Harper blames Canada’s refugee system for Mexican visa uproar

This moron is the Prime Minister. Our refugee system has been broken for years and what has he done to try and fix it? He points fingers at................ himself?

So you'd rather the Government keep sweeping it under the rug?

He's saying we have a problem and wants Parliament to address it. Where's the problem?

So you'd rather the Government keep sweeping it under the rug?

He's saying we have a problem and wants Parliament to address it. Where's the problem?

He says the system doesn't work. He's just figured it out?

He IS parliment. Present a bill with some changes (he's certainly been in a postion to to it for long enough.....). Cancel the program. DO SOMETHING, but no. He uses the big guns and invokes the Visa solution and then blames the process?????

The man is an idiot.

I think Mexico has a right to demand answers. No heads up was given to them so they could at least attempt to work with the Canadian officials. They just shut the gates and expected no fallout? Then scape goat the department he clearly has an axe to grind with. This is more about making an election issue to campaign on then good business.

Aww. Porquas argument was so persuasive and you just had to wreck it.

No country has the right to tell us how we manage our borders. This might have been done better, but like a tax increase, it's news that would have been bad regardless of how it was told.

So you'd rather the Government keep sweeping it under the rug?

He's saying we have a problem and wants Parliament to address it. Where's the problem?

He says the system doesn't work. He's just figured it out?

He IS parliment. Present a bill with some changes (he's certainly been in a postion to to it for long enough.....). Cancel the program. DO SOMETHING, but no. He uses the big guns and invokes the Visa solution and then blames the process?????

The man is an idiot.

The numbers jumped from this year over last. Once those numbers were made clear, they imposed the Visa changes. Perhaps the system had holes, but really started to get exploited over the last 12-15 months as the stats indicate?

Regardless, he can't do anything now but impose restrictions as the House isn't sitting. Once Parliament is back in session, they can bring forth something to address it. You can't fix the problem when you can't bring forth legislation.

Do we wait another couple months for a few thousands more to exploit our system or do we require them to have Visa's until we get the situation in order?

Harper is right.
Canada's refugee system is broken and it's been that way for years, even prior to the asinine SCC decision, R Vs Singh.

Nobody has had the balls to deal with it because the 'stakeholders' (Immigration lawyers, 'advocacy' groups, political IRB appointees etc) cry "RACISM" if anybody has an opposing opinion on immigration.

Nothing will change. The Liberals have pandered to the ethnic vote for years and won't want to jeopardise urban votes this close to a rumoured fall election.

The NDP will oppose any reform, however prudent, as their voter base just see’s refugees as the poor and down-trodden.

The Bloc, well they will just want to keep Quebec’s control over which immigrants they let in and will vote with the Libs.

Hence there will be no reform and the system will miss helping those who really need Canada’s help because of the flood of bogus refugees who are basically queue-jumpers or criminals tying up our processing resources.

Preventive measures would have been less harmful trade wise then the cure of visas vs a country we have signed off NAFTA with. This was reckless. No effort was made to mitigate or manage.

Even if he did bring forth a bill to change our immigration system with more checks and balances, I dont think he could get it through parliment let a lone the senate with a minority government, there is a lot in this country that needs fixing and until the CPC have the majority they deserve nothing will get better.

I don't think he had much choice. Parliament won't reform the system and something had to be done.

The stats tell the story.

"An Angus Reid survey released last month found that 69% agree with Canada's recent decision to slap visas on Mexico and the Czech Republic.

Last year, Mexico accounted for more than 9,400 refugee claims, or one-quarter of Canada's total. Only 11% of the Mexican claims were accepted.

Government officials say refugee claims from Mexico have slowed to a trickle since the imposition of the visas."

National Post

What I like is the lefties bitching at Harper about the economy but will resist any change to immigration. Why would we keep the floodgates open if we have such rampant unemployment right now? Just another fine example of some lefties being clueless and thinking you can have things BOTH ways. Where are these immigrants going to find work? Or will we just happily place them on an already overburdened welfare system 'til things get better?

Well here's a "righty" who voted Conservative and expected changes to our immigration policies.

It's an old problem and the Liberals opened the flood gates. The Conservatives have talked about changes since Chretien first got in. What's happened now that Harper and his bums are now running the show? NOTHING! Just like the gun registry and the Senate. Have you seen any proposed legislation that would address any of those?

Who the hell is in charge if not the ruling party? Nothing has changed. Nothing has been proposed, and in typical kneejerk reaction, this idiot paints two populations with the same brush AND STILL HAS NOT SAID WHAT IF ANYTHING WILL CHANGE. It’s not like he came in on a Tuesday morning and all refugee claims are suddenly bogus.

What's wrong? Not enough Romanian strippers for ya?

Just for your reccords..

Immigration and Resettlement in Canada
Investing $109 million to modernize Canada’s immigration system by:

•speeding up backlog processing through changes in the coding system and sending teams overseas to process applications on site.
•transferring resources from less busy to busier missions.
Passed legislation making significant changes to the Canadian Immigration Act, including:

•giving the immigration minister power to speed up the immigration process for those immigrants whose skills are most needed.
•providing extra resources to deal with the backlog of 900,000 applicants because, by law, the backlog will have to be processed under the old rules

Until Harper moves to the middle, he'll always be in the minority or opposition. To govern Canada, you have to occupy the middle, not the right or the left. Recent Liberal election results (and the NDP) are proof positive of that. If he wants to run the country with a majority, that means representing the majority of Canadians, not just those on the right.