The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - July 26, 2018


1 tweet. 20,000+ illegal crossings

Topics
illegal border crossings illegal border crossings illegal border crossing
Hosted by
Jamie Schmal
Mentioned
Tony Clement Ted Falk Glenn Motts Reeve Greg Jansen Justin Trudeau Medicine Hat Glenn Macht Glenn Marks Goodale
Fighting Trudeau’s Carbon Tax Cover-Up All-star team joins The Blueprint, live at Convention 2018

Episode Stats


Length

16 minutes

Words per minute

165.91

Word count

2,683

Sentence count

188

Harmful content

Hate speech

6

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

On this episode of The Blueprint, Canada's Conservative Podcast, we're going to talk with Ted Falk MP and Glenn Motts MP about border crossing, what's happening at our borders, and why it's getting worse and worse.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 On this episode of The Blueprint, Canada's Conservative Podcast, we're going to talk with Ted Falk MP and Glenn Macht's MP about border crossing, what's happening at our borders. Stay tuned.
00:00:12.440 You're listening to The Blueprint, Canada's Conservative Podcast.
00:00:17.420 Is the Prime Minister actually saying that taxpayers should be on the hook when he breaks the law?
00:00:23.260 Yeah!
00:00:23.700 What is it going to take for the Prime Minister to have any respect for any laws in this country that may curb his out-of-control behavior?
00:00:39.020 All these deficits leading to nothing but burying Canadians in taxes.
00:00:49.180 And now, here's your host, Tony Clement.
00:00:51.380 Welcome to The Blueprint, Canada's Conservative Podcast.
00:00:55.020 I'm your host, Tony Clement, member of Parliament for Paris-San Muskoka.
00:00:58.620 And with me, I've got two special guests, MP Ted Falk from Provence.
00:01:02.820 Welcome, Ted.
00:01:03.560 Thank you, Tony.
00:01:04.200 And MP Glenn Motts from Medicine Hat, Cardston Warner.
00:01:07.480 Glenn, great to have you on the show, too.
00:01:08.820 Thank you very much, Tony. Great to be here.
00:01:09.940 We're talking border crossings today.
00:01:12.580 The famous, or should I say infamous, tweet from Justin Trudeau, hashtag, welcome to Canada.
00:01:18.600 And what has happened?
00:01:19.460 And over 20,000 asylum seekers have illegally crossed into Canada.
00:01:25.260 And this problem is not going away.
00:01:27.420 It is getting worse and worse.
00:01:28.780 So we're going to talk about what this issue means for our communities
00:01:32.080 and what our approach as a Conservative Party is to the illegal border crossings.
00:01:37.960 I'm going to start with Ted Falk and talk a little bit.
00:01:40.740 You're in Provence Riding, which is in Manitoba.
00:01:43.580 It's a border riding?
00:01:45.100 It's a border riding. We've got five ports of entry right along the southern border of Provence.
00:01:50.480 So tell our listeners what's been happening at the border.
00:01:53.280 Okay. Well, we've seen a lot of illegal migrants coming to the border, coming across predominantly at night, but not always.
00:02:00.160 They come across during the day.
00:02:01.980 And depending on the time of year, in winter, they invariably will call 911 once they've stepped across the border and hope that the RCMP will find them.
00:02:12.940 And when the RCMP find them, they pick them up and they bring them to a border port of entry where they are processed by our CBSA agents.
00:02:20.580 So tell us what that means, processed. CBSA is Canada Border Service Agency, so that's our border guards, per se.
00:02:28.440 And so tell us what that entails and what happens next.
00:02:31.620 Okay. Well, they're fingerprinted and they're checked. Their biometrics are also checked.
00:02:36.100 And what they do is then they file an asylum claim and they want to call Canada a place where they're seeking refuge.
00:02:43.180 And they're in Canada now, so they have rights.
00:02:47.340 Correct. Yes.
00:02:48.260 So we can't toss them across the border.
00:02:50.660 No. And our Canada Border Service agents have jurisdiction within a certain parameter around the official port of entry.
00:02:58.300 And outside of that, it's the RCMP's jurisdiction.
00:03:01.480 So the RCMP bring them to the port of entry.
00:03:03.360 But, and their process then, as refugees, they can make their asylum claims, whereas had they come directly to the port of entry,
00:03:13.180 our Border Service agents would have informed them that they need to apply for refugee status in Canada, as most people do. 0.97
00:03:20.840 And they would have explained to them the process to do that.
00:03:23.060 And they would have actually been told to do that and make application to come here.
00:03:26.860 Glenn Motts, you're on the Public Safety Committee.
00:03:30.120 Certainly, this is not just an issue for Manitoba.
00:03:36.720 There's actually a larger issue in the province of Quebec.
00:03:41.160 Ted's talked a little bit about the legalities of this.
