Juno News - July 18, 2023


Trudeau's Canadaļ¼š Migrant tent cities take over Toronto


Episode Stats

Length

20 minutes

Words per Minute

173.20404

Word Count

3,590

Sentence Count

212


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 The growing divide and disconnect between the issues that actual Canadians care about
00:00:10.380 and the issues that politicians and legacy media journalists care about
00:00:14.320 becomes clearer by the day.
00:00:16.520 One of those issues happens to be the story unfolding as we speak
00:00:20.160 outside of a City of Toronto homeless intake centre.
00:00:24.220 Approximately 30 to 40 asylum seekers have camped outside of this homeless intake centre
00:00:29.840 in tents and tarps because they have nowhere else to live.
00:00:34.680 Now we're not exactly sure how these asylum seekers made it to Canada.
00:00:39.420 Legacy media journalists don't seem to care about that part of the story.
00:00:43.100 But we do know that most of them seem to be from Africa.
00:00:46.660 Politicians, as you can surely imagine, have gravitated toward this story
00:00:50.440 and have used these asylum seekers who are in very uncomfortable positions
00:00:54.240 as political tools to attack other levels of government
00:00:57.720 and demand more funding from other levels.
00:01:01.040 Ultimately, immigration, refugees and asylum seekers are the responsibility of the federal government.
00:01:06.640 And nobody is more proud of welcoming in a record number of refugees and asylum seekers
00:01:13.000 each year into Canada than Justin Trudeau.
00:01:15.960 All the while, despite knowing full well that Canadians under his leadership have never had it so bad.
00:01:22.220 Record numbers of Canadians have to rely on food banks just to stay alive.
00:01:27.740 Each month, 40,000 trips to the food bank are taken by children.
00:01:32.960 In fact, things are so bad that 11 million Canadians just qualified for a grocery rebate check
00:01:37.820 which means that over a quarter of the population is earning less than minimum wage
00:01:41.960 and can barely afford food to stay alive.
00:01:45.360 This government under Justin Trudeau wants more refugees, more asylum seekers, and way more immigrants.
00:01:53.880 Now, these 30 to 40 asylum seekers facing the issues that millions of Canadians seem to be facing themselves
00:02:00.300 are getting quite a lot of media attention.
00:02:03.340 But none of this reporting seems to take aim at the man ultimately responsible, Justin Trudeau.
00:02:08.280 It's quite clear. Canada does not have the resources, does not have the infrastructure,
00:02:14.160 and crucially, does not have the funding and the money to support more asylum seekers in this country.
00:02:20.640 Isn't it inhumane to be welcoming more asylum seekers just for them to end up on the streets like other Canadians?
00:02:26.600 And instead of forcing homelessness on people from around the world,
00:02:29.820 isn't it time that we solved that issue facing Canadians first?
00:02:33.440 On this episode of Ratioed, we're going to go down to this encampment outside of this homelessness intake center,
00:02:40.220 ask these asylum seekers the questions that legacy media journalists aren't asking them,
00:02:44.560 and get you the facts.
00:02:46.960 Drop a like in the video, help us out by subscribing to the Truner of the YouTube channel,
00:02:50.620 and the comment question for the episode is this.
00:02:54.140 Is immigration a top three issue for you as a voter?
00:02:58.260 Let me know in the comments, and let's get into it.
00:03:00.460 Justin Trudeau is without a doubt the global poster boy for mass immigration.
00:03:05.020 Under his leadership, immigration into Canada has absolutely boomed.
00:03:09.120 Also, asylum seekers illegally entering Canada claiming refugee status has also boomed,
00:03:15.400 triggering much of the issues we now see facing asylum seekers in our largest cities.
00:03:20.980 The story unfolding outside of a City of Toronto Homeless Intake Center is likely not an isolated incident.
00:03:27.060 According to Toronto's new socialist mayor, the City of Toronto's shelter system is full.
00:03:33.020 It is at capacity.
00:03:34.880 And in her latest press release on this issue,
00:03:37.900 she stated that over a third of the Toronto shelter capacity is occupied by asylum seekers.
00:03:44.840 We also know that the federal government has been spending tens of millions of dollars,
00:03:49.440 in some cases over $100 million, to resettle asylum seekers in hotel rooms across the country.
00:03:57.700 In May alone, the City of Toronto saw 2,900 refugee claimants applying for Toronto shelter in their system,
00:04:07.160 which is a 440% jump since September of 2021.
00:04:12.860 And the story is the same for cities in the GTA.
