Canada gets it right on Syrian refugees

But agencies overseas and in Canada are being forced to revamp what happens after that in the wake of the Liberal announcement of how the government intends to meet a promise to resettle 25,000 people.

We have talked about this amongst our friends and neighbours and the majority feel as we do, that bringing to Canada 25,000 Syrian refugees is wrong and has the distinct possibility of putting our country in an even greater danger than at present.

Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion said Canada has received a positive reaction from most of those countries, as well as requests to take more refugees.

Asked if single men were excluded partly because of the possibility of radicalization or other security concerns, he said: “I think that is the case historically, but it is also the case they are less vulnerable”.

But the government’s decision to lightly tap the brakes on the resettlement process is being lauded by experts who implored them to take a bit more time to do it right.

“It if takes a couple of extra months” to do screening checks, that’s something Canadians support, he said. But the first batch of refugees to be resettled in Canada will largely be those with private sponsors; those the government is taking in through the United Nations will mostly arrive in 2016.

Priority for government refugees will be given to complete families, women at risk, members of sexual minorities and single men only if they are identified as gay, bisexual or transgender or are travelling as part of a family. “Welcoming in families who are going to be extraordinarily rich contributors to not just the communities they are in but to the cohesion and fabric of Canada is a positive thing”.

RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson and CSIS director Michel Coulombe had both gone on record as saying it is feasible to safely screen that number of refugees by the end of the year.

With B.C. expected to welcome as many as 3,000 Syrian refugees under the Trudeau government’s plan, the director of one of the province’s longest running agencies that provides services to refugees says new arrivals face many new barriers.

With the Red Cross active on the ground in Syria and in countries like Jordan, their signs will be a lone familiar sight for many Syrians as they arrive in Canada.

The prime minister acknowledges that the issue can bring out fear and divisive politics, but he says Canadians have dealt with refugee influxes in the past.

Since the outbreak of the war in Syria in 2011, the United Nations estimates some 4.2 million people have been displaced.