Syrian Refugees.... Justin Trudeau... Racist?

[On Guard for Thee]

It's the stuff below the "Whereas..." that actually counts.

[notca]

The people who aren't behaving themselves are the likes of the murderers Assad and ISIL, and I don't think we will be bringing any of them over here anytime soon. And btw if you look at current day ISIL and backtrack you find clear evidence that their emergence was caused by the illegal invasion of Iraq by the US in '03. (At least we had the good sense to stay out of that).And I suspect if you ever actually saw the hell pit that Syria has become you would be running as fast as anyone else to get out of it. A taste of reality can be a great cure for smugness.

So you're entitled to your opinion but so am I. I think people like you are as bad as the terrorists when you insult everyone who disagrees with you and tries to shut them up. You sure don't show any respect for the freedoms we all have; only those who share YOUR opinions should have rights, is that it?

There's a huge difference between debating, sharing differing opinions and trying to belittle and gag those who don't hold YOUR views.

I don't believe I have ever attacked any poster here with whom I disagree personally. What the hell gives you the right to be so righteous?

[On Guard for Thee]

So you're entitled to your opinion but so am I. I think people like you are as bad as the terrorists when you insult everyone who disagrees with you and tries to shut them up. You sure don't show any respect for the freedoms we all have; only those who share YOUR opinions should have rights, is that it?

There's a huge difference between debating, sharing differing opinions and trying to belittle and gag those who don't hold YOUR views.

I don't believe I have ever attacked any poster here with whom I disagree personally. What the hell gives you the right to be so righteous?

Yep, you have a right to your opinion. The fact mine disagrees doesn't make it righteous.

[overthere]

It's the stuff below the "Whereas..." that actually counts.

Ah, Ye Olde Cherrypick.

Are you saying we can ignore Part 1 entirely? Or just the parts about the rule of law and the supremacy of God?

[H10]

It's asinine to say that accepting refugees from one particular war-torn region is racist against everyone else in the world. It simply makes no sense.

And Harper, during the election campaign, said Syrian refugees were a priority, so Harper was just as "racist" as Trudeau. The real issue is you don't like Trudeau.

How is it not racist to give preference to one war torn country only? It literally sounds alot like white only immigration except instead of white only its Syrian only. I think Syrian only or any one group or race only immigration is racist.

[On Guard for Thee]

Ah, Ye Olde Cherrypick.

Are you saying we can ignore Part 1 entirely? Or just the parts about the rule of law and the supremacy of God?

No, part 1 is below the line I was speaking of, as are all the rest of the parts you can't ignore. You don't see a lot more about god below that line.

[H10]

Then I guess the Gulf states must be the most racist of all.

Because Syrian is a nationality, not a race.

Of course they don't. But that doesn't matter to the PC crowd. Sunni Muslims are more 'diverse' than Christians, Jews or Yazidis, therefore they should be given preference in order to make Canada more diverse.

Amerindians descend from immigrants too.

Ever heard of the Clovis migration 13000 years ago?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Settlement_of_the_Americas

Understand it is the arguement of Syrians that banning syrian refugees only is discriminatory/racist.

Immigrant: "a person who migrates to another country, usually for permanent residence."

There were no countries here, the entire continent was uninhabitated when clovis came.

[H10]

This is clearly a microaggression against black people. Check your white privilege.

yeah check your white privilege, you race baiting cis gender pig dog.

[H10]

We are not 'a nation of immigrants'! We are a nation of descendants of immigrants. New immigrants are given Canadian citizenship and the same rights and privileges as the descendants of immigrants who were born here generations ago and for whom their immigrant ancestors worked and sacrificed to make those rights and privileges available.

Anyone born in this country is NOT an immigrant! I don't care who says it, it is wrong.

Its not that I disagree with you, but this is what Trudeau said, he said it is a nation of immigrants. And I find this to be true, new immigrants have the red carpet rolled out while those of us born here whether native indian or white man have to work for eveything we get. On top of that they view everyone but native indians as immigrants so they are making a country to exclude us. So that is Trudeau for you.

[H10]

Nevertheless, 20% does not make us 'a nation of immigrants' as Trudeau states.

In their view it does, don't you get this guy is one of those French Canadians, hell they practically founded the country and are still calling themselves french canadians instead of just Canadians and they want to separate from canada. Don't you understand immigrants who don't integrate are learning it from people like Trudeau who have been here for over 400 years and still won't integrate? They still view themselves as immigrants and hold dual citizenshiip like Mulclair with France. These people do not even truly see themselves as Canadians. They are the Canadians of convenience, just visiting, like MIchael Ignatieff.

[H10]

I think OP's question is entirely fair. What makes Syrian refugees a higher priority than people in other war-torn regions?