00:04:15.400 The City of Ajax, for example, in a matter of days, noticed a 40% increase in the homeless population in that city.
00:04:23.840 Under Justin Trudeau's leadership, Canada has only sped up the number of asylum seekers and refugees entering Canada,
00:04:31.900 whether it be illegally or through an official port of entry.
00:04:35.300 But the federal government has spent hundreds of millions of dollars
00:04:38.940 buying hotel rooms for refugees and asylum seekers in this country.
00:04:44.720 Three hotel rooms that stretch across the country, from Surrey, British Columbia, to St. John's, Newfoundland.
00:04:50.980 Over 100,000 people have illegally entered Canada through Roxham Road since 2017.
00:04:57.100 And according to this Western Standard article, the cost on the federal government,
00:05:00.760 which means the cost that you and I are paying for,
00:05:03.700 per asylum seeker who entered illegally is close to $1,270.
00:05:09.100 But that number, however, doesn't even come close to the true cost borne by taxpayers
00:05:14.000 per illegal asylum seeker who enters the country at Roxham Road.
00:05:18.880 According to a report by the Parliamentary Budget Officer in 2018,
00:05:23.060 the true cost borne by taxpayers per illegal asylum seeker entering this country
00:05:28.300 can vary between $9,000 up to $33,000.
00:05:34.080 Meanwhile, the federal government can only really muster up a couple hundred bucks
00:05:38.480 to a family of four struggling to get by in the form of a grocery rebate,
00:05:43.320 something 11 million Canadians qualify for,
00:05:46.780 which actually means that a quarter of the population makes less than minimum wage.
00:05:51.460 Up to $33,000 for an illegal asylum seeker to be housed in a hotel room and to receive food,
00:06:00.060 while Canadians struggling get a couple hundred bucks,
00:06:03.600 which would really mean one or two trips to the grocery store for a family of four.
00:06:07.880 Despite the fact that millions of Canadians are struggling to get by
00:06:10.960 and that asylum seekers are now camped out on our streets
00:06:13.780 because we can't find a place for them to live,
00:06:16.940 just last month on World Refugee Day,
00:06:19.500 Trudeau took the chance to grandstand on the issue
00:06:22.420 and proclaimed to the world how pro-refugee he is
00:06:26.020 and how great Canada is as a destination for refugees.
00:06:31.120 Look at this statement from the Prime Minister.
00:06:33.380 On World Refugee Day, Canada is stepping up.
00:06:36.840 In 2022, for the fourth year in a row,
00:06:40.180 we were the top country in the world to resettle refugees.
00:06:44.340 Last year, Canada resettled over 47,500 refugees
00:06:48.940 from over 80 countries.
00:06:51.480 Not to mention, of course, the now famous tweet that he wrote in 2017
00:06:55.500 proclaiming to the world that Canada will welcome anybody.
00:06:59.580 Remember when he wrote this?
00:07:01.220 To those fleeing persecution, terror, and war,
00:07:04.260 Canadians will welcome you regardless of your faith.
00:07:07.120 Diversity is our strength.
00:07:09.220 And since Justin Trudeau wrote that tweet,
00:07:11.360 over 150,000 asylum seekers have entered Canada.
00:07:15.200 And last year, the Canadian government announced
00:07:17.540 that we would be welcoming in an extra 500,000 immigrants a year
00:07:21.680 into this country.
00:07:23.300 Don't worry though, I'm sure the government is really concerned
00:07:25.720 about you being able to afford a house
00:07:27.460 and also being able to pay for groceries
00:07:29.620 when we're bringing in all of these new people.
00:07:32.220 It is a sad sight to see asylum seekers living on the streets
00:07:36.540 outside of a city of Toronto homeless intake shelter.
00:07:40.560 But it also serves as a crystal clear representation
00:07:43.900 of the failure of this government to handle immigration.
00:07:48.220 A country where homeless shelters are full,
00:07:50.840 where hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars
00:07:53.080 have to be spent on hotel rooms to house migrants across the country,
00:07:58.140 can no longer afford to welcome in more asylum seekers,
00:08:01.800 despite the federal government continuing to open the floodgates.
00:08:05.540 We're going to head down to this encampment
00:08:07.300 to go figure out what the situation is for ourselves.
00:08:09.940 We're going to talk to these asylum seekers directly,
00:08:12.580 see what they have to say about their experience of Canada,
00:08:15.340 their experience of Justin Trudeau's leadership in this country,
00:08:18.400 what they were promised, how they came to Canada, all of that.
00:08:21.820 The kind of stuff that needs to be told
00:08:23.460 if we're going to accurately report on this story.
00:08:26.260 So that is what we're going to do right now.
