John Manley appears on CTV's Question Period to discuss the Safe Third Country Agreement between Canada and the United States. John says reducing the number of migrants coming into Canada at irregular crossings isn’t just a question of renegotiating or scrapping the deal, but rather the focus should be on the federal government being able to better control the border.
John led Canada's negotiations of the 2002 agreement as Deputy Prime Minister and is one of its signatories.
He says the number of refugees in the world “breaks your heart,” and that Canada has a “responsibility as a wealthy country” to welcome them, but “we should choose them, and they should come in on a manner in which we provide for their support.”
"The federal government has some responsibility because of its control of the borders to do that. We shouldn't be leaving cities and provinces stranded because of an uncontrolled flow of people coming in claiming to be refugees.”