Plastered beneath headlines this morning were pictures of a dead little boy, only five years old, lying face-down amid the incoming waves on a Turkish beach. With other members of his family, he drowned in the Mediterranean Sea. The family were Syrian refugees in Turkey trying to make their way to Greece aboard a boat that capsized.
The
National Post reported that a Canadian relative of the family in Vancouver had attempted to sponsor their refugee application, but it was rejected because of red tape and lack of documentation. They were in large measure victims of the ongoing oppression of Kurds by Turkey, who are terrified that any Kurdish independence in the region. Near insurmountable roadblocks are placed before anything that would serve as a catalyst for Turkey's own persecuted Kurdish minority. As the outstanding journalist
Terry Glavin reports in The Ottawa Citizen, "
like thousands of other Syrian Kurdish refugees in Turkey, the UN would not register them as refugees, and the Turkish government would not grant them exit visas."
Canada has recently taken in many thousands of refugees from the Levant despite myriad difficulties involved with absorbing refugees from ISIL and the Syrian civil war. The challenges in sorting and integrating people from a part of the world dominated by violent, radical ideologies has made itself apparent in Canada during the past decade.
Most come to Canada to find safety and freedom and attempt to join the fabric of Canadian life. But a substantial number have also brought with them the vicious hatred and murderous aspirations that have made their homelands as bad as any of Hieronymus Bosch's worst visions of Hell.
To see how that plays out in Canada's dynamic, you need look no further than the thousands of bloodthirsty Islamist fanatics who take to the streets of cities like Toronto at their annual "
al Quds Day,"
reverentially brandishing pictures of the maniacal Ayatollah Khomeini, and calling for a jihad against Jews and Americans.
We have to contend with organizations comprised of such immigrants and refugees such as Palestine House and The Canadian Arab Federation which actively promote hateful antisemitism and anti-western propaganda, and which express enthusiastic support for terrorist organizations.
The Canadian Arab Federation recently lost two court cases in which they attempted to sue the federal government for a resumption of funding to pay for their "refugee resettlement programs." Think of that for a moment when you consider the overwhelming difficulties the government faces with refugee issues. Most countries in the world would consider it reasonable and sensible to inter such people as the membership of The Canadian Arab Federation until the earliest opportunity to deport them, but we in Canada allow them to bleed taxpayers and exploit our court system.
What this demonstrates is that in order to process and integrate refugees from the most problematic immigrant populations in the world, time and care are required. But that's not much of a concern for the bulk of Canada's media. The overt bias that the mainstream media has against Stephen Harper's government is such that rather than being a tragedy, a dead child has become a jackpot for them to celebrate as a means of bashing the Conservatives in the upcoming election.
Behind displays of hand-wringing and masks of outrage, there's a barely disguised glee that media ghouls like
The Globe and Mail's
Tabitha Southey have at the opportunity to play with a little boy's cadaver. For them, it's a happy windfall where they can
groundlessly accuse Immigration Minister Chris Alexander and the Conservative government of being the cause of his death.
A
severely biased report at the tax-funded CBC News by Nahlah Ayed implies a unique blame on Canada, of all places:
...One UN official in tiny Lebanon — which currently houses about two million Syrian refugees, among many other nationalities — complained to me in 2012 that they had high expectations of Canada with regard to resettling refugees. Those expectations, she said, were repeatedly dashed.
Many ask whether Canada has done enough to help Syria's refugees, whether it is even obligated to do so...
According
to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees' own statistics for the most recent year available, 2013, Canada is a world leader on accepting refugees. Canada has taken in the 3rd highest number of refugees in the world from the top ten refugees countries of departure and as a percentage of refugees accepted to its population, Canada ranks sixth of all countries. By any measure, Canada and the current Canadian government is punching well above its weight. Under Stephen Harper's government, Canada has taken in more immigrants and refugees from Muslim countries in conflict than all of Canada's previous governments combined. There are many, even in Canada's Muslim community, such as Western University Professor Salim Mansur, who believe the extent of immigration to Canada and the way it is done without properly ensuring immigrants are prepared to adopt western values is a threat to our national security.
These are very serious matters that require careful and patient consideration.
But for Canada's media, using a dead child as a prop for political propaganda is too enticing an opportunity to pass up in favor of genuinely examining a serious dilemma.
UPDATE (6:30 PM) : ...Citizenship and Immigration Canada said it received no refugee application from the father of the two drowned boys.
It did, however, receive an application for Abdullah Kurdi's brother, Mohammed, but said it was incomplete and did not meet regulatory requirements for proof of refugee status recognition.
Tima Kurdi confirmed later in the day that her family had only made an official request for Mohammed Kurdi, explaining she and her husband could only afford to sponsor one brother...