I think that Notca nailed part of it here:

...but I think there is another issue at work. Western foreign policy places a higher priority on the Middle East than on Africa. The Middle East is usually front and center on the news for a variety of reasons-- our ongoing problems with terrorism and our dependence on Middle East oil being two of the most obvious. As well, our European allies are currently having problems with the sheer volume of Syrians (and non-Syrians...) trying to enter their countries, which has further raised the profile of the Syrian refugee situation.

As a result, the Syrian refugee situation is prominent in the public consciousness, whereas I suspect that most Canadians are only vaguely aware of any situations in Africa.

-k

Fair, what about east asian refugees? or iraqi. Syria does not have oil. and ISIS is in Iraq, Palestine is middle eastern, has more refugees. Somali is muslim too and so is Sudan both of which thereore could be considered middle eastern. And wasn't the war in darfur, the genocide quiet high profile? Didn't george clooney go there and it make national headlines. Where was the demand to take in all these sudanese refugees.

1 Palestine^[24] 6,600,000 2 Syria^[25] 4,086,760 3 Iraq 1,428,308 4 Somalia 1,077,048 5 Sudan 500,014 6 Democratic Republic of the Congo 491,481 7 Myanmar 414,626 8 Colombia 395,949 9 Vietnam 337,829 10 Eritrea 251,954 11 China 190,369 12 Central African Republic 162,862 13 Serbia 161,671 14 Côte d'Ivoire 154,821 15 Unknown 145,048 16 Turkey 139,779 17 Sri Lanka 136,617 18 Angola 128,664 19 Russia 109,785 20 Rwanda 106,833

[H10]

Isn't the point of helping these people is what Powell told to GW about Iraq..if u break it, uhave to fix it and since Canada is involved in the war over there we have to help those people? Many may not stay after the war is over, so some Canadians should have an open mind and put yourself in THEIR place.

When the hell did we break Syria? Syria was a failed state failing long before America even went into Iraq. It had a long time dictator with the 3rd largest stock piles of chemical weapons who used them on his own people. IS expanded into syria and fought a war they were losing so USA and Russia and Turkey all got involved. USA asked for help with bombing and of course we did.

We can best help those people over there, we cannot let all of Syria come here. The best way to help syrians would be to get out of syria and let assad keep on ruling. If we throw out IS and then throw out assad it will just be a new crazy islamic group.

How can we help people in Syria by letting them here, we can air drop them guns and bomb to kill ISLAMIC STATE, but these people are cowards, if they won't fight to the death to defend their own country and culture from fasco-muslims they certainly won't fight for ours, so do we really want cowards coming here to take advantage of us economically?

[jacee]

According to multiple sources there are roughly 50-60 million refugees world wide. Refugees are defined by the UN as " "owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country.""

So my question, as someone who has served in Afghanistan and who has volunteered in real refugee camps in Africa and Europe and Middle East. I recall being in Dadaab (world's largest refugee camp) and coming across multiple Christians who had fled Somalia from their branch of Al Qaeda who kills any Christian who refuses to convert to Islam. I recall something similar in Afghanistan where they kill Christians for being Christians.

Now I recall watching a US Governor saying he won't accept any Syrian refugees. And a group representing muslims said they were going to sue the governor for being discriminatory against Syrians. Which made me think of several things.

1. If refusing to accept Syrian refugees is discriminatory or racist, then isn't giving Syrian refugees express entry over the other 50-60 million refugees in the world discriminatory against all those other nationalities? How is Syrian only refugee not racism?

2. How is it not discrimination to fly in just one nationality of refugees but all the other refugees in real refugee camps who have no money, and cannot even work (because refugees in camps cannot seek employment and there is none in camps).

3. I still do not believe that Syrian refugees even meet the UN definition of refugee. I've heard many of them speak on tv how they are leaving syria because the economy was destroyed by war. While I understand that certainly sucks, that doesn't make you a refugee. There needs to be a specific threat against you based on your race, religion, nationality, social group, political opinion, sexuality etc. Ie. a gay syrian man could say ISIS is going to kill him. That is a real refugee. These are people displaced by war, but we cannot accept and fly in every person displaced by war, they outnumber refugees even more.

4. I believe there is a racism going on in the Trudeau government, there is a major war in Ukraine with lots of people being killed, there is the same Islamic State group in Nigeria and Mali, Cameron, Niger, Chad and Libya, just 2 days after Paris attacked murdered a town of 2000 christians just for being christian. There is crisises in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Mexico, Libya, Egypt where thousands of people have been killed as well. And what about Iraq. Isn't it the ISLAMIC STATE in SYRIA AND IRAQ? Why only Syrian refugees when Christians are being butchered in Iraq too!