00:08:28.720 This is what the scene looked like today
00:08:30.500 outside of the Peter Street homeless shelter facility.
00:08:34.940 There had to have been 40 or 50 people there,
00:08:37.200 and they were all from Africa living in third world condition on our streets.
00:08:42.720 Garbage bags and luggage were piled up on the street corner
00:08:46.100 and people were all huddled around a few tents.
00:08:49.900 A lot of people understandably did not want to be on camera.
00:08:52.740 After all, being on the street in that position is a very vulnerable position.
00:08:57.180 It's a very humiliating position for people to be in.
00:09:00.100 So not everyone wanted to talk
00:09:01.900 and it was difficult to get people to talk on camera.
00:09:04.000 I did manage to speak with one man who had been there for a week and a half
00:09:08.520 and he came from Nigeria
00:09:10.000 and he had some very interesting things to say
00:09:12.780 about what he was expecting and what it's like
00:09:15.520 and also whether or not he would come to Canada
00:09:18.880 knowing now what was waiting for him here in Toronto.
00:09:23.440 Take a listen to what he had to say.
00:09:24.840 My name is Bodhi Mojave.
00:09:26.340 Okay.
00:09:27.000 And how long have you been here specifically at this location?
00:09:30.940 This is a week and one day now.
00:09:34.700 Okay.
00:09:35.080 And what country do you come from?
00:09:36.340 I come from Nigeria.
00:09:37.580 Nigeria?
00:09:38.200 Yeah.
00:09:39.140 When you, before you came to Canada,
00:09:40.940 did you know that this was going to be what was going to happen when you landed here?
00:09:44.080 No, this is not what I expected.
00:09:46.460 And what did you expect, if you don't mind me asking?
00:09:48.700 My expectation is what, like, when I came to Canada,
00:09:53.840 I came to work and leave.
00:09:57.040 And I was wishing that they can, you know, provide a shelter
00:10:01.360 and give me some paper so I can, you know, to be like others.
00:10:08.120 There are some people who have been here more than two weeks,
00:10:10.840 three weeks.
00:10:12.520 Wow.
00:10:13.560 I was like, no, this is not what I was expecting.
00:10:17.120 So, now we are sitting here until now.
00:10:19.860 We lie, we sleep on the floor.
00:10:21.680 This is the place we sleep.
00:10:23.260 Rain, sun, shine us every day by day.
00:10:27.120 And the government of Canada have not come and, you know,
00:10:30.520 to, you know, to let us know or give us hope.
00:10:34.320 Say, okay, this is what we're going to do.
00:10:36.360 This is, oh, yes.
00:10:37.940 And that is how everything was going.
00:10:40.340 So, you think people need to be told the truth
00:10:43.200 before they come to Canada, what they're really waiting for?
00:10:45.780 Yes, you have to let us know.
00:10:47.180 Because we can't live all the way from Africa.
00:10:49.540 Right.
00:10:49.820 We spend a lot of money to get a decent trip.
00:10:52.280 Now we get down here, we start sleeping on the streets.
00:10:55.880 That is not, that is, it's not perfect.
00:10:57.980 And last question, I appreciate your time.
00:11:00.060 Last question.
00:11:01.580 If you knew that this was going to be what was waiting for you here in Toronto,
00:11:05.560 would you have come or would you not have come?
00:11:07.200 I would have, no, I would never have come.
00:11:09.700 Because I got a family.
00:11:11.260 Yeah.
00:11:11.660 I got a family.
00:11:12.560 I got a home.
00:11:14.080 At least the little we are doing to survive is enough.
00:11:18.060 Right now since I've been here, no money, only food and water,
00:11:23.060 that is not enough.
00:11:24.560 Amazing.
00:11:25.280 It's not enough.
00:11:26.640 And you can see, all of us, we are human.
00:11:29.840 Everybody have life to live and have to focus in life.
00:11:33.700 And there's something everybody needs.
00:11:36.380 Like, we leave Africa.
00:11:38.060 We know that, yes, our leader are not treating us good.
00:11:40.880 That's why we decided, okay, let us go to another country that will welcome us,
00:11:45.920 you know, give us what we need, and we work for them.
00:11:48.680 And live like that.
00:11:51.260 That's why.
00:11:51.920 Thank you.
00:11:53.760 There was food making its way to the encampment.
00:11:56.460 I was there for an hour and saw multiple trips of people bringing in food,
00:12:00.360 whether it be pizza or more culturally African food.
00:12:04.080 None of the people in this encampment are going hungry.
00:12:06.520 But it's not like the government is taking care of these people.
00:12:09.140 All of the food entering the encampment is from people on the street
00:12:13.220 and from organizations like the Social Justice Initiative.
00:12:17.060 I spoke to this woman who is running the operation there.
