Right now, it would be judicious of the Conservative government to relax its tight restrictions on refugee sponsorship and annual quotas in order to gain favour during the federal election campaign, writes Marlene Epp who teaches history and peace and conflict studies at Conrad Grebel University College at the University of Waterloo. Her opinion piece appeared in the Kitchener-Waterloo Record Sept. 10. But what is really needed, she writes, is an election campaign that puts forward an overall and ongoing framework of inclusion and compassion for refugees in addition to a politically expedient and crisis-driven response. The world's attention is focused on the current crisis of human security in which thousands of Syrians and others from the Middle East and Africa are seeking asylum, mainly in Europe. Many Canadians are demanding that our governments at all levels do more to open the nation's gates to desperate people fleeing conflict in their homelands.
