Candice Malcolm

Candice Malcolm

LATEST STORIES BY CANDICE MALCOLM

 

MALCOLM: Canadians frustrated over Trudeau's stance on border security

Canadians are tired of being treated as the world’s door mat. Recent polls reflect the frustration many Canadians have with the Trudeau government’s approach to border security – or lack thereof. A new report from the Angus Reid Institute found that two-thirds of Canadians consider the influx of illegal border crossings to be a “crisis.” Six in 10 say that the government is “too generous” to asylum seekers, two-thirds say Canada is accepting too many migrants, and eight in 10 say we need to increase border security. The poll also found that Canadians are paying attention to this issue – more than any other issue in the country – and that more Canadians trust Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer to handle the crisis than the Trudeau Liberals. This echoes a poll released earlier this summer by DART Insights revealing that 70% of Canadians don’t trust that Trudeau has a plan to deal with the crisis, and six in 10 say Trudeau is not handling the situation well. In response to criticism they’ve received over this issue, Trudeau and his inner circle have lashed out at Canadians. In recent months, Trudeau has blamed the crisis on “conservatives” – who he accused of using “the politics of fear” and “pitting Canadians against each other.” He bizarrely said that “fear” is the biggest threat to national security in Canada. Meanwhile, Trudeau’s immigration minister called critics “un-Canadian,” and Trudeau’s top advisor Gerald Butts smeared critics as “alt-right” – a gang of shadowy internet trolls who promote anti-Semitism and white nationalism. To call legitimate critics and mainstream Canadians “alt-right” is about as low as you can get. It’s almost as bad as the time Butts called those poking fun at Trudeau’s political correctness “Nazis.” The Liberal government is struggling to maintain legitimacy and has resorted to a juvenile smear campaign. Fortunately for the Liberals, they have the media on their side, and mainstream media journalists have dutifully adopted Liberal government talking points. CBC, CTV, Global, the Star and the Globe and Mail have all picked up the terrible euphemism “irregular immigration” to obscure the fact that migrants are breaking Canadian law and an international treaty to enter Canada. They push out convoluted stories arguing that Trudeau is right about Canada’s international obligations, while leaving out important details – including the fact that these laws allow Canada to reject migrants coming from safe countries like the United States. Many journalists incorrectly call asylum seekers “refugees” and others bend over backwards to insist there’s no crisis at the border. It’s remarkable that so many Canadians see through the Liberal spin and see this for what it really is: an affront to the rule of law, and an insult to every new Canadian who played by the rules and came to Canada legally. Last summer, a group of French Canadians gathered in Quebec to protest Trudeau’s border policies and demand that border laws be enforced. The media smeared the protestors as “far-right” and Trudeau himself called them “racist.” This summer, there was an even larger gathering in Markham, Ontario to oppose local schools being used as makeshift housing for asylum seekers. The protestors were Canadians of Chinese ancestry, and the media didn’t know what to make of it – so most ignored the story altogether. Despite the best efforts of the Trudeau Liberals and their loyal band of journalists, Canadians still believe in borders – and we want ours protected.

with Video
August 3, 2018 Columnists
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during a press conference following a swearing in ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa on Wednesday, July 18, 2018.

MALCOLM: Trudeau still doesn't get border problems

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau smugly told reporters this week Ontario Premier Doug Ford was, essentially, ignorant when it comes to issues of illegal border crossers and asylum seekers. “It didn’t seem to me that the premier was quite as aware of our international obligations to the UN convention on refugees as he might have been,” said Trudeau. “So, I spent a little time explaining how the asylum seeker system works,” said a Prime Minister who was very proud of himself. Did Trudeau “explain” to Ford how migrants take advantage of Canada’s generosity by illegally hopping the border, rather than waiting in UN refugee camps like the millions of less fortunate refugees who are truly in need of protection? Did he explain how human smuggling rings send migrants to cross illegally to circumvent the Safe Third Country agreement — an international treaty that prevents asylum seekers from shopping around to choose a more lenient country to make their claim? Did Trudeau explain how his own minister of transportation once admitted that 90% of asylum applicants are bogus and will eventually be deported, at the expense of Canadian taxpayers? The minister later clarified he was referring to Haitian migrants, but historical data shows that the majority of asylum seekers applying in Canada are eventually rejected and deported. Did Trudeau explain to Ford that emails made public through an access to information request showed that Trudeau’s own virtue-signaling on social media caused chaos in government offices and a surge of asylum applications? And did Trudeau explain to Ontario’s Premier that refugee policy and border enforcement are both 100% the responsibility of the federal government? I doubt it. Trudeau has been absolutely clueless when it comes to Canada’s refugee policy, since the day he naively pledged to welcome 25,000 Syrian refugees on a rushed timeline with no regard for national security or refugee integration programs. While it’s true that Canada’s hands are mostly tied when it comes to how we process refugee applications, thanks to UN treaties that past governments have signed, there’s plenty Trudeau could do to quell the surge in illegal border crossings. For instance, we know that many migrants come to Canada specifically for our generous healthcare and welfare programs. While Yazidi women are suffering as medieval sex slaves to ISIS thugs in the Middle East, Trudeau is focused on guaranteeing free apartments and dental care to asylum seekers from relatively safe and prosperous countries like Nigeria. Once an asylum claim is made, migrants are free to travel and live wherever they please. Given the flood of claims — 72,000 since Trudeau sent out his infamous Tweet in January 2017 — wait lists for a refugee hearing is now almost two years. Migrants know that even if their claims are found to be bogus, they still get a few years in Canada — enough time to take advantage of free healthcare, education and welfare payments to make it all worthwhile. If Trudeau wanted to stop this madness, he could — while still observing our UN treaty obligations. Trudeau could limit the taxpayer benefits to asylum seekers, speed up the processing of applications, mandate a hearing within 15 or 30 days, and, like Australia, hold all asylum seekers in a holding centre until their hearing date. Word would travel fast that Canada is putting an end to the gravy train, and human smugglers would find another country to take advantage of. Someone needs to explain all this to Justin Trudeau.

July 6, 2018 Canada
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delivers remarks at a Liberal Party fundraising event in Brampton, Ontario on Thursday July 5, 2018.
Page was generated in 2.4113669395447