Harper's snub to Syrian refugee talks flies in the face of public concern: Editorial
Tue., Sept. 8, 2015timer3 min. read
In a dramatic appeal to compassion, Pope Francis has called on Catholics across Europe to pull together to help Syrian refugees.
Canadian premiers such as Ontario's Kathleen Wynne and Quebec's Philippe Couillard and big city mayors including Toronto's John Tory have urged Ottawa to throw open our doors more widely, and promise to backstop federal efforts. And allies such as Britain and France, put to shame by Germany's shining example, have agreed to take in tens of thousands more refugees.
The world has been jolted into action by the searing images of Alan Kurdi, the 3-year-old refugee child found drowned on a Turkish shore last week.
Of course no resettlement program, however generous, can resolve the plight of 4 million Syrians who have fled the country — driven to desperation by the Syrian government's barrel bombs and the Islamic State's depravities. Still, there is sudden, painful recognition that the world can do more — a lot more — to help ease the suffering.
Everywhere, it seems, but in Conservative leader Stephen Harper's tone-deaf campaign camp, where stay-the-course is the order of the day. Far from seizing a chance to step up our all-too-modest effort so far, Harper has coldly shrugged off calls from Liberal leader Justin Trudeau and New Democrat leader Thomas Mulcair to set aside partisanship, however briefly, and hold talks to upgrade our response. Given the sheer need, Harper's rebuff is hard to justify.
Granted, the party divides are wide. On Harper's watch only 2,500 Syrians have been resettled here, although he has promised to take in 20,000 Syrians, Iraqis and others over the next four years, if re-elected. The Liberals want "immediate action" to bring in 25,000 Syrians, and the New Democrats want to resettle 10,000 Syrians this year and 9,000 a year over the next four years. Yet marked as these differences are, there ought to be room for an all-party compromise.
While Harper may deride calls for a common strategy as "partisan games" this comes at a time when Canadians are rallying in the streets for Syrians; raising money for refugees through churches, Lifeline Syria and other groups; and telling pollsters that they want Ottawa to open the doors. It is in the Conservatives' interest to defuse this as an election issue by holding talks to address public expectations.
One compromise would be to sharply step up Ottawa's efforts by agreeing to take in at least 10,000 Syrians this year (twice the current best effort), and more later. While a pale shadow of Germany's expected intake this year of 800,000 asylum seekers, that's more than the United States, Britain and Australia have agreed to do, and roughly as much as France has. But that would require more flexibility than the Conservatives have yet shown.
Harper accepts that "rich, privileged nations" have an obligation to help. But in an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. that was aired on Monday he showed no inclination to do more.
"What's enough? What's enough?" he asked. "There are millions, millions of displaced persons …. It's not just enough to turn around and say, 'Oh let's admit more refugees.' We can admit thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands more refugees and we are still going to see those kinds of images."
Maybe so. But Canadians could take comfort in knowing that we had helped as many as possible escape to a better life — not as few as possible, as is the case now. A better example from Canada could also help the United Nations shame others into doing more.
There are precedents for stepping up to crises such as these. Canada took in 60,000 Southeast Asian "boat people" in the 1970s, 11,000 Czechs fleeing communism in the 1960s, and 37,000 Hungarians in the 1950s. More recently we've taken in 22,000 Iraqis. Why should the doors be less open to Syrians?
As the Star has written before, Canada should cut the paperwork surrounding refugee resettlement by recognizing that Syrians on the run are de facto refugees. Deploy more officials to Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan to speed processing, and organize airlifts. And have the government match private sponsorships, above the levels already announced.
But first, Harper should sit down with the opposition leaders and settle on a plan. A generous one.