00:03:44.340 Give us your perspective on what's been going on.
00:03:46.440 Just to, you know, reinforce what Ted said,
00:03:49.740 I've been told by CBSA agents that deal with these things that the initial entry interview process,
00:03:57.600 which normally is an eight-hour initial interview process, has been reduced down to less than two.
00:04:03.280 There used to be eight questions on that process, and now there's only two they ask.
00:04:07.380 And one of the questions that used to always be asked is, why are you seeking asylum in Canada?
00:04:11.920 And I'm told now that that question is no longer asked.
00:04:14.660 And the whole idea behind speeding this up is they had such a backlog of people.
00:04:20.760 They are taking these individuals.
00:04:23.140 They're doing what Ted said.
00:04:24.420 They're taking the initial information.
00:04:26.260 They're then giving them a, you know, asking them where they're going to be.
00:04:30.320 And then they send them away and hopes that when they have a secondary follow-up interview,
00:04:36.120 that those individuals will then appear for their secondary interview.
00:04:39.680 And in some cases, they are not, and they don't know where they are at.
00:04:44.180 So it is a huge issue, and there is no end in sight.
00:04:49.540 Now, part of the issue, as I understand it as well,
00:04:52.460 is that there have been some hearings for some of these individuals,
00:04:58.520 but the rate of determination that they are valid refugees or invalid refugees is very concerning.
00:05:05.960 Yes, you know, the minister, Minister Goodale, suggested to the House
00:05:11.620 that up to 90% of these asylum seekers would be returned in the initial flow from 2017.
00:05:19.260 Well, that, you know, if that's the case, the problem is they're not being returned.
00:05:25.220 I've heard numbers as recently as today that there's less than 300 of the tens of thousands
00:05:31.820 have come across who've actually been returned.
00:05:34.740 And so they are here in Canada, they are creating huge issues in the areas
00:05:42.220 where they are now trying to be settled with, you know, housing issues
00:05:47.520 and other concerns that those jurisdictions have with costs
00:05:51.780 and just trying to find space for that influx of people.
00:05:55.960 And it is creating a challenge on the other side.
00:05:59.760 In my riding, and I'm sure riding's across the country, the legitimate border immigrants, 0.99
00:06:07.240 and our, you know, as most offices, 80% of our casework is all immigration-related.
00:06:12.500 We are having people wait an exorbitant amount of times right now
00:06:17.080 because of, A, resources in immigration, not being available to deal with them.
00:06:23.260 They're, you know, files have, these people's files have been put way behind,
00:06:28.360 and we're talking about temporary foreign workers.
00:06:30.540 And in my area, many of the industries rely on temporary foreign workers.
00:06:34.420 They can't seem to find them and get them cleared for Canada fast enough.
00:06:38.540 There are people who have been waiting months and months,
00:06:40.800 and I'm hearing now that, you know, the 20- and 30-month wait period has been extended
00:06:44.880 to over 60 months in some circumstances to get people connected with their families.
00:06:50.060 Part of their family might be here, and it's all because of the backlog.
00:06:53.780 And so my immigrant community, like I'm sure all of your immigrant communities,
00:06:57.360 the legal immigrant people are saying, this is not fair.
00:07:00.200 We're filling out the forms.
00:07:01.680 We're playing by the rules.
00:07:03.300 We apply the proper way, and yet our applications are not being processed.
00:07:08.000 Exactly, and it is creating, you know, some huge concern on their part that it's not fair.
00:07:15.560 And, you know, they follow the processes,
00:07:17.900 and this seems to fly in the face of what, you know, Canadians even expect as a country.
00:07:25.460 Ted Falk, even a year ago, there was concerns in your community
00:07:30.440 about how to compassionately deal with the border crossers in terms of social services 1.00
00:07:39.560 and the impact on social services in your community.
00:07:42.060 I know the mayor of one of your border towns has been very outspoken about this.
00:07:46.780 Tell us a little bit about that.
00:07:48.100 Yeah, and that's a very good point, Tony.
00:07:50.120 I'd like to highlight that too,
00:07:51.260 that even though the majority of residents in Provence are not happy with the situation,
00:07:57.620 especially in winter when these illegal migrants do cross the border
00:08:01.840 and they find these folks banging on their doors,
00:08:04.000 banging on their windows in the middle of the night,
00:08:05.980 they don't turn them away.
00:08:07.560 They show the compassion.
00:08:08.900 They open the doors.
