Immigration ministers from the provinces and territories gathered with federal minister, Ahmed Hussen, in Winnipeg today to discuss the issues they’re facing.

“It’s divisive, it’s fear mongering and it’s not Canadian”

Ontario and Quebec have recently been dealing with an influx of asylum seekers straining the resources of the nearby cities of Toronto and Montreal.

As the meeting closed, Ontario’s new minister, Lisa MacLeod, refused to sign the communique, as she felt her province’s concerns were not being addressed.

MacLeod is part of the recently elected Progressive Conservative government under Doug Ford, who appears to be following the Trump playbook, scaling back on green initiatives for example.

In a first meeting with Prime Minister Trudeau on July 5th, the PM later explained to reporters how he’d educated the new premier about what Ford calls “illegal border-crossers” and Canada’s obligations to asylum seekers under the Geneva Convention.

In the build-a-wall rhetoric emanating from south of the border, the issues around immigration, asylum seekers and refugees, are becoming more contentious in Canada.

“They’ve chosen to use false language with respect to so-called queue-jumping, when we have told them over and over again there is no such thing,” Ahmed Hussen said at the closing press conference today in Winnipeg.

“Asylum seekers are processed in a separate queue at the IRB and all the other regular immigration programs are processed by IRCC, and conflating the two knowingly is irresponsible, it’s divisive, it’s fear mongering and it’s not Canadian, and it’s very dangerous.”

Unlike most of the other immigration ministers, Hussen knows what he’s talking about through first-hand experience.

At 16 he arrived in Canada as a refugee from Somalia with just a change of clothes in his bag.

He registered for high school, the put himself through university and became a lawyer,

He was president of the Canadian Somali Congress. and in the last federal election, he ran successfully for the Liberal party in Toronto,

He doesn’t talk much about his experience as a refugee, or the journey to Canada, but last fall in a New York Times interview, he shared some of his insights with Catherine Porter.

Ahmed Hussen, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, discusses the situation of irregular migration as Ralph Goodale, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, looks on Monday, May 7, 2018 in Montreal. (CP/Paul Chiasson)

“When you go through that refugee experience, it is not a free ride,” Mr. Hussen told her. “You have this really long journey of settlement and integration that is very hard. You have to sort out the big stuff as well as the everyday things.”

Lisa MacLeod is the representative from Ontario. She is the province’s Minister Minister Responsible for Women’s Issues, Minister of Children, Community and Social Services

Back in Winnipeg today,she spoke to reporters following Hussen at he press conference:

“I am not going to get into a debate on semantics with the minister,” she said, “but I did request that he take into consideration these exorbitant costs which … is about $174 million on top of the $3 million that Ontario provided to the Red Cross.

“I was expecting that we would be able to collaborate on that. Instead, what I saw here today was … him calling me un-Canadian, which I take great offence to. And I so hope he will apologize and reconsider his language.

“There is a problem at the border, the border must be enforced and … Ontario should be made whole for all of the costs that we’ve incurred.”

In a tweet later, Ms. MacLeod said, “The minister should sit down, have a nice cup of tea, calm down a little bit, and maybe phone me and apologize for calling me un-Canadian.