Questioner: Watching what's going on (in) the world stage, I'm looking at the fact that Germany, France and a bunch of other European countries just stood up on the same side of the fence when tyranny was coming down on us. We've got an open border allowing this stuff to come in freely, and what are we doing about that thing in particular? An open border. What are we doing about it? You're talking about my freedom, and everybody's lives who gave here. Everybody who put their life down on the line, and you're saying, "Ah, it's okay. It won't happen to us." It's happening in France and it's happening all over.
Trudeau: Sorry sir, what's happening?
Questioner: The people are saying no, because these two cultures will not mix.
Trudeau: Which two cultures are they sir?
Questioner: Islam and Christianity.
Trudeau: No, no, no. Sorry, sorry, okay. Hang on. Let's be-- Sorry. Democracy only works in a country like Canada if people are free to express their fears and concerns or opinions, and we get an opportunity to respond to them. So I'm going to ask you all to be respectful of this speaker's, and thank you for sharing your concerns, sir.
Questioner: I've got one other thing I want to say about it, is that they've openly stated that they want to kill us.
Trudeau: Yeah. Okay, okay.
Questioner: And you're letting them in.
Trudeau: Sir, uh.... how am I going to go about this? Canada is a country that was built by immigration. Waves of people came to this country, were welcomed by the folks who have lived here for millenea... the first nations and the folks here in treaty (unintelligible) land...
...and built this society with waves of people fleeing religious prosecution, fleeing tyranny, fleeing to try and build a better life for themselves here than they had back home. And whether it's folks fleeing from world wars, or fl-- fleeing from civil wars, these people always want the same thing: to be able to live in peace, to raise their families, and to create a better future for themselves for themselves and their communities. And that is what generations upon generations of folks have done here in Canada. And that is what has created this extraordinary diverse society we have.
Now Canada remains one of the only countries in the world where citizens are, by and large, positively inclined toward immigration. And one of the reasons we are that way is because Canadians have confidence in our immigration system. We have a system that over the past decades has done a very good job of not just, uh, having people come to Canada, but setting them up for success -- helping with integration, helping them thrive in our communities, helping them contribute to growing this country, and we are a country that -- you can look around any room and see the diversity that has made us strong.
And any given generation -- I remember talking to, uh, Italian immigrants in Montreal -- eh well -- descendants of Italian immigrants in Montreal, who would tell stories of the terrible discrimination that that first wave faced when they came over in the post-war years. It's not easy to pick up everything you have, cross an ocean, and try to build a future for yourselves. And if people are doing it, it's because they believe they can build a better future for their kids and grandkids than they could have in a place where they knew things.
Now, the question came up a lot in the last election around Syrian refugees. We will remember... uh, that we made a commitment in the 2015 election that Canada would accept 40,000 Syrian refugees in the first months of 2016. And we did that, and the way we did that was because Canadians right across the country -- church groups, community groups, families got together and pulled their resources, and welcomed in Syrian families, because these people were fleeing for their lives. From civil war, from conflict, from bombs, from a terrible future for their kids.
And they are... so grateful for the opportunity they have to contribute to a country where they don't have to fear for their kids' lives every single day, that they inevitably end up contributing in ways that we couldn't even imagine to growing our society. It doesn't mean it happens right away, there are difficulties in the first years on integration, and there's always gonna be challenges. But we know that this has been the story of Canada: people coming to try and build a better future.
And, there are always reasons to be concerned, reasons to be worried about someone different arriving in your neighborhood. But what Canadians have always known is that it's better for all of us if we're good neighbors. It's better for all of us if you're looking out for your neighbor, if you're understanding that we all build this success together.
I'm watching what's going on the world stage and I'm looking at the fact that Germany
France and a bunch of other European countries that stood up on the same side
of the fence when tyranny was coming down on us. We've got an open border allowing this stuff to come in freely, and what are we doing about that thing in particular: an open border?
What are we doing about it?
You're talking about my freedom and everybody's lives who gave here, everybody who put their life down on the line, and you're saying, yeah, it's okay, it won't happen to us.
It's happening in France and it's happening all over.
Sorry sir, what's happening?
The people are saying no because they these two cultures will not mix.
Which two cultures are those sir?
Islam and Christianity.
Booo.
No, no, okay, sorry, hang on.
Let's let's be, sorry, democracy only works in a country like Canada if people are free to express their fears, their concerns, their opinions, and we get an opportunity to
respond to them, so I'm gonna ask you all to be respectful of the speaker's question and thank you for for sharing your concerns sir.
I've got one other thing I want to say about it..
Okay.
...is that they've openly stated that they wanna kill us...
Okay, okay, okay,
...and you're letting them in.
Okay
Um, sir, how am I gonna go about this?
Canada is a country that was built by immigration.
Waves of people came to this country were welcomed by the folks who had lived here for millennia: the First Nations and the folks here on treaty for land, and built this society with waves of people fleeing religious persecution,fleeing tyranny, fleeing to try to build a better life for themselves here than they had back home.
And whether it's folks fleeing from world wars or fleeing from civil, wars, these people always want the same thing: to be able to live in peace, to raise their families, and to create a better future for themselves and their communities.
And that is what generations upon generations of folks have done here in Canada and that is what has created this extraordinary diverse society we have.
Now Canada remains one of the only countries in the world where citizens are by and large positively inclined towards immigration, and one of the reasons we are that way is because Canadians have confidence in our immigration system.
We have a system that over the past decades has done a very good job of not just having people come to Canada, but setting them up for success: helping with integration, helping them thrive in our communities, helping them contribute to growing this country.
And we are a country that you can look around any room and see the diversity that has made us strong, and any given generation.
I remember talking to Italian immigrants in Montreal, descendants of Italian immigrants in Montreal, who would tell stories of the terrible discrimination that that first wave faced when they came over in the postwar years.
It's not easy to pick up everything you have, cross an ocean and try and build a future for yourselves.
And if people are doing it, it's because they believe they can build a better future for their kids and grandkids than they could have a in a place where they knew things.
Now the question came up a lot in the last election around Syrian refugees.
You will remember that we made a commitment in the 2015 election that Canada would accept 40,000 Syrian refugees in the first months of 2016.
And we did that and the way we did that was because Canadians right across the country: church groups, community groups, families got together and pulled their resources, and welcomed in Syrian families because these people were fleeing for their lives: from Civil War, from conflict, from bombs, from a terrible future for their kids.
And they are so grateful for the opportunity they have to contribute to a country where they don't have to fear for their kids' lives every single day, that they inevitably end up contributing in ways that we couldn't even imagine to growing our society.
It doesn't mean it happens right away.
There are difficulties in the first years on integration; there's always going to be challenges, but we know that this has been the story of Canada: people coming to try and build a better future.
And there are always reasons to be concerned, reasons to be worried about someone different arriving in your neighborhood, but what Canadians have always known is that it's better for all of us if we're good neighbors.
It's better for all of us if you're looking out for your neighbor, if you're understanding that we all build this success together.
Now our immigration system does a very good job of doing security checks and screenings when people come in whether they arrive regularly through an airport or whether they cross the border from the United States in an irregular way as is happening more and more often these days than ever before, but we have an immigration system that is working.
It's not an open border policy, we're not an open country, we're a country that continues to apply every single rule of law we have on the people who arrive here.
And we're a country that continues to abide by our international obligations to be a country that provides refuge to people who are fleeing persecution and war.
That is one of the things that has made Canada great and that is one of the things that is going to be an incredible advantage for us in the world.
We have a population that is aging.
We need people to arrive with their talents, with their hopes with their dreams, with their capacities to work hard, to build our communities, to build our future.
We need to get it done right but we are welcoming in people who are being turned away from other countries for the wrong reasons and it is an incredible benefit to Canada.
You can see all sorts of stories of people who say, wow, I'm not feeling you know the usual immigration accepting countries of Canada, the United States, Australia, the UK, you know, Canada is the country that is benefitting from being able to draw in the best and the brightest because we are still understanding that immigration is an economic benefit to Canadians.
It makes our communities more resilient, it makes our country stronger, and it will continue to.
