Markham mayor slams protesters of Ottawa's plan to house up to 200 asylum seekers in York Region
'Thank goodness these protesters weren't around when other refugees came to this country'
Cbc.ca
August 2, 2018
Amara McLaughlin
Markham Mayor Frank Scarpitti slammed protesters who opposed Ottawa's move to pay for up to 200 asylum seekers to stay in hotels across York Region earlier this week, saying their actions are "based on a lot of misinformation" and seek to create a culture of fear.
"Shame on these people who have spread misinformation," he told CBC Radio's Metro Morning on Thursday.
Triage system for border crossers won't be in place until September
Hundreds of asylum seekers in college dorms will move to hotels across the GTA
Earlier this week, Ottawa announced that between 150 to 200 refugee claimants will be housed in York Region, which includes Markham, starting Aug. 1.
The move, while only temporary, will see hundreds of families lodged across the Greater Toronto Area until Sept. 30 to give Toronto and the province time to develop a strategy to deal with a recent surge in refugee claimants.
Hundreds of asylum seekers staying in Toronto college dormitories moved out Thursday and into hotels across the GTA. (Geoff Robins/AFP/Getty Images)
"It wasn't a commitment to the federal government to blow the doors wide open and take thousands of asylum seekers in Markham," said Scarpitti. "It was really about helping out a neighbour in the city of Toronto."
But the federal government's help sparked protests outside Markham city hall and an online petition of 1,000 signatures that landed on Scarpitti's desk.
Markham city council candidate Charles Jiang claims the mayor didn't consult residents before deciding to accept hundreds of refugee claimants. (CBC)
Charles Jiang, a Ward 2 municipal council candidate, was one of the organizers at the helm of the petition and protest.
Markham residents "deserve to be consulted," Jiang told CBC Toronto on Wednesday. He explained while there's no problem with welcoming asylum seekers into Canada, he highlighted that the city "doesn't have the capacity" to accommodate families.
"They never said how many are coming, how long they're going to stay, who are they, where are they coming from," said Jiang. "We're throwing those questions back to our mayor, that's all it is."
'They can't even spell Markham right'
The mayor discredited Jiang's claim on Thursday, noting he is concerned when organizers who spearheaded the online petition and protest are a group of candidates running for Markham city council in the upcoming election and "misspelled the name of the municipality they're running in."
"That kind of indicates the way in which there's focus on this thing if they can't even spell Markham right," he said.
I even wonder if they read the petition.
- Frank Scarpitti, Markham mayor
Scarpitti added he also finds it "alarming" that none of the 1,000 people who signed the petition noticed that Markham was misspelled.
"I even wonder if they read the petition or were they just told, 'Sign up because there's something bad coming to Markham?" he asked.
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"Thank goodness these protesters weren't around when other refugees came to this country," he said, noting the accomplishments of Peter Newman, Michaëlle Jean and Adrienne Clarkson that have contributed to the fabric of Canadian society.
