec. 31 for security reasons, but said he believed Canada should welcome the refugees.

    “We are pleased that Mr. Trudeau has today listened to Canadians and abandoned a timeline that was not workable,” federal Conservative lawmaker Michelle Rempel said.

    More than 4 million Syrians have fled their country since the conflict began in 2011.

    Canada has long prided itself on opening its doors to asylum seekers. In times of crisis in decades past, Canada resettled refugees quickly and in large numbers. It airlifted more than 5,000 people from Kosovo in the late 1990s, more than 5,000 from Uganda in 1972 and resettled 60,000 Vietnamese in 1979-80. More than 1.2 million refugees have arrived in Canada since World War II.


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    7 Comments
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    Shitahakdoishe
    Shitahakdoishe
    8 years ago

    One day they will face the same problems France is facing now idiots politicians will do everything for politics.

    8 years ago

    Good luck O Canada! That’s what you get for replacing the wonderful Stephen Harper with a liberal! You should’ve learned from the
    Disastrous presidency the US has been suffering thru for the past 7 yrs! Liberals are truly too stupid for words.

    Normal
    Normal
    8 years ago

    Very noble and altruistic. Only difference is that the other people they let in had no extremists amongst them, who wanted to kill their neighbors.

    curious
    curious
    8 years ago

    One thing that must be considered is that Islam is a religion that preaches domination by force. The refugees are people that are just less radical than the others or radical in a slightly different direction. So they feel threatened. That does not mean that they should be accepted with open arms. Those going to Canada will undoubtedly be pushing for a caliphate there.
    Crazy! Fools!

    Yitzi1
    Yitzi1
    8 years ago

    Maybe that is what they should do with the terrorist send them to northen Canada and cut them off…

    yankee96
    yankee96
    8 years ago

    Like I wrote when this shvuntz was elected

    BYE BYE CANADA

    how long will it take before they sneak into the usa?

    Butterfly
    Butterfly
    8 years ago

    To #6 Not long!