After abandoning their original campaign promise of bringing in 25,000 Syrian refugees, the Liberal government reduced this goal to bringing in the more plausible aim of 10,000 before the start of January. Well, another promise stands broken as Canada’s Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister, John McCallum, publically announced Thursday that just over 6,000 refugees arrived towards the end of 2015.
The Liberal government is doing everything they can to maintain their promise — despite how unrealistic it initially was. As quoted in an article published by The Globe and Mail, Mr. McCallum said the following: “I would say we largely met our promises. We identified 25,000 as committed. We have fully processed over 10,000 by the end of the year, as promised. We will certainly deliver 25,000 refugees by the end of February. The only discrepancy is a delay of two weeks in welcoming the first 10,000 refugees to our shores.”
The process of bringing in refugees is meticulous. It is no easy fix — there is no easy stamp of a passport granting each Syrian entrance through a teleportation portal. There are forms that need to be approved, interviews that need to be held, backgrounds that need to be monitored and details that need to be carefully assessed before long flights are scheduled. Perhaps this demanding process was overlooked amongst the party’s initial promises. However, the fact they are doing everything they can and taking notable steps towards making their fairy tale a reality should at least reassure Canadians the Liberal word is not being forgotten.
Justin Trudeau is a visionary — an innovative mind that steps out of the restricted box of political boundaries Stephen Harper rested in for 10 years. He is willing to take bold actions, even promise unlikely goals, to carry out the vision he was elected for. The refugee settlement is a work in progress with current achievements that are actually impressive on the grand scale of realism.
Overall, Canada’s new prime minister should not be shunned for failing to sprinkle pixie dust — he should be shunned for thinking he’s Peter Pan.