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<strong>The</strong> International News Weekly Canada<br />
November 09, 2018 | Toronto 04<br />
Canada and United States not facing<br />
asylum seeker crisis: UNHCR official<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Canadian</strong> Press<br />
OTTAWA : Neither Canada<br />
nor the United States<br />
is experiencing a crisis in<br />
asylum claims, says the<br />
United Nations' assistant<br />
high commissioner for<br />
refugees.<br />
Volker Turk, an Austrian<br />
in charge of refugee<br />
protection for the UN, was<br />
in Ottawa this week to<br />
meet with <strong>Canadian</strong> border<br />
officials. He said in an<br />
interview that Canada's<br />
recent spike in irregular<br />
migrants is nothing compared<br />
to the millions of<br />
refugees who pour every<br />
year into much poorer<br />
countries.<br />
Likewise, the migrant<br />
caravan making its way<br />
through Mexico toward<br />
the United States, numbering<br />
in the low thousands of<br />
people, is small compared<br />
to the vast migrations<br />
borne in recent years by<br />
countries like Lebanon,<br />
Jordan and Turkey, which<br />
have taken in over five million<br />
Syrian refugees.<br />
"A lot of the media<br />
debate that we often see<br />
is that there are hordes of<br />
people coming to the industrialized<br />
world -- that's<br />
absolutely not true," Turk<br />
said.<br />
North America has<br />
largely been shielded from<br />
the true global crisis of <strong>68</strong>.5<br />
million displaced persons<br />
in the world fleeing war<br />
and conflict, he said.<br />
"I think it's important<br />
to put everything in perspective<br />
and to bear in<br />
mind that when people<br />
talk about a 'crisis' these<br />
days, these crises are far<br />
away from North America<br />
or from Europe, they are<br />
taking place often in the<br />
poorest countries in the<br />
world who need our support,<br />
need our solidarity<br />
and who need also our humanity."<br />
Political rhetoric whipping<br />
up public concern<br />
over the asylum-seekers<br />
has been rising in recent<br />
weeks, led by politicians in<br />
both Canada and the United<br />
States.<br />
In Canada, the federal<br />
Conservatives regularly<br />
refer to the influx of tens<br />
of thousands of asylum<br />
seekers crossing "irregularly"<br />
into Canada via nonofficial<br />
entry points from<br />
the U.S. as a border crisis<br />
and have used the <strong>issue</strong> to<br />
galvanize their base and<br />
criticize the Liberal government.<br />
In the U.S., President<br />
Donald Trump has spoken<br />
more and more harshly on<br />
the <strong>issue</strong> of "illegal aliens"<br />
as he continues to push for<br />
a wall across his country's<br />
border with Mexico.<br />
In the lead-up to the<br />
American midterm elections<br />
this week, he was especially<br />
aggressive on the<br />
migrant caravan: he said<br />
its participants are part<br />
of an invasion and has deployed<br />
the military to the<br />
border.<br />
Nevertheless, Turk<br />
said, the U.S. continues<br />
to have a "robust" asylum<br />
system with checks and<br />
balances.<br />
Turk said 90 per cent of<br />
the world's refugees who<br />
cross international borders<br />
do so far away from<br />
both Canada and the United<br />
States.<br />
"I think it is important<br />
never to lose sight of what<br />
we face globally today. <strong>The</strong><br />
real crises in this world<br />
are in the Ugandas of this<br />
world, are in Turkey, are<br />
in Jordan, are in Lebanon,<br />
are in Ethiopia, are in<br />
Pakistan and Iran, where<br />
countries host literally<br />
millions of refugees year<br />
in and year out," he said.<br />
Canada has indeed<br />
been cognizant of this and<br />
has been closely monitoring<br />
the rise in migration<br />
patterns, particularly in<br />
the Americas, according<br />
to government documents<br />
obtained under access-toinformation<br />
law.<br />
Officials within the International<br />
Trade Department<br />
have raised concerns<br />
about this, notably over<br />
how the Trump administration's<br />
"hard-line rhetoric"<br />
could lead to an influx<br />
of irregular migrants from<br />
Central America into Canada.<br />
Trump has moved to<br />
end temporary protected<br />
status for hundreds of<br />
thousands of foreign nationals<br />
living in the U.S.<br />
and has vowed to kill the<br />
Deferred Action for Childhood<br />
Arrivals (DACA) program<br />
for people who grew<br />
up in the U.S. after their<br />
parents brought them illegally<br />
as minors.<br />
<strong>Canadian</strong> officials<br />
noted in a September 2017<br />
briefing document that<br />
two-thirds of America's<br />
DACA beneficiaries are<br />
Mexican nationals, and<br />
warned that if a lot of them<br />
decided to come to Canada,<br />
it would place tremendous<br />
pressure on Canada's asylum<br />
system.<br />
Canada has been working<br />
with Turk's agency to<br />
help Mexico build its capacity<br />
to handle asylum<br />
claims from Central Americans.<br />
<strong>The</strong> work has included<br />
training provided by <strong>Canadian</strong><br />
immigration officials<br />
to their Mexican counterparts<br />
on assessing refugee<br />
claims and protecting<br />
claimants.<br />
Turk says the effort has<br />
already seen success, with<br />
asylum applications in<br />
Mexico rising from 2,000 in<br />
