During the depth of winter, when snow lay deep on the ground and arctic winds sucked warmth from bare skin, small groups of people from countries where snow is as unknown as poutine struggled across the world’s longest undefended border into Canada.

            Illegally, of course.

            Night after night, TV news showed video of these asylum seekers. Stumbling through snowdrifts, burdened by baby strollers or car seats. Dragging plastic suitcases. Huddled at a roadside, too numbed by bitter cold to go any farther.

            They were greeted by police officers. Who led them gently to a warm car. Who helped carry their children. Who delivered them to a border immigration station, where kindly officials helped them fill out their applications to stay in Canada.

            This is the Canada we imagine it to be. Compassionate. Decent. Hospitable.

Not so welcoming

            But at the same time, there’s another side. A recent Angus Reid poll found that 25 per cent of Canadians want to impose travel restrictions; over 40 per cent feel we’re being overrun by too many refugees.

            As Scott Gilmore wrote in Macleans magazine, “As of last month, Canada has accepted 40,081 Syrian refugees. That’s one refugee for every 857 Canadians.”

            Let’s put that statistic another way. Kelowna’s largest arena holds around 6,800 people for a hockey game. Would eight Syrian refugees -- yes, just eight -- somehow subvert the local culture?

            But political parties still foment fears of being overrun. Leadership hopefuls want to grill immigrants to make sure their “values” (whatever that means) won’t conflict with ours (whatever they are).

            There are also legitimate concerns. Such as that it’s not fair for some refugees to get a free pass into Canada, while others wait for years in refugee camps.

Legal complications

            For the last 15 years, too, Canada and the U.S. have shared a legal agreement to treat each other as a “safe” countries. Essentially, that means we trust the other country’s justice systems to process asylum claims fairly. Refugee claimants must request protection in the first “safe” country they reach. So if they come to Canada through the U.S., we should return them to the U.S. for processing.

`           So far, the U.S. is the only country considered “safe.” But what happens when a new administration’s xenophobia makes the country no longer feel “safe”?

            It’s not as if all of these border-crossers are helpless indigents. Some take taxis to the nearest border point. A few admit coming a long and expensive route: from the Middle East or Asia to South America, up through Central America and the U.S. to the Canadian border.

            Legally, we should send them back.

            But turning away a family with shivering youngsters just doesn’t feel like us.

            Gilmore again: “There is nothing we can do to stop asylum seekers from walking into Canada, Samsonite in hand. We aren’t building a wall, or even a fence. Our armed forces don’t even have enough drones to take a group selfie on the parade ground, let alone patrol over 8,000 kilometres of frontier.”

Essential discontinuity

            There are no simple answers. Because there is a discontinuity between micro and macro perspectives. You cannot always extrapolate from the small scale to the larger, and vice versa.

            Physicists tell me that, at the ultimate micro level, my chair isn’t really there. Neither am I. We both consist of quarks and gluons, which are not things at all but packets of energy measurable only as probabilities.

            But I still need a chair to sit on.

            If a shopper at the grocery cashier’s lineup can’t find a few missing coins, I will gladly give her what she needs.

            But I won’t extend the same privilege to every other shopper.

            Macro reasoning says that we can’t just throw our borders open, take anyone who shows up, anywhere. Micro says that we can’t callously turn people away.

            So what should we do about this discontinuity? Again, Gilmore offers good advice: “We can help them settle into our communities, reducing tensions with those who are less welcoming. We can find ways to help the small towns along the border who are suddenly rattled by refugee families walking over the stubble. We can publicize that crime rates among refugees are lower than among native-born Canadians.

            “And we can ignore the bigoted leeches on the fringes of our political system, people cynically turning reasonable concerns into wide-eyed panic….”

            Most of all, I suggest, we can make the way we welcome asylum seekers a model for the kind of country that they -- and we -- want to belong to.

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Copyright © 2017 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups encouraged; links from other blogs welcomed; all other rights reserved.

            To send comments, to subscribe, or to unsubscribe, write jimt@quixotic.ca

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YOUR TURN

Some of you gave me credit for knowing more about budgets than I let on.

            For example, Bob Rollwagen suggested, “It reads like you know a lot about budgets. What would be interesting is to know what amount of our social support structures are used by those below the poverty level and what the total cost of that is. Also what poverty adds to our medical system and how poverty would be impacted by a well-funded education system. All we have done in Canada for the past three decades is increase the size of the lower class.”

            I had to tell Bob I didn’t have access to the kind of figures he wanted. But I would hunch that reductions in the poverty rate would more than pay off in reduced medical costs.

Mary Collins wrote, “For someone who claims to not know anything about budgets, that's a great piece!” Mary added, “I loved your naughty 3rd paragraph” (referring to the emperor-with-no-clothes).

“That's about what I don't know about budgets, too,” Isabel Gibson admitted. She also had an addendum: “Thanks to Howard Hisdal for his knowledgeable and eloquent defence of military leadership.”

Cliff Boldt was his usual terse self: “Yep, I think you covered the issues. On May 9, our opportunity is here.”

John Willems commented, “Spending less than you take in? What a concept! You've not only solved BC's financial problems, you've also solved the obesity problem by suggesting you use the reserve when times are tight.  Your reasoning is sound -- but you probably would not get elected.”

Eduard Hiebert wanted to clear up a possible misunderstanding: “You said ‘A government contracts out most of its services.’. When one speaks of ‘contracting out’ this normally refers to one institution (like a government and/or corporation) contracting with another institution to provide a service or good. Those in the public sectors of education and healthcare such as teachers and nurses may all be under contract, however that is different from contracting out.

            “Examples of contracting out is when the government contracts a private firm to do the roadwork or snow clearing etc. That is, instead of the government hiring employees, the government hires another company to do the work, who in turn hires the people through their own employee employer contract.”

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TECHNICAL STUFF

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            My webpage is up and running again -- thanks to Wayne Irwin and ChurchWeb Canada. You can now access current columns and five years of archives at http://quixotic.ca

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PROMOTION STUFF…

            Ralph Milton ’s latest project is called “Sing Hallelujah” -- the world’s first video hymnal. It consists of 100 popular hymns, both new and old, on five DVDs that can be played using a standard DVD player and TV screen, for use in congregations who lack skilled musicians to play piano or organ. More details at www.singhallelujah.ca

            Ralph’s HymnSight webpage is still up, http://www.hymnsight.ca, with a vast gallery of photos you can use to enhance the appearance of the visual images you project for liturgical use (prayers, responses, hymn verses, etc.)

            Wayne Irwin's “Churchweb Canada,” an inexpensive service for any congregation wanting to develop a web presence, with free consultation. <http://www.churchwebcanada.ca>

            I recommend Isabel Gibson’s thoughtful and well-written blog, www.traditionaliconoclast.com

            Alva Wood’s satiric stories about incompetent bureaucrats and prejudiced attitudes in a small town -- not particularly religious, but fun; alvawood@gmail.com to get onto her mailing list.

            Tom Watson writes a weekly blog called “The View from Grandpa Tom’s Balcony” -- ruminations on various subjects, and feedback from Tom’s readers. Write him at tomwatso@gmail.com or twatson@sentex.net