Editor:
It is with sadness that I read Gilles Mailhiot’s letter, Canada’s new Prime Minister a threat to country, published in the Dec. 9 edition of the Tribune.
I find it appalling that someone would invoke religion as an excuse to deflect from their own shortcomings.
I moved to Canada from a country whose leader has recently been named “Person of the Year” by Time Magazine.
A country that has, this year alone, taken in more than one million refugees.
To my knowledge it has not been documented that even a single one of those refugees has turned out to be a “jihadist.”
Does Mr. Mailhiot seriously believe that a potential “jihadist” will enroll in a refugee program in the faint hope that, years later, he or she may be accepted by Canada or another country?
Seemingly, he has not researched this topic sufficiently.
If he had, he would know that the recent tragedies in this respect were perpetrated by people holding passports of countries whose citizens would face little scrutiny at our borders and who could arrive here within hours, as opposed to living in refugee camps for years with no guarantee of being accepted.
His comments are hurtfully divisive and have the potential to incite misgivings, hatred and fear towards our brothers and sisters of this world.
However, I am surely speaking from the heart of the majority of Canadians when I beg Muslims to consider that Mr. Mailhiot speaks only for a tiny fraction of Canadians, possibly only for himself in our city.
The refugees are not the problem, Mr. Mailhiot’s attitude is. If Williams Lake is fortunate enough to receive refugees I will be there to welcome them with open arms and will assist them where I can.
Bernd Eisele
Williams Lake