January 12, 2019
Justin Trudeau said it is “dangerous” to blame his immigration policy for crimes committed by the immigrants he welcomed into Canada.
At a recent town hall in Kamloops, British Columbia, Trudeau also said that looking at crimes committed by refugees and migrants was not “helpful or useful” in Canada’s multicultural society.
An audience member asked the Prime Minister about the murder of a 13-year-old girl, allegedly at the hands of Syrian refugee, and raised his concerns about the safety of Canadians amidst Trudeau’s open border policies.
“In an interview you did with Macleans, the interviewer said, ‘a lot of people say that if it hadn’t been for the surge in Syrian refugees after the 2015 election, this guy would not be here.’ To which you replied, ‘I’m not one of those people who said that,’” said the audience member.
“My question is, can you guarantee that Marrisa Shen was not killed by a Syrian refugee who came to Canada after you were elected. And if not, what in your opinion is the acceptable number of Canadian lives lost as a result of your policies on refugees?”
“I told you we were going to hear from a wide range of perspectives here,” quipped Trudeau in response to this heartfelt question.
“The generalizations and the danger that we get into when tying things like immigration policies to incidents like this is something that I don’t entirely know is helpful or useful in a diverse, pluralistic, inclusive society like ours.”
“To set up a false dichotomy that says, well part of everything we need to do to keep Canadians safe is to keep people from away out of this country, is simply not the way we are as Canadians” added the Prime Minister.
Marrisa Shen was raped and murdered in cold blood in a park near her home in Burnaby, B.C. in July 2017.
She was just 13-years-old when this horrific crime took place. Police have stated it was a random attack, and that Shen did not know the man who attacked her.
Ibrahim Ali, 28, has been charged with her murder.
Ali came to Canada as a refugee from Syria just three months earlier. While the Trudeau government had a specific policy to exclude single, military-aged men like Ali from our Syrian refugee resettlement program, Ali still managed to come to Canada with his extended family.
In 2016, months before Ali came to Canada, Trudeau defended his decision to bring 25,000 Syrians to Canada on a rushed timeline during an interview with 60 Minutes.
The American interviewer raised a question that few Canadian journalists have ever had the chance to ask our Prime Minister. She asked if he was worried about the possibility of one of Trudeau’s Syrian refugees carrying out a terrorist attack.
“I am more than comfortable that… accepting 25,000 Syrian refugees does right by both the safety of Canadians and by the values that define us as a nation,” said Trudeau.
In the same 60 Minutes interview, Trudeau said he believed his approach was superior to the immigration policies of President Trump.
“Ultimately being open and respectful towards each other is a much more powerful way to diffuse hatred and anger than … big walls and oppressive policies.”
The Shen murder trial is still in its initial phases, and True North will continue to report on any updates to this case.
