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Culture


RSS FeedsMartin Regg Cohn: Canada faces a war on all fronts over refugee rights and wrongs
(The Star Fashion & Style)

 
 

15 january 2019 05:16:49

 
Martin Regg Cohn: Canada faces a war on all fronts over refugee rights and wrongs
(The Star Fashion & Style)
 


The world needs more Canada, as foreigners often say.But does Canada want more of the world, if and when foreigners are in need?Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland personally greeted 18-year-old Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun at Pearson Airport over the weekend, answering her tweeted pleas from a barricaded Bangkok hotel room. Escaping alleged beatings in Saudi Arabia, pursued by her father, marooned in Thailand, Alqunun found sanctuary in Toronto only after the UN’s refugee watchdog declared her case an emergency.An uncommonly happy ending to an all-too-common scenario. Canadians responded with humanity and alacrity — and unity, as even Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government joined the chorus of approving voices.“I am proud that Canada has welcomed her,” proclaimed Lisa MacLeod, Ontario’s minister responsible for resettlement.A welcome change in tone from the tirades of last year, when her government blamed Ottawa for what Premier Doug Ford mischievously and provocatively described as “illegal border crossers” from the U.S. Despite the respite, brace for an even bigger battle in 2019 — between the rival federal parties, between the provincial and federal governments, between Canada and its foreign adversaries.Beware the political war waged by any means possible, on all available fronts, not least via Twitter. Saudi Arabia has already applied maximum pressure on Canada for daring to defy it on human rights — leveraging its foreign investment, ransoming its foreign students recalled from Canadian campuses, and expelling our ambassador from Riyadh. With bilateral ties thus unravelled, Ottawa perhaps calculated it had little left to lose by publicly embracing Alqunun at her lowest point (while Australia, an alternative destination, quietly dragged its feet on the UNHCR’s appeal).It was a tweet from Freeland last year that first unleashed Saudi Arabia’s wrath, after our foreign minister repeated C ...


 
11 viewsCategory: Culture > Fashion
 
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