At a townhall event in Surrey, Andrew Scheer made a very big deal about the border and the “integrity” of our immigration system. At the centre of it is his invention is the mythology that the #WelcomeToCanada tweet two years ago somehow opened the floodgates. It’s ridiculous on its face, and it ignores the context during which that tweet happened – the recent election of Donald Trump, and the talk of the “Muslim ban” that was ramping up tensions and causing a spike of panic among asylum seekers and refugee claimants in the States, as well as a demonstrable rise in hate crimes. And we can’t forget that within days of this tweet, the Quebec City mosque shooting happened, from which there was a direct correlation drawn to the rhetoric of Trump and his surrogates around Muslims. Trudeau was attempting to take a different approach, and to highlight the decision to bring over Syrian refugees when Trump and his surrogates were insisting that it would be bringing in terrorists (recall the “poisoned Skittles” meme), but Scheer is choosing to ignore all of this.

And then there’s the entire mischaracterisation of the immigration and refugee determination systems, and the very deliberate conflation of the two. They’re separate, and are resourced separately, which makes the constant attempt to portray asylum seekers as somehow disadvantaging “legitimate” immigrants a deliberate attempt to turn immigrants against refugees and asylum seekers. Scheer will then insist that he’s not anti-refugee – that he’s met people in refugee camps who don’t understand why other people can cross the border and “jump the queue” – except of course that there isn’t an actual queue, but rather a process. In fact, those in the camps are usually chosen for resettlement by the UNHCR, and often done by private sponsorship – something that Scheer is a big fan of. In fact, during the Harper era, they reformed a lot of the refugee system to try and offload as much responsibility for resettlement onto the UNHCR, and to more heavily weight private sponsorship over government. (Note that Maxime Bernier is making a big deal about taking more responsibility for refugee determination away from the UN, which could create a wedge, or push Scheer to up his tinfoil hattery around the UN’s processes). Again, asylum seekers who cross the border are separate from those processes, and don’t have the same system impact, because it’s not Canadian officials doing most of the work. It’s another artificial dichotomy that ignores the context of the situation of these asylum seekers and seeks to again create divisions between people involved in those separate processes. Nothing about refugee claimants or asylum seekers is actually impacting the “integrity” of the immigration system – it’s a false dichotomy.

But it’s a wedge, and one built on lies, which is what Scheer is hoping for. Is there a cost to asylum seekers? Yes, absolutely. But we also need to remember that Canada is getting off extremely lightly by sheer virtue of our geography, surrounded by ocean on three sides and the US border on the other, which filters out the vast majority. Scheer shouldn’t expect sympathy from anyone about the influx we’ve seen (which, I remind you, is not out of step with historic norms). In a world facing a migrant crisis, with more displaced people since the Second World War, there are far more who would argue that Canada isn’t doing enough, and telling lies to make it look like we’re under siege because of a single tweet is more dangerous than he realizes.

Good reads:

• At the Milton townhall, Justin Trudeau said that China wants him to override the courts and release Meng Wanzhou, but he won’t.
• Trudeau also keeps saying he’ll be positive in the next election, but is still taking shots at Andrew Scheer – who also insists that he’s the positive one. Okay, then.
• In China, Michael Spavor got another consular visit.
• The Lima Group meets in Ottawa on Monday, where they hope to plot a path forward for a future democratic government in Venezuela.
• The Canadian International Trade Tribunal rejected a complaint about the procurement process for new warships.
• The RCMP has had to apologise for privacy breeches, one of which involved sexual assault victims’ information.
• The Federal Court approved a $100 million class-action settlement around disabled veterans.
• Here’s a preview of the upcoming Senate committee debate on the new gun control legislation.
• Facebook insists that they’ll be ready for the next federal election and that they will monitor for foreign interference like they didn’t in 2016.
• In light of Thursday’s Supreme Court of Canada decision on orphan wells, here’s a look at how it impacts those on the ground.
• In light of revelations during the Mark Norman trial, here’s an exploration of ways in which bureaucrats have looked to avoid Access to Information requests.
• Saskatchewan NDP luminaries are saying that Jagmeet Singh’s obstinance over letting Erin Weir return to the fold has harmed the party in that province.
• François Legault now admits there’s Islamophobia in Quebec, but insists it’s not commonplace. Girl…
• Former Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Vickers submitted his resignation as ambassador to Ireland, which could mean he’s going to run for New Brunswick Liberal leader.
• Alan Freeman delves into that “one tax return for Quebec” issue the Conservatives are suddenly exercised about, and explains why it’s a Very Bad Idea.
• Chantal Hébert previews the coming battle in Quebec over the “secular dress code” that the CAQ is trying to implement, with a federal election coming.
• Matt Gurney points to the flaws in the government’s election interference protocol, citing intractable issues like civic illiteracy and immature political party cultures.
• Susan Delacourt looks at Trudeau’s trip to Milton this week, and about the dynamics of “old” and “new” in the city and what it says of the coming election.
• Colby Cosh reads that PBO report on the Trans Mountain purchase and puts it into proper context, which the majority of reporters in this city didn’t do.
• Paul Wells wonders at what point Parliament became an old man yelling at clouds, passing useless motions of performative outrage with no hope of exerting influence.

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