Mayor, federal minister want to hear more from Axworthy on bringing stranded refugees here

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This article was published 12/12/2018 (1961 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — Manitoba leaders say they’re interested in a proposal from Lloyd Axworthy to have Winnipeg lead an effort to resettle Central American refugees spurned by the Trump administration.

Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman and federal Trade Minister Jim Carr both said Thursday they’re looking forward to receiving a formal proposal from the former Canadian foreign affairs minister.

They were speaking a day after Axworthy threw down the gauntlet, telling the Free Press he wants his hometown to resettle victims of gang and domestic violence who have travelled to the border between Mexico and the United States, which has turned them away.

President Donald Trump’s administration has barred refugee claims on both grounds.

Bowman said he expects to meet with Axworthy soon to see how the idea could be developed to help some of the estimated 7,000 people stuck in Tijuana, Mexico.

“Winnipeg is a place of sanctuary for new immigrants as well as refugees,” Bowman told reporters Thursday after city council’s meeting, noting that Ottawa is responsible for immigration policy. “We’ve grown our community by opening our doors to the world and I want to see that continue.”

Bowman noted that Ottawa is responsible for immigration policy.

“Within that framework, we want to continue to be a place that provides a place of sanctuary for those that are fleeing persecution in other countries,” he said.

In Ottawa, Carr hailed Axworthy for having “no understanding of the word retirement” and his advocacy for refugees.

“I would want to talk with my colleagues who have more direct influence on the file. But when Dr. Axworthy (he has a PhD in political science from Princeton University) has specific suggestions on an issue that’s important to Canadians, then we’re interested in hearing it,” said Carr (Winnipeg South Centre).

Axworthy served as Canada’s former minister for immigration and foreign affairs in the ’80s and ’90s, and has become an advocate through the World Refugee Council.

He recently visiting the so-called caravan of migrants from Central America, and found many were barred from making asylum claims in the U.S.

The statesman said this week that the Trump administration is “basically discriminating or biased against those who are most likely to be victims of violence.”

Canada accepts asylum claims from people who have escaped what they can prove as gang violence or domestic abuse, but only when Canadian tribunals rule that the applicant cannot safely live in another part of their home country.

— with files from Aldo Santin

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca