Citizens of the border city of Cornwall, Ontario want to know why Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government has put a welcome center for illegal refugees in their backyard.
Locals crowded a special city council meeting Monday night with questions about why a conference center is being used to accommodate some of the asylum seekers pouring across the New York-Quebec border, hoping to attain refugee status in Canada.
The Canadian military has built a tent city on the grounds of the conference center to make more room.
The city council didn’t have any answers for the anxious residents, although Cornwall Mayor Leslie O’Shaughnessy would allow that the public did have a right to know what the federal government was trying to achieve by bringing the migrants to their town.
He even admitted that some people in town are furious about being used as a depot for illegals. “There are mixed feelings within our community on what they think we should be doing,” the mayor said at the council meeting.
“We do not want to create a situation where we are dividing, having divisions in our community. The way to do that is to provide proper and clear information in a timely manner.”
The locals didn’t get many answers but were informed by Commander Bradley Nuttley, responsible for emergency management and community safety, that the illegals “had good diet, good exercise, access to health care in the past. They come with resources.”
Concerns were not dampened by the admission on Monday from Canadian Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale that the human trafficking might be a reason for the surge in illegal refugees at the border.
In an ambiguous interview with CBC News, Goodale talked about “some evidence of a deliberate disinformation or misinformation campaign being undertaken by certain people.”
Goodale said the federal government was especially concerned about U.S. travel documents that “would be perfectly legitimate and operative” in the United States.
“We will be investigating those information sources to determine what their motivation is. We’ll be particularly alert to any evidence that any money is changing hands,” Goodale told CBC. “If there is any indication of any kind of trafficking operation here, that will be, that will be treated very severely.”
Goodale says Canadian border officials are looking for “hard information” and said he would “be continuing to take up with the United States. The misuse of their travel documents or American procedures or status would obviously be something that is of great concerns to the United States.”
Trudeau insisted on Sunday that there is “no advantage” to entering Canada illegally when it comes to applying for refugee status and said people should allow the asylum process to work.
