NDP REALITY CHECK: After breaking all his previous promises, Stephen Harper makes new promises on refugees

Stephen Harper is once again promising to accept more refugees from the Middle East. Let's look at his record:

“Canada to resettle 1,300 Syrian refugees by end of 2014” – Press release, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, July 3, 2013

So what happened?

“Immigration Minister Chris Alexander was secretly warned in the spring that Canada would not fulfil its promise to the United Nations to accept 1,300 Syrian refugees.” – Ottawa Citizen, November 16, 2014

Instead of coming clean with Canadians about this, Chris Alexander misled Canadians and even hung up during a media interview.

“Alexander also knew that only a handful of Syrian refugees had been approved to come to Canada when he dodged news media questions on the subject earlier this year, even hanging up in the middle of a national radio interview on the subject.” – Ottawa Citizen, November 16, 2014

After breaking their original promise, last January Stephen Harper decided to make an even bigger promises – to settle 10,000 refugees, but not pay for them.

“Ottawa is expecting private organizations, such as church groups, to shoulder the majority of the burden for resettling these newcomers – a decision expected to strain the capacity of these sponsors.” – Stephen Chase, Globe and Mail, January 7, 2015

So while Conservatives make more and bigger promises today, they still refuse to say how many refugees from previous promises have actually been resettled in Canada.

Stephen Harper’s refugee plan is not working for Canada. That’s why more and more Canadians are putting their trust in Tom Mulcair to bring change to Ottawa.