REFUGEE CRISIS GIVES TORIES AN OPPORTUNITY
The project requires engagement from across the political spectrum
Battered and bruised, and facing the imminent rollback of much of its legislative agenda of the past 10 years, the Conservative party has a sterling opportunity to reclaim some precious moral high ground. Tentative toes have been dipped into these waters. What remains is for a leading figure of the party — a potential future leader, say — to dive in headlong.
Such a plunge would begin with the acceptance of this premise: Not everything Prime Minister Justin Trudeau does is wrong. In particular, the Liberal government’s professed determination to help refugees from the Syrian war is absolutely right.
It is in harmony with Canadian values and traditional Conservative values. It is in keeping with the will of the people, as expressed in the recent federal election that turned to a significant degree on issues of pluralism, inclusiveness and, yes, refugees. It is a project that must have engagement across the political spectrum, at all levels of government, if it is to succeed. The Conservative caucus can play a constructive role in this, while exercising its obligation to act as a check on the cabinet.
The tragic picture of little Alan Kurdi, dead on a Turkish beach, has faded somewhat from the public mind. It’s been replaced by images of the Paris attacks, during which faux-religious sociopaths killed 129 innocents. The previous day, they killed 43 in Beirut; days before that, 224 on a Russian airliner. Meantime, the Syrian refugee crisis threatens the cohesion, and thus the security, of a borderless Europe.
It’s no wonder many are rattled. The nightmare scenario — terrorists slip onto a refugee transport bound for Canada and unleash their terror on Calgary, Toronto, Quebec City or Vancouver — is on everyone’s mind, whether acknowledged or not. It is not racist to worry. Nor is it xenophobic to seek instinctively to protect those nearest and dearest when danger looms. It’s human nature.
Leadership, though, requires that people rise beyond first instincts and quick reactions, to apply reason and compassion, toughness and wisdom. This country appears blessed with more than its share of strong leaders, in this regard: municipal and community heads continue to step up to help with refugee settlement, initial emotional public reactions to Paris notwithstanding.
For the truth is that conflating Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorists with Syrian refugees does not bear scrutiny. It is belied by the fact that most of ISIL’s victims are Muslim; that the refugees Canada seeks to rescue are already in camps administered by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and have been for years; that the Paris terrorists held European Union passports and thus could presumably have entered Canada simply by getting on a plane, had they wished to; and that the attacks in Canada last October were carried out by homegrown ISIL wannabes. The refugee selection process is believed to be geared toward helping families with young children. Moreover, the security services are carrying out checks on every potential refugee.
Is this an ironclad guarantee of perfect security? No. The reality is there is no such thing. The socalled Islamic State has declared war on civilization, and civilization must be open in order to remain itself. Until ISIL’s medievalist, savage, lunatic interpretation of Islam is defeated and its safe harbours in Iraq and Syria destroyed to the last brick, and even beyond, there will be no reducing the risk of terrorist attack to zero.
Indeed, living free requires the bearing of some basic level of risk — unless we plan to stop going to hockey games, restaurants and rock concerts — just as pluralism in a wealthy democracy requires a hand extended to the dispossessed in their hour of greatest need.
To repeat, this is a Conservative value. It was a Conservative prime minister, Brian Mulroney, who led the Commonwealth countries in opposing apartheid in South Africa in the 1980s. The decision by Stephen Harper’s strategists to walk away from their party’s long tradition of pluralism, especially in the recent campaign with its niqab-baiting and barbaric-practices tip line, figured significantly in its defeat.
This isn’t to say it isn’t legitimate for Conservative leaders to question the necessity for an arbitrary Dec. 31 deadline, as interim Tory leader Rona Ambrose and Toronto Mayor John Tory have done, sensibly. But that message can take two forms. The first says slow down because this whole refugee venture is a bad idea in the wake of Paris. The second says slow down, if you see the need, to ensure it’s done properly — and no one will accuse you of being a promise-breaker.
That second path can begin to re-brand Canadian Conservatism, never mind marginal tweaks over tone. It remains to be seen if any of the party’s grandees have an appetite for such bipartisan madness. It is a torch waiting to be seized.
The decision by Stephen Harper’s strategists to walk away from their party’s long tradition of pluralism, especially in the … campaign with its niqab-baiting and barbaric-practices tip line, figured significantly in its defeat. — Michael Den Tandt Leadership … requires that people rise beyond first instincts and quick reactions.