Justin Trudeau broke several hours of silence following American president Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration, taking to Twitter on Saturday afternoon to reaffirm Canada’s commitment to welcoming refugees and asylum seekers.
“To those fleeing persecution, terror & war,” the prime minister wrote, “Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength #WelcomeToCanada.”
Mr Trudeau’s words are an encouraging step in countering Mr Trump’s executive order on refugees, which has thrown thousands of families in the United States and abroad into a tailspin of confusion and anxiety.
It is especially important for Mr Trudeau to speak out as the nearly 40,000 Syrian refugees who have been resettled in Canada since late 2015 look on with fear and anxiety, while their new neighbours south of the border shut down resettlement efforts.
Canada has also said it will extend temporary visas to anyone who has been stranded inside the country and is now unable to enter the US due to the executive order.
But Canada must, and should, do more – and actions speak louder than words.
The country now also faces the issue of how to respond to the Quebec mosque attack on Sunday evening.
At least six people were killed and several more injured when shots were fired at the Quebec Islamic Cultural Centre.
It was condemned as a terrorist attack by Mr Trudeau, who said that “Muslim-Canadians are an important part of our national fabric, and these senseless acts have no place in our communities, cities and country”.
Canada remains committed to the Safe Third Country Agreement, a deal that came into effect in 2004 that was based on the premise that both the US and Canada are safe countries for asylum seekers and refugees.
The STCA agreement makes it impossible for asylum seekers who first land in the US, and whose demands for protection are denied, to seek asylum in Canada, and vice-versa.
Anyone who arrives at the US-Canada border crossing to make that second claim will be turned back (save for a few exceptions), without having their case so much as glanced at.
This has inevitably led many people to take great personal risks to cross the border undetected in search of asylum. That’s because once they are inside the country, Canadian officials must evaluate their demand for refugee status.
Most recently, two Ghanaian men trekked through waist-deep snow in subzero temperatures to enter Manitoba after their asylum claim was rejected in the US.
They suffered frostbite and almost died in a farmer’s field before being picked up by a truck driver; one man had his fingers and toes amputated after narrowly surviving the harrowing journey.
Residents in towns near the expansive US-Canada border have reported seeing entire families lugging suitcases into Canada.
Canada must not only speak out against Mr Trump’s order, which serves no real security purpose and will only tear families apart and create undue hardship for hundreds of thousands of people, but it must rescind the Safe Third Country Agreement.
Never has it been more clear that the US is not a safe country for refugees and asylum seekers, which alone should invalidate this outdated and dangerous agreement.
Refugees must be allowed to arrive in a safe and orderly fashion at the US-Canada border, where Canadian officials will then evaluate their asylum claims.
With the current agreement in place, Canada is complicit in forcing hundreds of people into dangerous situations, including placing their fate in the hands of people smugglers, as they search for safe harbour.
Mr Trudeau’s government has said Canadian citizens, including dual passport holders from one of the seven countries impacted, will be exempt from the restrictions.
But he must answer questions about how the new US immigration measures will restrict individuals living in Canada who hold valid tourist, work and student visas to enter the US.
Citizens from the seven countries are being denied entry into the US despite holding valid visas.
Lifting the annual quota on refugee resettlement from private sponsorship groups, especially for individuals from the seven countries affected, would go further than a tweet in making Canada a viable alternative for families who have fled persecution, war and violence.
Until this point, Mr Trudeau’s government has enjoyed international praise for how it responded to the Syrian refugee crisis.
How it responds now to the attack on civil liberties, refugee protection and basic human decency on its southern border is even more important.
Jillian Kestler-D’Amours is a journalist in Toronto, Canada
