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FAAE Committee Report

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SUPPLEMENTARY REPORT – LIBERAL PARTY OF CANADA

  1. The Liberal Party is in agreement with the vast majority of the report on Syria but differs with the report on the issue of refugees.
  2. The Syrian refugee crisis is now recognized as the largest refugee crisis in modern times with over 2.7 million refugees spread over 5 countries (Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt) not to mention millions more displaced internally.
  3. Canada has a long standing tradition of accepting a sizeable number of refugees from many regions where conflict has occurred: Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Vietnam, Uganda, Bosnia, and Kosovo. These refugees have been welcomed to Canada and have gone on to contribute to the prosperity and cultural richness of our country.
  4. We believe that the report on Syria should make mention of one part of the verbal testimony given by Professor Momani, one of the witnesses who appeared before the Committee.  That testimony dealt with the issue of Syrian refugees. Professor Momani argued the need for a “global resettlement” plan for Syrian refugees. Quoting her, she stated, “20,000 is very reasonable” with respect to the total number of Syrians that Canada could accept.
  5. We believe that the report should have included an additional recommendation to the effect that Canada should increase the number of refugees that it will accept to a level well above the current level of 1300.