Canada to accelerate Syrian refugee applications

With an audience of several hundred Conservative supporters at the rally, Gretzky told Harper that “you’ve been an unreal prime minister and you’ve been wonderful to the whole country“, adding that “I know you have nothing but the country’s best interests at heart”.

Also Saturday, a group of protesters from the organization “No One Is Illegal” also gathered in Toronto, calling on the government to open its borders for refugees. Instead, it will be presumed they are refugees by Canadian authorities for the objective of vetting their applications. Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government said Saturday that it will issue thousands more visas to Syrian refugees before the end of this year by accelerating the processing of their applications, as it tries to counter election-year criticism over its handling of the refugee crisis.

Alexander made the comments on CTV’s Question Period on Sunday, one day after he announced the government’s plans to accelerate its promise to resettle 10,000 Syrian refugees in Canada. But the Harper gang probably haven’t read that far back in their country’s history.

The number of refugees to be accepted is not to be increased.

The NDP has long seen British Columbia as a key area for growth; ground-game organizers have been working for months on energizing supporters in a part of the country where insiders believe they could win as many as 24 seats in the House of Commons, twice what they held at the dissolution of Parliament.

As it relates to the Syrian crisis, the UNHCR began seeking space for refugees from that conflict in 2013. In a particularly frightening article in the right-wing National Post, Father Raymond J De Souza, a Canadian university chaplain as well as a parish priest, says that refugee camps are home to “Sunni Muslims, not a few of which look kindly towards Isil [Isis]” and that “it would be foolish to bring to Canada extremist elements that may be useful in making trouble for Assad but would also be troublesome in Canada”.

“This is a very important announcement”. Spokeswoman Alexandra Kotyk said reducing the amount of red tape by dropping the requirement of documentation proving they are refugees is “something we are incredibly glad about”. “That said, the United Nations, and especially the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, hasn’t contradicted me, yet, on any of my statements”. “It’s just too bad that it took the government this long to get around to it”. Tima’s husband, Rocco Logozzo, said it was the Catch-22 impasse that led Mohammad Kurdi to flee Turkey to Germany and Abdullah Kurdi to attempt the sea crossing that resulted in the deaths of his family.

“Today, by designating them differently, we are greatly expanding the potential for candidates and sponsorship with the private partners across Canada”, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Chris Alexander (photo) said on Saturday during a press conference. “Nobody, including the minister, could have foreseen the tragic events that unfolded”.

Building on recent processing improvements, Canada has already sent additional experienced visa officers to embassies in the region, and more will arrive in the coming weeks.