Of course, the individuals chosen to speak before the committee have been chosen for their particular views on the subject, in keeping with the one-sidedness of the farce that has been entitled: Canada’s Fast-Track Refugee Plan: Unanswered Questions and Implications for US National Security.
Rather than look at Canada’s plan to see how masterful the Canadian government was in screening 25,000 individuals, along with how our neighbor to the North did so with the cooperation of the U.S. on security measures, the Senate committee decided to show through questionable testimony the risk to terrorism has been increased.
Committee lead, Republican Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, set the stage by asking the witnesses to speak to the “growing” threat of Islamic terrorism and address the threat of Canada’s “unsecured” border, reports Vice.
The committee is hearing from two Canadians that have been critical of the Trudeau government’s refugee plan. One is a Canadian lawyer, David B. Harris, who in the late 1980s served a very short time with Canada’s intelligence agency. While Harris did offer up some outrageously unproven statistics about the threat of terrorism in Canada, he had no criticism of the way the screening program was handled.
Vice quoted Harris: “You would have, for a group of 10,000 (refugees), at just a one per cent failure rate, between five to eight terrorist units each capable of doing one of our cities what they did to Paris,” figured Harris, guessing that most terrorist sleeper cells have roughly a half-dozen members. “If you then multiply numbers for the 25,000 contemplated in Canada, you could be looking at 12 and 20 terrorist units.”
Harris has a track record in Canada for keeping the terrorist threat alive and in the media. He has referred to Canada as a “happy hunting ground” for Islamic extremism. In a story in The Daily Beast in December, he said that Canada was beginning to resemble a “tribal homeland,” although Vice says the quote was later deleted.
To counter the one-sided comments, the top Democrat on the committee, Senator Thomas Carper of Delaware, entered a letter from the Canadian Embassy into the record. The letter outlined the procedures used for the screening of refugees and also pointed out that they will not be Canadian citizens for years and will need a visa to enter the U.S.
In the letter, Canadian ambassador in Washington, Gary Doer, who along with Canada declined to testify in the “kangaroo court,” said, “rest assured that no corners, including security screening, are being cut in order to achieve the government’s objectives.”
“I think we should support our ally Canada in doing the right thing,” Carper said, reports CTV News Canada. “As we do that, let’s keep our eye on the ball. Vilifying refugees coming to the United States or Canada only serves as a distraction from the real challenge of defeating ISIS on the battlefield and combating homegrown violent extremism.”
With immigration and Islamic terrorism being a hot topic on the campaign trail, it’s no wonder that Republicans are trying their best to formulate fear and distrust. If the GOP had its way, we would have a wall 20-feet high surrounding the country, and that is just as ridiculous as the sham that is taking place in Washington today.
