Pressure mounts on Stephen Harper to do more over refugee crisis
Stephen Harper said he rejected accusations from his political rivals that he using security as an excuse not to do more about the refugee crisis in Syria.
"We don't have to choose between more refugees and proper screening of applications for security. We don't have to choose between humanitarian and military support in the region," Harper said during a partisan rally in Kitchener Wednesday evening.
"We're doing all of these things and we will keep doing all of these things."
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But pressure continued to mount on the Conservative leader for Canada to do more to help ease the Syrian refugee crisis.
Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall became the fifth provincial leader in recent days to respond to the international crisis.
"We have identified another $150,000 that we're going to provide to the cause. We have asked the minister, Jeremy Harrison... to find out how best we can allocate these dollars and possibly even discuss what else, what more can be done... we'll take advice from the non-governmental agencies that are involved and the resettlement agencies," Wall said on Wednesday.
"We had actually, over a month ago, indicated to the federal government that we wished to increase our refugee intake by 15 per cent."
Refugees want to come to Canada in part b/c it is safe. We need to ensure that it remains safe as well as compassionate. We can do both.
—@PremierBradWallWall echoed harper's sentiment that bringing in more refugees while conductung security checks was not mutually exclusive.
We're providing $150k in add'l support to local settlement & church grps for refugees. We support effective screening and security measures
—@PremierBradWallFormer Conservative ministers and former diplomats also added their voice to the debate on what more Canada can do to help.
'I believe that there are ways in which government departments and agencies who are responsible for security screening can work effectively together if this is a priority.
"If welcoming more refugees to Canada becomes a national priority then resources will have to be applied to that."
— Glenn Davidson, former Canadian ambassador to Syria on CBC News Network, Sept. 9, 2015.