Is Canada in the midst of a refugee crisis? Experts say it´s important to keep things in perspective
(The Star Fashion & Style)

OTTAWA—It’s one of the most sensitive debates in Canadian politics. Thousands of people are crossing into Canada from the United States to claim refugee status at a time when the U.S. president’s anti-immigrant bombast clashes with the #WelcomeToCanada posture of a Liberal prime minister. Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen has lashed out at conservative critics, labelling their political message that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau naively invited refugees to clog the immigration system as “fear-mongering� and “not Canadian.� New Democrats, meanwhile, charge the federal government is blind to the need to rescind a 13-year-old agreement that declares the U.S. a “safe country� and forces migrants from south of the border to avoid official ports of item if they want to claim refugee status in Canada. And just last week, with Progressive Conservatives at Queen’s Park joining the attack on Trudeau, the prime minister appointed former Toronto police chief Bill Blair to a brand new cabinet portfolio focused on “border security and organized crime reduction.� Let’s turn down the noise and see what’s going on here. OK, what’s going on?Over the past two years, media attention has focused on the tens of thousands of people who have entered Canada “irregularly� — that is, who have walked across the border at some place other than an official crossing station and been apprehended by police.Critics say the influx is the result of the Safe Third Country Agreement, a 2005 pact with the U.S. that says refugees must claim asylum from the country they arrive in first — but only if they come through official ports of item. “Irregular� migrants are allowed to seek refugee status when they enter Canada from the U.S. because they’ve crossed the border somewhere else. The NDP argues that Donald Trump’s America is not in fact safe for asylum seekers, and ...