Canada pushes back deadline for accepting 25,000 Syrian refugees

[MowCowWhoHow III]

Source: Reuters

OTTAWA, Nov 24 (Reuters) - The Canadian government on Tuesday pushed back to the end of February its deadline for accepting 25,000 Syrian refugees, in an apparent concession that its original end-2015 target was too difficult to meet.

Ottawa said in a statement it would still aim to take in at least 10,000 by end-December and would give priority to complete families, women at risk and gay or transgendered people.

Although the statement did not say why the deadline had been pushed back, some provincial and municipal leaders had complained the short timeline did not allow for enough security checks to root out possible Islamic State militants.

The government said potential refugees would undergo several security checks and anyone whose application raised questions would have their files put back for later consideration.

Read more: http://www.trust.org/item/20151124212214-1b4rc

[alcina]

1. And of those "25,000"

The government is including 10,000 from private sponsors. So the actual total commitment from the government is 15,000 ... by the end of 2016 ... if they can be securely processed by then ... if ....

I sincerely hope Trudeau will eventually surprise me by keeping his actual promises. I would happily apologize to the friends and acquaintances I berated when they abandoned the NDP and became Trudeau fan-girls and boys. Some of the Liberal MPs -- and cabinet members -- seems to be much more progressive than the party itself. It will be interesting to see whether they can take the party in a new direction, if they are crushed under the weight of the machine, or if they were just pandering to the left in order to be elected. Time will tell....

[Bernardo de La Paz]

3. 25,000 for Canada. Perhaps the equally well-off USA could take 250,000 proportionally?