2016 to 10,000 in 2017.<br />
"Mexico traditionally<br />
has been a country of transit,<br />
so many people did not<br />
apply for asylum," he said.<br />
"Even in the last couple<br />
of days we have seen an<br />
increase in asylum applications<br />
(in Mexico), so<br />
it's obvious that Mexico<br />
needs support both when<br />
it comes to the asylum<br />
system as well as when it<br />
comes to helping them integrate<br />
refugees."<br />
Celebration of Ontario’s Hindu Heritage<br />
Mississauga : A packed<br />
house of close to 3000 people<br />
gathered at the International<br />
Centre to celebrate<br />
Ontario’s Hindu Heritage,<br />
at the Hindu Heritage Celebration<br />
event attended by<br />
leading political figures and<br />
dignitaries and highlighted<br />
by the presentation of the<br />
first Global Hindu Award to<br />
Dr. Subramanian Swamy,<br />
Member of Parliament, India<br />
and one of India’s leading<br />
intellectuals and ardent<br />
champion of Hindu causes.<br />
Ontario’s Hindu heritage,<br />
witnessed through<br />
more than 500,000 people of<br />
Hindu faith in the province,<br />
was formally recognized<br />
in the Ontario legislature,<br />
when all parties unanimously<br />
approved a private<br />
member’s bill, tabled by<br />
MPP Joe Dickson, to declare<br />
November as Ontario’s<br />
Hindu Heritage Month.<br />
Following up on that recognition,<br />
a group of dedicated<br />
Hindus, with support from<br />
several temples in Greater<br />
Toronto, celebrated the<br />
first Hindu Heritage event<br />
in November 2017 at Vishnu<br />
Mandir, long recognized<br />
as one of the most visible<br />
beacons of Hindu faith in<br />
the region. <strong>The</strong> success of<br />
the event motivated the organizers<br />
to make the event<br />
an annual affair on a bigger<br />
scale and the International<br />
Centre was chosen to host<br />
this year’s Hindu Heritage<br />
Celebration event.<br />
Speaking to a vocal<br />
and enthusiastic audience,<br />
Dr. Swamy spoke about<br />
India’s and Hinduism’s<br />
great heritage and how<br />
they were closely intertwined.<br />
He referred to the<br />
interaction between India<br />
and China for more than<br />
two millennia, giving the<br />
example of Bodhidharma,<br />
a Buddhist monk from<br />
Kanchipuram in South<br />
India, who took his knowledge<br />
of Indian martial arts<br />
to China, where it subsequently<br />
evolved to what<br />
we now know as Karate.<br />
Other examples he cited of<br />
Indian and Hindu culture’s<br />
spread included far flung<br />
places such s Indonesia and<br />
Latvia. He spoke passionately<br />
and with authority<br />
on the importance of Ram<br />
Mandir to Hindus and the<br />
legitimacy of the cause. He<br />
applauded the convergence<br />
of Hindus from many parts<br />
of the world, in Canada<br />
and acknowledged the fact<br />
the three main organizers<br />
of the event had been born<br />
in India, Uganda and Guyana.<br />
He exhorted Hindus<br />
in Canada to ensure that all<br />
children learn Sanskrit between<br />
the ages of 7 and 11,<br />
and also to learn the Devanagari<br />
script.<br />
<strong>The</strong> highlight of the<br />
morning was the presentation<br />
of the Global Hindu<br />
Award to Dr. Swamy. <strong>The</strong><br />
award was specially conceived<br />
and created to recognize<br />
one prominent Hindu<br />
whose dedication to the<br />
Hindu causes and ability<br />
to fight for them against adversity<br />
is a great motivator<br />
to Hindus around the world.<br />
Mr. Ray Gupta, President<br />
and CEO of Sunray Group<br />
became the first exclusive<br />
sponsor of the Global Hindu<br />
Award, which included a<br />
cash component of $25,000.<br />
<strong>The</strong> award is expected to<br />
become an annual affair.<br />
Prior to Dr. Swamy’s<br />
Keynote address, a galaxy<br />
of public figures spoke at<br />
the event, Representatives<br />
from federal, provincial<br />
and municipal governments<br />
who brought greetings<br />
and spoke to the audience.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Indian government<br />
was represented by High<br />
Commissioner Vikas Swarup,<br />
who had flown in from<br />
Ottawa specially to attend<br />
and who remarked that<br />
this was the largest gathering<br />
of Hindus in Canada<br />
he had seen. Other leaders<br />
included federal minister<br />
Kirsty Duncan, the longest<br />
serving Hindu minister in<br />
Ottawa, Deepak Obhrai,<br />
Minister Michael Tibollo<br />
from Ontario Government,<br />
the newly elected Mayor of<br />
Brampton, Patrick Brown<br />
and many others. Participating<br />
Hindu organizations<br />
included Vishnu Mandir,<br />
BAPS, SVBF and many<br />
others. <strong>The</strong> event itself was<br />
held under the banner of<br />
the <strong>Canadian</strong> Museum of<br />
Indian Civilization.<br />
<strong>The</strong> key organizer of<br />
the event was Laj Prasher,<br />
who heads the Tortel group<br />
of companies, supported by<br />
Ramesh Chotai, President<br />
of Bromed Pharmaceuticals<br />
and Dr. Budhendranauth<br />
Doobay, the Chairman<br />
of Voice of Vedas, with<br />
a number of individuals<br />
and organizations providing<br />
financial support for<br />
the event. <strong>The</strong> organizers<br />
expect to repeat the event<br />
next year at an even bigger<br />
venue, and hopefully every<br />
year thereafter.<br />
For more information,<br />
please contact Laj Prasher<br />
at (416) 822-5001