Refugees

I hate all the crap people throw up about the Syrian refugees that are about to be brought to Canada.

I know you've heard this one; “We can't even take care of our own homeless/veterans/poor and they should be first.”

Possibly, but we aren't going to take care of them wither or not refugees are let in. That's not how it works. It isn't a zero sum.

It's like people giving to charity at Christmas. It might be nice if we gave all year, but we don't. Some people get all preachy and loud about it, but all such an argument does is discourage people from being generous during the holidays. The overall effect is less for the poor, so just shut up about it.

Denying charity to the Syrian refugees doesn't mean more for Canada's existing poor, it just means we'll be doing less good in general.

And how did that argument about not taking care of Veterans creep in? Our former government did all it could get away with in cutting back on Veteran's care. That was before the Syrian crisis. It was a deliberate policy by a right-wing government to screw over a deserving portion of our population while cutting corporate and wealth taxes. That party, although defeated, still got the second largest portion of the vote. Not much voter outrage, it seems.

Or how about this? If you are using the “take care of our own” angle in your thinking, start writing to your MP and the PM telling them that you want spending increased enough to take care of all our own needy, and for Syrian refugees as well.

Think we can't afford it? That's nonsense. We can afford what ever we choose to. For the six years between 1939 and 1945 Canada put over a million men and women into uniform, and maintained them with a reasonable level of care, and paid them. This, at a time when our total population was just over 11 million. There are currently over three times as many of us, and if you think we can't find food and beds for 20,000 Syrian refugees for a little while, you're nuts.

I also really hate the anti-immigration argument that he foreigners are coming to take our jobs. Economies don't work that way. Let's say a country has a population of “x”, and they have “y” number jobs. Double the population to “2x”, you end up with “2y” jobs. Of course, the number of refugees coming in represents more like 0.05 percent of our population, so the increase in jobs will also be 0.05 percent. Granted, it is not instantaneous, but that's how it really works.

People also fear there are secret ISIS moles within the refugee population. There just might be, but they are saying that we should refrain from taking care of people that need help because we are afraid of a tiny threat.

And do you honestly think that an ISIS terrorist couldn't get to Canada without hiding amongst the refugees? That really seems like a ridiculously inefficient way to go about it.

Just when did Canada become such a land of cowards?

France was the victim of the recent attack, and they are refusing to be scared into denying the refugees safe haven. Their attitude seems to be that,“we decided to do what was right before we were attacked, and if it was the right thing to do then, it still is now. We will not be bullied into compromising our beliefs.”