00:12:20.820 She was handing out women's hygiene products and food at this table.
00:12:25.140 Here's what she had to say about what's going on on the ground.
00:12:27.880 So you've been here for four weeks.
00:12:29.260 You must have seen people come and people go.
00:12:31.820 And what is the government providing to people?
00:12:35.540 Are they providing what you guys are providing in the form of food?
00:12:38.120 No, no, no, no.
00:12:38.760 There's no government help at all.
00:12:40.420 But we are hoping that the government will be stepping soon
00:12:44.520 because we listen to Chao, Olivia Chao say,
00:12:50.040 they're meeting again on Tuesday to decide how to offer the help.
00:12:55.960 But what we request is let them put the help where it will reach these people
00:13:02.100 because some of them want culturally appropriate supports.
00:13:06.500 So we are literally pulling amongst ourselves to support them.
00:13:12.120 And are you also helping with these people trying to get them a shelter service when they can
00:13:17.840 or is it more just providing free materials?
00:13:21.540 We just give them lists for shelters.
00:13:24.320 Even those in our homes, they leave every morning looking for shelters.
00:13:27.960 When they get, when they don't get, they come back.
00:13:31.500 We're always waiting to go from a day to day so young.
00:13:35.340 Do you think the federal government has a duty to tell people who are seeking refugee status in Canada
00:13:40.900 that, look, it might not be what you think it's going to be,
00:13:45.380 that we don't have the capacity?
00:13:47.700 Do you think people need to understand that this is where we're at right now in Canada,
00:13:52.680 that it's maybe not what they expect it to be before they land?
00:13:55.060 I think they need to be prepared, you know.
00:13:57.940 But unfortunately, when you're seeking refuge, you go wherever you're welcome.
00:14:02.600 You never ask about the conditions.
00:14:04.400 You just want to escape.
00:14:05.860 So that might be a little bit hard.
00:14:07.700 But if it is shared, which I don't think it will be, it would help.
00:14:12.460 But, yeah, people choose where they feel they're safe.
00:14:15.080 It's when they reach here that they get a different story.
00:14:18.460 Yes, they're safe from the persecution, but they're sleeping on the streets.
00:14:23.340 Amazing.
00:14:23.940 Thank you.
00:14:24.280 If you have one last message to people in charge, you've been working here for four weeks, you've seen it.
00:14:29.980 What's your message be to people who have the ability to help?
00:14:32.820 My message is we need help now, not tomorrow, but now, because it's threatening to rain.
00:14:40.840 It's going to rain on them.
00:14:41.800 We have women here who have a risk of being sex trafficked because someone will offer them shelter
00:14:49.000 and take them to their homes and sexually abuse them because they're vulnerable.
00:14:53.460 Kevin Vuong, the independent MP for Spadina Fort York, has been on the ground at this encampment for many days now,
00:15:00.620 speaking to the media and trying to fight on behalf of these asylum seekers.
00:15:05.240 I caught up with Kevin Vuong and asked him the question that I think many people watching this show want to know.
00:15:11.500 If the situation is so bad for refugees and asylum seekers entering Canada, isn't it incumbent on the government to scale back the amount of refugees and asylum seekers we're accepting if this is the condition that they're living in?
00:15:24.240 He wrote here to say about that and also what he has to say about the way the federal government is handling what's going on.
00:15:30.680 The political line from Olivia Chow, and I'm guessing it's from all levels, is that the shelters are full and that they can't find space to put people in.
00:15:39.700 Some people don't believe that the shelters are full.
00:15:41.620 They think that it's purely politics.
00:15:43.720 You're a politician.
00:15:44.620 You're an MP.
00:15:45.060 You've been here.
00:15:45.460 What's your assessment been of what's been going on?
00:15:47.160 There are some immediate things that the mayor could be doing right now.
00:15:49.720 One of the actions that she could take right now is to request from the federal government to open up the armory as has been done in the past during the winter to get the homeless out of the coal.
00:15:59.460 That's an action that could be done right now.
00:16:02.140 But unfortunately, it seems like they're playing politics where they're trying to use these people as bargaining chips to extract more funding.
00:16:09.280 It's clear that there is a funding issue, but the priority now is to get these people off the street.
00:16:16.160 These are people.
00:16:16.940 These are human beings.
00:16:17.660 They should not be used for political leverage.
