Justin Trudeau smugly told reporters that Ontario Premier Doug Ford was essentially ignorant when it comes to issues of illegal border crossing and asylum seekers. It didn t seem to me that the premier was quite as aware of our international obligations to the UN Convention on Refugees as he might have been. So I spent a little time explaining how the asylum-seeking system works.
00:00:00.000Prime Minister Justin Trudeau smugly told reporters that Ontario Premier Doug Ford
00:00:13.240was essentially ignorant when it comes to issues of illegal border crossing and asylum seekers.
00:00:18.900It didn't seem to me that the premier was quite as aware of our international obligations
00:00:25.340to the UN Convention on Refugees, as he might have been,
00:00:31.540so I spent a little time explaining how the asylum-seeking system works.
00:00:36.780It's rich that Trudeau would claim that he explained refugee policy to Ford,
00:00:41.760since Trudeau himself has been completely ignorant on the topic since before he was even elected Prime Minister.
00:00:48.500Did Trudeau explain to Ford how migrants take advantage of Canada's generosity
00:00:53.320by illegally hopping the border, rather than waiting in UN refugee camps
00:00:57.560like millions of less fortunate refugees who are truly in need of protection?
00:01:02.680Did he explain how human smuggling rings send migrants to cross illegally
00:01:07.260in order to circumvent the Safe Third Country Agreement,
00:01:10.040an international treaty that prevents asylum seekers from shopping around
00:01:14.640to choose a more lenient country to make their claim?
00:01:18.460According to a lawyer and York University professor who taught refugee law
00:01:22.960law and has authored several UN and government reports on the subject,
00:01:26.720Trudeau is actually wrong about Canada's UN treaty obligations.
00:01:31.200That lawyer says that Canada has no obligation whatsoever to take refugee applications
00:01:37.200from those coming from the US, a safe country, unless a judge were to rule otherwise.
00:01:43.200Did Trudeau explain how his own Minister of Transportation once admitted that 90% of asylum applications were bogus,
00:01:50.800and that those people will eventually be deported at the expense of Canadian taxpayers?
00:01:55.040That minister later clarified that he was referring specifically to Haitian migrants,
00:01:59.760but historical data shows that the majority of asylum seekers applying in Canada are eventually rejected and deported.
00:02:07.040Did Trudeau explain to Ford that emails made public through an access to information request
00:02:12.560showed that Trudeau's own virtue signaling on social media caused chaos in government offices and led to a surge in asylum applications?
00:02:21.520Did Trudeau explain to Ontario's Premier that refugee policy and border enforcement are both 100% the responsibility of the federal government?
00:02:31.520I doubt it. Trudeau has been absolutely clueless when it comes to Canada's refugee policy since the day he naively pledged
00:02:40.080to welcome 25,000 Syrian refugees on a rush timeline with no regard for national security and no regard for refugee integration programs.
00:02:49.760And while it's true that Canada's hands are somewhat tied when it comes to how we process refugee applications,
00:02:56.480thanks to UN treaties and past governments that have signed them, there's plenty that Trudeau could do to quell the surge in illegal border crossings.
00:03:04.480For instance, we know that many migrants come to Canada specifically for our generous health care and welfare programs.
00:03:12.480While Yazidi women are suffering as medieval sex slaves to ISIS thugs in the Middle East,
00:03:18.480Trudeau is focused on guaranteeing free apartments and free dental care to asylum seekers who come from relatively safe and prosperous countries like Nigeria.
00:03:28.480Once an asylum claim is made, migrants are free to travel and live wherever they please.
00:03:34.480Given the flood of claims, 70,000 since Trudeau sent out his infamous tweet in January 2017,
00:03:40.480wait lists for refugee hearings are now between two years and could be up to 11 years.
00:03:46.480Migrants know that even if their claims are eventually found to be bogus, they still get a few years in Canada.
00:03:52.480Enough time to take advantage of free health care, education, welfare payments to make it all worthwhile.
00:03:58.480If Trudeau wanted to stop this madness, he could, while still observing our UN treaty obligations.
00:04:04.480Trudeau could limit the taxpayer benefits given to asylum seekers.
00:04:08.480He could speed up the processing of applications, mandate a hearing within 15 or 30 days,
00:04:13.480and, like Australia, hold all asylum seekers in a holding centre until their hearing date.
00:04:19.480Word would travel fast that Canada was putting an end to the gravy train,
00:04:23.480and human smugglers would find another country to take advantage of.
00:04:28.480Someone needs to explain all of this to Justin Trudeau.
00:04:31.480For the True North Initiative, I'm Candace Malcolm.