Canada: Leader of the Free World

http://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/06/opinion/canada-leader-of-the-free-world.html

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President Trump has just released his revised executive order barring refugees and immigrants from certain predominately Muslim countries. We’ll see if it fares any better with the courts.

I deplore Trump’s tendency to scapegoat refugees and bar the gates to some of the world’s most desperate people, but it’s not just Trump who is doing this. It’s a global pattern — with a powerful exception right next door to us, in Canada.

The United States has been in convulsions after accepting just 12,000 Syrian refugees. Meanwhile, Canada has taken in 40,000, with more on the way. Canada was historically as xenophobic in its immigration policy as any other country, but in the last 50 years it has recast itself and is today perhaps the country that best reflects the ideals of the Statue of Liberty.

I recently wrote a column on this subject, and now here’s a video of Canada’s remarkable leadership on refugees, offering an example for all the world. This is one of several videos I made with Show of Force, a production company, as part of a project called Humanity on the Move about the global refugee crisis. A special thanks to the team there, especially Josh Bennett.

In this same series, you can see my video about my own refugee roots, and a video about President Trump’s roots and hypocrisy on immigrants, and the wrenching video of a Honduran girl at risk of being sent home to be raped or murdered.