By Robert Laurie —— Bio and Archives September 9, 2017
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"...asked if the unprecedented number of border crossers was stoking anti-immigrant sentiments in the country, Trudeau condemned the "intolerant, racist demonstrations'' that have been planned in recent days. "The small minority, angry, frustrated group of racists don't get to define who we are as a country, don't get to tell others who we are and don't get to change the nature of the open, accepting values that make us who we are,'' Trudeau said. "I am proud to be Canadian. I am proud to be a Quebecer and I am proud to stand with millions of Canadians who reject the hateful, harmful, heinous ideologies that we've seen in dark corners of both the Internet and our communities from time to time.''
Central Americans have long been thought of as the next population primed to make the journey across the Canada-U.S. border due to major changes on the horizon in U.S. immigration policy. That includes the potential end of temporary protected status for nearly 350,000 Salvadorans and Hondurans, meaning all could face deportation to their home countries. Spanish-speaking MP Pablo Rodriguez had already been tapped as the likely federal point-person for outreach to Hispanics in the U.S., but his trip to L.A. on Friday has been given new impetus. On Aug. 30, the Spanish-language publication La Prensa reported that the Canadian government was set to welcome Hondurans living in the U.S. with temporary protected status, quoting a community organizer who said he had been contacted by the Canadian Embassy to explore programs. Except that never happened. The piece mirrored those that had been circulating in U.S Creole community and social media earlier this summer, cited by some of the Haitians who have arrived in Canada in recent weeks as the reason they decided to come north from the U.S. Since July, some 7,000 asylum seekers have crossed into Canada from Quebec, the majority Haitian. The surge prompted the Liberal government to hastily arrange for a Creole-speaking MP to visit Miami to try to stem the flow of arrivals. The number of people crossing per day currently sits at under 100, from a high of over 250 this summer. According to multiple government sources, just over 60 people arrived Tuesday.
Robert Laurie’s column is distributed by HermanCain.com, which can be found at HermanCain.com
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