Trudeau bends to pressure on immigration in recent changes to asylum laws
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Summary
Ontario is cracking down on asylum seekers crossing the border, but why is it so difficult to get into Canada legally? Why is it okay to crack down on the illegal border phenomenon in Canada? Is it finally time to get tough on the border?
Transcript
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It is now apparently okay to get tough on the border to crack down on the illegal border
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phenomenon in Canada. Something that a lot of people have been calling on for a couple years
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now and have been called a whole lot of names for doing it. But the fear-mongering and the
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misinformation that is being deliberately and knowingly put out by the Conservative Party right
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now is very dangerous to something that has been an extraordinary advantage and benefit for Canada
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for generations. Lisa McLeod is engaged in fear-mongering and using this issue to demonize
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people. Ontario sadly has chosen the language of fear and division. They've chosen to intentionally
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use language that could potentially criminalize asylum seekers in the minds of Canadians.
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It's irresponsible, it's divisive, it's fear-mongering and it is not Canadian.
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Well it's now finally happening. So what happened? Did we have an election or something and Andrew
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Scheer or Doug Ford as Prime Minister? Because by the way Justin Trudeau was tweeting and talking and
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venting towards his opponents, you would think that they would leave Canada's quasi-permanent
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illegal border phenomenon open for forever, in perpetuity. 2017, 2018, 20,000 people crossing
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illegally into Canada each year filing asylum claims. We knew that there was a really good
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chance that about 90 percent of them were going to be turned away. Why are we letting them in in the
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first place when we know they're coming from the United States, where the rules say, look you're
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not really fleeing a war zone there, you're not actually refugees? All of the evidence suggested
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these were just people who wanted a better life in a different country. They wanted to move for
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economic reasons. Hey, I get that. Canada's a fantastic country, but we have rules, we have laws,
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you can't just cross willy-nilly into our border. There were a lot of security concerns about it too,
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because, well, let's face it, if you tell people you can just cross the border like that, well,
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many of them are just going to do it. Many people who perhaps are looking to do lawless things,
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illegal things, will see that and go, oh, maybe that's the place that I can do that. They will
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try to exploit that opportunity. And even those who are coming for completely reasonable and legitimate
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reasons, a better life for their family, and there's no reason to doubt that many of them were
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coming for that very reason, okay, well, just get in line and apply like everyone else. A lot of
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immigrants were very frustrated to see that other people were getting in much easier than they were,
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frustrated because they had family members who were also on lists waiting to come to Canada as well.
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But Justin Trudeau calling people names, racist, and all these sorts of terms for anybody who said,
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we got to get tough on it. The other thing they interestingly did is they said, well,
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well, what do you want us to do? There's nothing that can be done for this. The rules are the rules.
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The laws are the laws. We have these international agreements that say there's nothing we can do
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about it. What? Really? Are we actually signed on to international agreements that pretty much say,
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we do not determine our border rules and our border laws, but the people crossing illegally into our
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country, they get to determine the rules. They get to determine when they come in and where they come in.
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The rules aren't actually like that. And if there were, well, then we should just leave
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those international agreements, leave those international bodies if things have gotten that
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bad. Well, no, it's never been like that. And the liberals know it, which is why they've quietly
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passed in the budget omnibus bill, a rule that says they are no longer going to let people cross.
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They're going to make it more difficult for people who have already been in the U.S.,
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people who've had their asylum claims rejected to make asylum claims, a major disincentive to cross
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if you know you're going to be sent back shortly thereafter. Bottom line is the liberals could be
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doing more, but they are now moving towards getting tougher on the border. What took so long?
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Why did you have to call so many people so many names in the process? And why are you doing it? Is it
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because you finally wisened up to the idea that it's the right thing to do? Or have you looked at all that
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polling data finally and realized, yes, most Canadians, well, they may support immigration,
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a whole lot of them do, but they support lawful immigration and the status quo just wasn't
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cutting it. Maybe this is all just an electoral ploy. Sad, cynical in reality. At least we're getting