Something to do

I am mostly at a loss as to how to respond to today’s events in the US, but here is one thing.

The Canada-U.S. Safe Third Country Agreement came into effect in 2004, and it states that “refugee claimants are required to request refugee protection in the first safe country they arrive in”. The United States is considered a “safe country” under this law. As of today, refugees from across the Middle East and North Africa who have spent months or years seeking status in the United States are at risk of arriving there only to be turned back to their country of origin. Because of the Safe Third Country Agreement, they cannot then seek refugee status in Canada.

Call your Member of Parliament’s constituency office. Call the office of the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, the Honourable Ahmed D. Hussen^[1], at (613) 954-1064. Write Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at 80 Wellington Street, Ottawa, ON K1A 0A2. Sign this petition. Tell your friends.