Sometimes you have to have faith.
Faith in the system and as Mr. Spock says in Star Trek VI ‘faith that the universe will unfold as it should.’
That is why I was so pleased when I heard there was going to be a group of interested local residents who were going to meet to discuss the possibility of bringing in a Syrian refugee family to Barrhead.
In recent weeks in various media outlets, coffee shops, meetings and the places I have had to go as part of my job as a reporter or in my private life, I have heard from people who are concerned about Canada’s plan to let in 25,000 Syrian refugees.
The concerns range from legitimate enquiries on how the refugee process works to the actual logistics of bringing in such a large group of people in such a short time period. During the election, the now Liberal government said they would be able to accomplish this by the end of the year. Something the government now says won’t happen until February.
However, a lot of the discussion, especially after the Paris attacks, seems to be focused on security. Opponents of the government’s plan to bring in Syrian refuges argue one of the ways to help ensure the same attacks don’t happen in Canada is to make sure agents or people loyal to ISIS are not inadvertently let into the country, by using a combination of a strong screening process and by limiting the number of refugees that are allowed into the country from areas where ISIS is known to exist, i.e. Syria. Under the Conservative Party, Canada would have limited the number of Syrian refugees to 10,000 spread over four years. During the election campaign they promised to fast track that number by Sept. 2016. Former Prime Minister Stephen Harper said anything faster than that was reckless and was opening the door for ISIS to come to Canada.
But is that true? I for one side with Calgary’s Mayor Naheed Nenshi who argues while it’s important for Canada to have a thorough screening process, he feels perceived security concerns over refugees are a “manufactured controversy.”
Nenshi noted during a number of CBC radio interviews that each of the identified suspects in the Paris attacks held either a French or a Belgian passport. If someone wants to do harm, Nenshi said, it would be much easier for them to just hop on a plane to Canada than go through the complicated and lengthy refugee application process. Of course that is assuming they are one of the few refugees that actually make it to Canada or anywhere else.
That being said, do people have the right to be frightened? Of course, and no system is foolproof, but everyday Canada lets in refugees into our country and they are properly screened and vetted without incident.
I for one am ready to put my trust in the system and I wish the Barrhead group all the best in its efforts to helping Syrian refugees come to Canada and our community.
