No question about Canada’s role, says reader

September 16, 2015 · 0 Comments

(Re: Refugee Crisis should raise questions about Canada’s role, September 10)

Sadly, since 2011 there are over 12 million Syrians who have been displaced from their homes. This is because ISIS now controls over 1/3 of Syria and is desperate to take over the whole country.
It is also because of Assad’s aggression towards different Muslim sects, different from his own, who are rebelling against his regime.
Syria has extremely rich neighboring countries including Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Dubai which share a similar culture, religion and language, yet these countries have shamefully not taken in one refugee. Pressure should be put on these countries to take in refugees at least for the time it takes to deal with ISIS and Assad.
If Canada does not continue to join forces with the U.S. and other allies to destroy ISIS, the refugee crisis in the whole Middle East will continue to escalate. We need to participate in trying to stabilize Syria and surrounding regions to allow its inhabitants to live peacefully and with freedom in their own country.
We do not help the majority of refugees by adopting some families and sending them here.
We help them by dealing with the crisis in their country.
There are too many refugees on this planet, from many countries, for us to absorb a meaningful number and we need to take action that is not a Band-Aid approach.
If we only respond emotionally with knee-jerk reactions we are not truly helping these people. We are only making ourselves feel better about the problem by helping the lucky few.
This is a complex issue but one thing is clear. Mulcair and Trudeau are not interested in helping solve the root issues in Syria and therefore the number of refugees will continue to climb. Prime Minister Harper is at least making some effort through minimal military actions with the coalition to deal with the root problems.

Shelley Wister
Aurora