00:08:10.200 They've opened the community centre.
00:08:12.080 They bring people in.
00:08:13.400 They feed them.
00:08:14.300 They clothe them.
00:08:14.920 They give them warm blankets and a place to sleep
00:08:17.120 while they're waiting to be processed.
00:08:19.120 And so there's a high, high degree of compassion shown by the residents
00:08:22.520 of the municipality of Emerson, Franklin.
00:08:24.640 The Reeve there, Reeve Greg Jansen, has been very engaged as long as his first responders
00:08:29.560 because every time there's a 911 call, the volunteers in that community
00:08:33.340 that are first responders for fire and emergency situations respond to the call as well
00:08:37.660 and they assist the RCMP who are always looking at staffing issues
00:08:41.920 and they assist the RCMP with finding these individuals
00:08:46.700 and then providing them a place of shelter and food and clothing.
00:08:50.940 And, you know, some of these people are coming when it's 30 below.
00:08:54.280 We've had individuals that have actually suffered the loss of limbs
00:08:57.160 and there was one individual that didn't even make it to the border.
00:09:01.040 That person was, and the American authorities believe that she was attempting
00:09:05.280 to make her way to the border, somehow got disoriented, perhaps in a snowstorm,
00:09:09.360 in a squall, and found herself lying in the ditch and she never did recover.
00:09:12.280 Oh, my gosh.
00:09:13.080 Yeah, so this is a real issue of safety for these border crossers too.
00:09:18.500 I understand that there is now plans to build temporary housing
00:09:22.880 for up to 520 people at the Quebec border crossing.
00:09:28.620 So this problem ain't going away.
00:09:31.920 That shows they're putting more resources into the illegal border crossing
00:09:35.540 and fewer resources into legal applications for immigration and refugee status.
00:09:40.340 Exactly, Tony.
00:09:41.180 And what's so frustrating about this is that not only is, you know,
00:09:45.140 they're throwing more money into this.
00:09:46.900 We have said, you know, the official opposition has said repeatedly
00:09:51.500 that get the negotiations going with the U.S.,
00:09:55.040 close that safe third country loophole,
00:09:57.900 and let's create an atmosphere or an environment
00:10:01.940 where we can have an orderly migration of immigrants.
00:10:05.700 As Ted said, what's happening from a public safety perspective
00:10:10.080 is immigration officials, CBSA officials, RCMP officers
00:10:15.700 are being redeployed across the country to try and meet these demands.
00:10:20.920 And from these frontline officers, they're saying not sustainable.
00:10:25.140 The detachments that they come from and the border crossings that they come from
00:10:29.560 and the offices across Canada for immigration people,
00:10:32.300 those files are sitting there backlogged.
00:10:34.820 Those officers can't provide the policing that the communities
00:10:37.620 that they're assigned to expect of them to provide.
00:10:40.960 The border crossings have to work with, again,
00:10:44.360 significantly reduced staff across the country.
00:10:47.560 And, you know, for what purpose?
00:10:50.740 To try and, as best as possible, manage an issue
00:10:55.200 created by the lack of leadership in the Liberal government.
00:10:59.360 There is no other way to explain this.
00:11:01.380 So let's talk about, because we conservatives,
00:11:05.520 part of our job is to highlight things that are going wrong in government
00:11:10.720 with this Liberal government,
00:11:12.520 to highlight things where Canadian interests are not being protected.
00:11:15.240 But we also do have an approach, which is different from the Liberals,
00:11:21.420 when the Liberals say, well, what would you do differently?
00:11:23.180 We do have an answer to that.
00:11:24.340 Talk a little bit about that.
00:11:25.720 Thanks, Tony.
00:11:26.340 You're right.
00:11:27.960 There has been conversations to say,
00:11:30.480 let's close this safe third country loophole.
00:11:35.100 Let's ensure that, you know,
00:11:37.860 the border is not a free access zone.
00:11:41.360 It doesn't matter whether you're at a border crossing
00:11:44.400 or on the invisible line between USA and Canada, it's a border.
00:11:48.740 It's a border.
00:11:49.340 Respect the border.
00:11:50.560 Canadians have a historical record of being very welcoming to Canadians,
00:11:58.780 or to people wishing to start a new life in Canada.
00:12:01.780 And we continue to do that.
00:12:03.180 And conservatives have a great record for that.
00:12:05.640 And I think one of the things that the conservatives,
00:12:08.920 what made them so successful at that was,
00:12:11.840 we have an orderly, lawful process.
00:12:15.660 Everybody understands what it is, and everybody respects it.
00:12:19.340 And so that's the expectation that immigrants should have. 1.00
