Is Canada's health care system ready to give refugees the care they need?

Last weekend, Immigration Minister John McCallum announced his plan to fully restore health care funding for refugees, reversing the controversial cuts to the Interim Federal Health Program by the Conservative government in 2012. The cuts drastically reduced refugee claimants' access to health care and were widely criticized for putting refugees' lives in jeopardy. A 2014 federal court ruling went so far as to deem the changes "cruel and unusual."

It's not yet clear exactly how quickly the Liberals plan to restore that funding. But with 25,000 refugees expected from Syria by the end of the year, experts say the change cannot come soon enough. Clinics and non-governmental organizations are already ramping up their services in preparation for the coming influx of refugees, many of whom will suffer from injury, infection, illness, PTSD, emotional trauma,

For a sense of what it's like to be on the frontline of providing that care, Brent speaks to Dr. Paul Caulford. He is the director of the Canadian Centre for Refugee and Immigrant Health Care. His clinic in Scarborough, Ontario has been providing free medical treatment to refugees in need for fifteen years.