There are many thousands of Canadians, particularly those who have been seduced by the fear mongering of our Prime Minister (the same guy who hides in closets when the going get's tough), who fear that letting in Syrian refugees will lead to terrorist attacks in their community. Perhaps these few thoughts from Canada's former Chief of Defence Staff, Rick Hillier will help calm their frayed nerves:
Former Chief of Defense Staff, Rick Hillier acknowledged there are security risks in fast tracking refugees into Canada, but said they can be contained.
This is an excerpt from an interview on CBC News by Katharine Starr and Karen Jouhal published September 13, 2015.
"Doing it quickly doesn't mean you have to take short cuts," he said.
He outlined a proposal where workers on the ground would screen refugee applicants as part of the selection process.
"First, we can go with children who are orphaned, who've lost their moms and dads, who are all alone," he said.
"Go with young women, older women who are perhaps on their own. Go with single-parent families or go with comprehensive families, and you're going to have 50,000 refugees in a heartbeat. And almost none of those is going to be any kind of security threat whatsoever."
This is what our nation has done for 147 years. Let's do it again.
Hillier also suggested talking to the refugees in the camps to help assess the security situation.
"Those refugees will tell you anybody that's different, anybody they suspect of having violent intentions or being a terrorist or being inserted into those crowds, and we can easily do the assessment....
"We've got to stop being frightened of our own shadow. You know, we live in a dangerous world. We handle it pretty well."