00:12:23.520 And the ones that have followed that say it's a good system.
00:12:27.160 And now we have this system going on, this process going on now.
00:12:31.100 And we've been 18 months into this, and we still have no plan.
00:12:37.020 We still don't have, you know,
00:12:38.280 other than the throwing good money or, you know,
00:12:40.680 taxpayer money after this issue, it's not solving the issue.
00:12:47.180 Ted, you've been on the front lines of this as the MP for Provence.
00:12:52.660 Tell us how you feel about the conservative approach
00:12:55.760 versus the liberal approach.
00:12:57.260 Well, the conservative approach would be one
00:12:58.980 where we actually address the problem and look for a solution.
00:13:01.780 And the liberal approach is facilitating the problem.
00:13:04.760 And by providing accommodations at the border
00:13:07.360 to actually encourage people to come across the border.
00:13:10.480 And with, you know, as you mentioned earlier, Tony,
00:13:12.740 the reckless tweets that the Prime Minister made.
00:13:14.760 First, the hashtag, welcome to Canada.
00:13:16.820 And then he made another tweet after that as well.
00:13:18.720 It doesn't matter who you are or where you're from.
00:13:20.360 There's a place for you in Canada.
00:13:22.200 Which the immigration people very quickly refuted and said,
00:13:26.680 that is actually not the case.
00:13:27.840 We do have rules here in Canada.
00:13:30.120 But the cat was out of the bag in a way.
00:13:32.120 The cat was out of the bag.
00:13:32.940 Or the horse was out of the barn or something.
00:13:34.740 Because that went viral around the world.
00:13:38.640 And you know how it works after that.
00:13:40.760 And the liberals did send out quite a few of their ministers
00:13:44.400 into some of the diasporas that seem to be availing themselves
00:13:49.440 to crossing the border at the Prime Minister's invitation
00:13:52.180 and have been trying to say, oh, that isn't quite what was meant.
00:13:55.240 And in fact, one of the things that folks crossing the border illegally
00:13:58.920 don't realize, they say they're coming here to make a refugee claim
00:14:02.320 and claim asylum, is that when their claim gets rejected,
00:14:06.360 they don't get sent back to the United States of America
00:14:08.800 where they came from.
00:14:10.080 They get sent back to their country of origin. 1.00
00:14:12.300 And that's what a lot of these folks don't realize.
00:14:14.260 And I think if they would take that into consideration
00:14:16.480 before they sometimes make this very dangerous trek,
00:14:19.000 especially in winter, into Canada and take their chances,
00:14:21.660 they should consider carefully what the consequences may be.
00:14:25.540 Glenn Marks, I think it's safe to say
00:14:28.480 that we would like to see a much more aggressive stance
00:14:31.000 by Canada in its negotiations with the United States on this issue.
00:14:34.180 Yes, absolutely.
00:14:35.240 I think that's a reasonable first step that we need to take.
00:14:39.660 And we need to, at times of the essence,
00:14:43.200 we're hearing reports that we're going to have a Nigerian contingent
00:14:48.640 that's already started through the call.
00:14:52.980 Upwards of 400 a day is anticipated.
00:14:56.500 That's unsustainable.
00:14:58.780 And so rather than just saying we're going to build something
00:15:01.980 to try and house them, invite more here,
00:15:04.600 let's close the loophole.
00:15:07.640 It really is the absolute wrong message
00:15:09.660 that the Canadian government, the Liberal government,
00:15:12.220 and the Trudeau government is providing
00:15:13.500 by building the accommodations.
00:15:15.460 All they're doing is encouraging more immigration like this, 1.00
00:15:18.260 this illegal border crossing.
00:15:20.740 Gentlemen, we're out of time.
00:15:22.820 Call to action.
00:15:24.380 Obviously visit conservative.ca
00:15:26.060 and learn more about this issue.
00:15:28.280 We are going to be strong on this issue
00:15:30.040 in the upcoming weeks and months.
00:15:32.180 But I do want to thank Ted Falk, the MP for Provence,
00:15:34.860 and Glenn Motts, the MP for Medicine Hat,
00:15:36.860 and Cardston Warner for being on The Blueprint,
00:15:40.000 Canada's Conservative Podcast.
00:15:41.600 Yes, and we want to thank our law enforcement officers
00:15:44.420 that have been very engaged in going above and beyond.
00:15:46.980 Yes, absolutely.
00:15:47.880 There's a lot of pressure on them,
00:15:50.120 so that's a good point.
00:15:51.620 Thank you, gentlemen.
00:15:52.360 You're good.
00:15:52.620 Thank you, Tony.
00:15:54.920 Thank you for listening to The Blueprint,
00:15:57.020 Canada's Conservative Podcast.
00:15:59.360 To find more episodes, interviews,
00:16:01.500 and in-depth discussions of politics in Canada,
00:16:04.680 search for The Blueprint on iTunes
00:16:06.420 or visit podcast.conservative.ca.
00:16:10.140 Thank you.