00:16:20.160 And that needs to stop right now.
00:16:21.760 We need to get these people off the street.
00:16:24.040 Do you think that if it's true that the resources and the infrastructure isn't here to welcome as many people as the Canadian government does each year,
00:16:34.360 is it incumbent on the government to actually scale down those numbers so that we don't have these situations out on the street?
00:16:40.860 The biggest refugees at the end of the day are a federal responsibility.
00:16:44.100 So the Prime Minister has got up and said four times in a row, including last year, that he is proud of the fact that Canada has welcomed the most refugees in the world.
00:16:54.440 Frankly, I am too.
00:16:55.600 I am the son of refugees.
00:16:57.120 This country welcomed my parents 40 years ago.
00:16:58.960 But when they came here, there was shelter.
00:17:00.960 There were support services.
00:17:02.260 The government needs to step up.
00:17:03.760 This is not new news.
00:17:06.040 I raised this issue in March when they released the 2023 budget.
00:17:10.560 It had zero dollars in there for refugee shelters.
00:17:13.220 I raised it against in April.
00:17:14.420 I raised it against in May.
00:17:15.760 They can't continue to boast on the one hand about all these great things that they love to tell everyone about, but they're not followed through.
00:17:22.520 They need to walk the talk and they need to come with the dollars.
00:17:25.860 As well, the mayor needs to put politics aside and ask the federal government to provide them with open up the armory so at least we can get these people off the street.
00:17:34.900 Last question.
00:17:36.260 This is a bad look for Canada to have these refugees being stuck out on the sidewalk.
00:17:41.540 It's graceful.
00:17:41.860 And it's been, in some cases, two weeks.
00:17:44.860 I've heard people say a month.
00:17:47.120 How long do you think the government will be willing to let this go on for?
00:17:51.480 The last time all levels of government came together was on Friday.
00:17:54.580 For some reason, they thought they needed to take the weekend and then some off.
00:17:59.260 Why weren't they at the table trying to figure out a solution?
00:18:01.980 The next meeting that all levels come together is tomorrow and Tuesday.
00:18:05.260 Why aren't they coming back to the table now?
00:18:07.600 Where's the urgency?
00:18:08.480 This reflects not just poorly on Canada in the international stage.
00:18:13.280 It reflects poorly on the government here with its community, with the very people that elected it.
00:18:19.320 Where are Toronto's 24 other Liberal MPs, of which four are Cabinet ministers?
00:18:24.540 Why is this not a priority?
00:18:26.500 Why is this not an urgency?
00:18:27.460 Why did they have time to go on Saturday for a party with the mayor and a Liberal MP, but yet not have time to go back to the table to figure out a solution to get these people off the street?
00:18:39.060 It's disgusting.
00:18:39.880 It's shameful.
00:18:40.520 After speaking with around 15 of these asylum seekers, several things became clear to me.
00:18:49.700 None of these asylum seekers have entered the country through Roxham Road.
00:18:53.980 As far as I can tell, they've all flown in directly to Toronto.
00:18:57.720 But it's interesting because, as we know, asylum seekers who have entered the country illegally through Roxham Road have been put up in hotel rooms.
00:19:07.400 These people have flown into Toronto and are now living out on the street.
00:19:11.460 I even asked a group of gentlemen if they were aware of the fact that the federal government was spending tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions of dollars, on resettlement programs for illegal migrants.
00:19:23.800 They had no idea that that was going on.
00:19:25.980 It could be, as a matter of fact, that the people crossing into Canada illegally through Roxham Road are being treated better than these people from Africa.
00:19:35.800 Here's my two cents after spending some time on the ground at this encampment.
00:19:40.240 If this is actually what's going on in Toronto, as in, if there really is no space in the shelter system for these people and for any more refugees,
00:19:50.600 while Canadians are struggling like they've never had to before, while millions of Canadians are facing serious food insecurity problems,
00:19:59.940 it's not humane to bring new people in when we don't have the capacity to handle them, all the while our own people are struggling.
00:20:07.980 All right, everyone, that's going to do it for us today on the show.
00:20:10.600 Thank you so much for tuning in.
00:20:12.120 My name is Harrison Faulkner, and this is Radio.
00:20:15.020 We'll see you next time.
00:20:22.100 We'll see you.
00:20:43.080 We'll see you.