This is the real racism that the media never talks about coming from the Trudeau government. In my view Sttephen Harper was much more fair. At least he denied most refugees and the few he take in were Christians who are REAL refugees. People made fun of Harper's "old stock Canadian" comment. But Trudeau had a far more significant racist outburst. He called Canada a nation of immigrants. Think about what he is telling native indians. You aren't an immigrant, so Canada isn't for you, its an immigrant nation and you aren't included. I think Trudeau is going to show his true racist colors over time and people will be begging for Harper back once the honey moon wears off.

Such a bunch of horse apples!

Many refugees worldwide are being accommodated in refugee camps. So are many Syrians ... too many! The camps have overflowed due to the immediate crisis. There isn't room for any more in nearby countries.

Simple.

That's why Syrians are coming here.

Nothing to do with your trumped up 'racism' nonsense.

That's just more bizarre xenophobic excuses for opposing bringing Syrian refugees to Canada.

.

[Argus]

Well, really this is just splitting hairs isn't it? Whether we arrived here this generation, last generation or 4 generations ago, the vast majority of us are from elsewhere, and in pretty recent history too.

The same could be said about everyone on Earth.

The term can be stretched however wide you want I suppose, to the point it's basically meaningless.

[Argus]

Isn't the point of helping these people is what Powell told to GW about Iraq..if u break it, uhave to fix it and since Canada is involved in the war over there we have to help those people? Many may not stay after the war is over, so some Canadians should have an open mind and put yourself in THEIR place.

We only got involved recently in an attempt to help fix it. We are not responsible for the flood of economic migrants heading into Europe which inspired this emotionally overwrought demands that we take some of them in.

[Argus]

Such a bunch of horse apples!

Many refugees worldwide are being accommodated in refugee camps. So are many Syrians ... too many! The camps have overflowed due to the immediate crisis. There isn't room for any more in nearby countries.

Simply not true. The horde of refugees heading into Europe are economic migrants fleeing poverty. We could accommodate them for a tenth the cost in the camps and they'd be able to go home then when things settle down.

[WestCanMan]

It's asinine to say that accepting refugees from one particular war-torn region is racist against everyone else in the world. It simply makes no sense.

And Harper, during the election campaign, said Syrian refugees were a priority, so Harper was just as "racist" as Trudeau. The real issue is you don't like Trudeau.

Squid it seems like you didn't read his thread at all. He made a lot of good points there.

If you want to disagree that's your right but imo you should probably focus more on his individual points than just guess what he meant from his title and then just zero in on your own assumptions.

[WestCoastRunner]

Simply not true. The horde of refugees heading into Europe are economic migrants fleeing poverty. We could accommodate them for a tenth the cost in the camps and they'd be able to go home then when things settle down.

You seem to be lumping all refugees into one group of economic migrants. Syrian refugees are fleeing with their families for their lives. They have nothing to go back home to. It will take decades to rebuild their communities. And has been mentioned umpteen times, camps are overflowing and European countries are closing their borders.

In the meantime, a generation of children will potentially grow up without an education further exacerbating the potential for refugees to become radicalized.

[bush_cheney2004]

Nothing special about Syrian refugees...they can get in line just like all the rest who have been waiting far longer.

How many refugees from Eastern Europe, Africa, or Asia did Syria welcome with open arms in the past 50 years ?

[WestCoastRunner]

Nothing special about Syrian refugees...they can get in line just like all the rest who have been waiting far longer.

How many refugees from Eastern Europe, Africa, or Asia did Syria welcome with open arms in the past 50 years ?

I have no problem welcoming refugees from other parts of the world.

[jacee]

This frenzy to bring in Syrian refugees en masse is an emotional response to the picture of the drowned little boy washed up on the beach. When people allow their emotions to do their thinking they develop tunnel vision and focus only on that one issue.

I think the Trudeau government has grasped this as a means of gaining even more popularity, extending the 'honeymoon', so to speak. I agree completely that they are demonstrating discrimination and racism by going all out for Syrian refugees while ignoring the desperate plight of others.

I also agree that Harper was more realistic and much less willing to sacrifice principles to gain public approval. That is what defeated him. Politics does not agree with principled people.

No.

People didn't agree with his principles.

.

[Argus]

You seem to be lumping all refugees into one group of economic migrants. Syrian refugees are fleeing with their families for their lives.

They are not fleeing for their lives. They were perfectly safe in Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan.

[WestCoastRunner]

They are not fleeing for their lives. They were perfectly safe in Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan.

Safe is a relative term.

[Argus]

Safe is a relative term.

True. And they were relatively safer in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan than in leaky boats they used to try to cross the Mediterranean in.

[WestCoastRunner]

True. And they were relatively safer in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan than in leaky boats they used to try to cross the Mediterranean in.

I can provide plenty of links that explain the living conditions of these camps. Do I really need to?