University study attacks government over treatment of children of illegal immigrants

Prior to this reshuffle, Trudeau and his government were under increasing attack over its border policies, especially in the wake of the McGill University report. Criticism came from the left New Democrats (44 seats in the Federal Parliament) and from the right Conservatives (99 seats) and both called for an emergency study of the government's response to illegal immigration.

The Ontario Province Premier Doug Ford has also been a bitter critic of the policy saying that Trudeau's government has been encouraging "illegal border crossings to come into our country". Ontario is where the overwhelming majority of illegal immigrants arrive, and Premier Ford recently said that this had "resulted in a housing crisis, and threats to the services that Ontario families depend upon. This mess was 100 per cent the result of the federal government, and the federal government should foot 100 per cent of the bills."

Well, what a surprise the reshuffle was.

A new Cabinet post was created – the Minister of Border Security and Organised Crime Reduction - and its newly appointed Minister is Bill Blair, a first-term MP and the former Police Chief of Toronto, Canada's most populous city.

Governments always try and name Departments and the titles of Ministers as part of a strategy to send a message to their electorates that they are serious about issues which will be the responsibility of those Departments and Ministers. This is why Peter Dutton wasn't just named Minister for Immigration but Minister for Immigration and Border Protection in 2014. The Ministerial titles of "Border Protection" and "Border Security" tell the voters the same thing.

But why should the newly minted Minister's title also include "Organised Crime Reduction"? Increasing numbers of illegal immigrants are involved in organised crime as well as rapes, murders and assaults and that has become an issue of concern in Canada. Mr Trudeau knows he has to address it.

According to the CBC Political Editor, Chris Hall, the reshuffle "kicked off his 2019 re-election campaign" and that of the new or reshuffled Ministers, "…perhaps the most significant of all, former Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair is being handed responsibility for border security and reducing organised crime as head of a new department whose precise mandate seemed unclear even to him."

"…whose precise mandate seemed unclear even to him"? This hardly suggests that a lot of thought has been given to just what the new department will do when it is created. Hall continued, "Whatever the role turns out to be in practice, Blair's primary marching orders are entirely political. He's to reassure that the border with the US is secure, that the federal government will reduce gun violence in cities like Toronto and that people entering this country to claim asylum are legitimate refugees."

Even the CBC has conceded "tens of thousands (of illegal immigrants) have made the trek which has stretched social services in Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa, cities that are housing these people as they await refugee board hearings to determine the veracity of their asylum claims."

And, further, adding to the notion that Mr Blair's appointment had more to do with trying to win political points than actually doing anything practical, Hall wrote, "His department doesn't yet exist. It will have to be hived away from Public Safety and Immigration."

There were critics of the appointment, especially from the always prickly leaders of Quebec Province, the country's only province with a majority of French speakers. They don't seem to like the fact that Mr Blair can't speak French, even though the provincial government is also governed by his political party, the Liberals.

PM Trudeau, when announcing Mr Blair's appointment that a "big part" of his job will be combatting the opposition narrative "that tens of thousands of migrants are entering Canada via dead-end roads in Quebec or farmers' fields in Manitoba are proof the government has no plan and no money to deal with the border crisis."