Promises are harder to keep than to make.
Hurrah for Trudeau's first broken election promise
By
David Akin, Parliamentary Bureau Chief
Tuesday, November 24, 2015 10:12 PM EST
OTTAWA — So, barely a month on the job and the Liberals have broken their first election promise.
Mind you, they got lucky in that the promise they broke was one everyone, including the Conservatives in the official Opposition, wanted -- heck, demanded — them to break.
The Liberals announced Tuesday they will not, as promised, have 25,000 Syrian refugees in Canada by New Year's Day. Instead, they'll have 10,000 refugees here by then, which is about what Stephen Harper's Conservatives had promised, and then they'll have another 15,000 here by the end of February.
But that's not the only broken promise. The Liberal campaign platform said all those refugees would be sponsored directly by the federal government. In fact, just 15,000 will be government-sponsored. The rest will be sponsored privately, by church groups, community organizations, and families already here in Canada.
Immigration Minister John McCallum told reporters the Liberals will get to their campaign commitment of a total of 25,000 direct government-sponsored refugees sometime in 2016.
OK. Fine.
"If it takes a little bit longer to do it right, then take the extra time," McCallum told reporters here Tuesday.
Of course, anyone saying exactly that a week ago — hello, Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall -- was drawing fire from Justin Trudeau's apologists — I'm looking at you, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne — who pretty much suggested anyone who balked at Trudeau's arbitrary deadline of Dec. 31 was a racist and a bigot.
But let's look past those squabbles and remember, as Calgary Conservative MP Michelle Rempel said Tuesday, "Canada is an open and generous country."
Indeed it is. Taking in as many refugees as we can from a region blighted by terror is what a country like ours, blessed with peace and prosperity, is happy to do.
Nonetheless, Canadians were, quite rightly, nervous that there should not even be a hint that some ISIS bad guy might try to get into Canada by passing himself off as a refugee.
Do the Liberals have the security angle right? Well, let me put it this way:
Justin Trudeau's Liberals are applying the same security protocol as Harper's Conservatives.
And top brass from the RCMP, CSIS, Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), and the Canadian Armed Forces have all told reporters they're satisfied no bad apples will be coming to Canada disguised as refugees.
Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale was asked point-blank: Have you delayed bringing in 25,000 refugees by Dec. 31 because you needed more time for security screening?
Goodale, among the smoothest politicians you'll ever try to wrangle a straight answer out of, responded, "I said from the very beginning, we need to do this job right. And that security would not be compromised."
In other words: Yes! It was delayed for security checks.
Each refugee's iris scan, thumbprint, name, and ID is run through multiple domestic and international criminal databases. A hit on anything means that refugee isn't coming to Canada.
Each refugee gets interviewed by a Canadian immigration officer. If anything in their life story sounds funny or doesn't add up — they get rejected.
If a refugees misses too many appointments with a screening officer while they're still overseas — rejected. Any hint of a communicable disease — rejected.
"This is our core business," a senior CBSA official told us.
So forget about Goodale, Trudeau or any other politician. The RCMP, CBSA, CSIS and the Canadian Armed Forces are protecting us here. And I'm pretty sure we can count on them — if they're given the time to do their work properly.
