OTTAWA — Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne says over-inflated national security concerns around the acceptance of Syrian refugees must not be used as a mask for racism.
And her Quebec counterpart Philippe Couillard says politicians have a responsibility not to feed racism and xenophobia as the current refugee debate unfolds.
Their tough words were greeted with loud applause today at the Canada2020 policy conference in Ottawa, where the two premiers spoke at length about climate change, federalism and refugee policy.
Wynne and Couillard both say they're currently in discussions with the new Liberal government in Ottawa about the logistics of accepting 25,000 Syrian refugees by the end of the year.
The Ontario premier says the compressed time frame for taking in the refugees presents logistical issues about where they will be housed, but she says the country has managed such influxes before and can do so again.
Couillard noted that Quebec accepts about 50,000 new immigrants every year and that it was already anticipating 3,600 Syrian refugees before the Trudeau government took office last month, so another couple of thousand is not a big deal.
