|
By Christopher Guly
OTTAWA, Feb. 1 (Ottawa) -- Canada is not among the seven countries identified in U.S. President Donald Trump's travel ban, but opposition politicians and human-rights groups here want Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal government to either speak out forcefully against Trump's executive order or react to it with concrete actions.
On Tuesday night, Members of Parliament held an emergency debate on the implications of Trump's travel-and-immigration ban, which Hong Kong-born Jenny Kwan, who represents the federal riding of Vancouver East for the left-of-center New Democratic Party (NDP) in the House of Commons and called for the debate, characterized as "a deeply distressing reincarnation of race-based immigration policies not seen since the Second World War."
Her leader, Thomas Mulcair, said the Trudeau government to "call a spade a spade" and reject Trump's "appalling" and "racist" presidential directive that bans refugees from resettling in the United States for 120 days, and nationals from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering the U.S. for 90 days.
The NDP, along with Canadian Green Party Leader Elizabeth May and Amnesty International's Canadian and U.S. sections, want the Canadian government to remove the U.S. as the only "safe third country" for refugee determination identified under Canada's Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. Under that provision, refugees traveling through the U.S. to Canada must make a claim for protection in the U.S.
The NDP and May, the only Green representative in the Commons, also want the Canadian government to lift the cap on 1,000 applications for privately sponsored refugees - already reached this year - and fast-track refugee applications in the U.S. approved or nearly completed before the Trump's ban.
However, Ahmed Hussen, a Somali-born lawyer who was appointed Canada's Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister last month, has rejected both requests and ruled out increasing the Canadian quota to accommodate 40,000 privately and government-sponsored refugees for 2017. He added that Canada is monitoring the effects of the ban in the U.S., which has agreed to allow 872 pre-screened refugees from the Middle East into the country.
Hussen told the House Tuesday that under his ministerial watch, Canada would extend temporary residency to anyone stranded here because of the U.S. travel restrictions.
But it remains unclear as to whether Canadians are fully excluded from the measures, despite verbal assurances from the White House. Thus far, there has been no written confirmation regarding admissibility of Canadian dual citizens and permanent residents holding passports from the seven Muslim-majority countries on Trump's travel-ban edict.
Trudeau has been careful not to push back too hard against the U.S. President's policy. As he reminded the House on Tuesday, his government has the dual role of "protecting Canadian jobs and growing the economy," while "standing up for Canadian values and principles," which the prime minister highlighted in a widely circulated Twitter post last Saturday.
"To those fleeing persecution, terror & war," Trudeau tweeted, "Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength."
However, Mulcair told reporters here on Wednesday that the prime minister needs to move beyond his "platitudes and tweets" and denounce Trump's "anti-immigrant and "anti-Muslim" travel ban.
"History teaches us that if we don't stand up to people who have that sort of fascist behavior," the NDP leader said, it gets "much worse." Enditem
