Tories highlight past efforts on refugees, unable to elaborate on new fast-tracking measures

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Stephen Harper is assuring Canadians the government is expediting the intake of Syrian refugees but the actions his campaign cites when pressed for details are past efforts to speed up a sclerotic process and not new attempts to fast-track asylum seekers.

Immigration Minister Chris Alexander and Mr. Harper have talked of accelerating the processing of refugee applications since public attention was galvanized last week by the tragic image of three-year-old Alan Kurdi lying dead on a Turkish beach.

The Prime Minister, who is resisting calls to expand Canada's response to the refugee crisis, repeated his insistence Wednesday that his government is committed to "expediting the process."

The Tories say they couldn't make Mr. Alexander available to answer questions, noting he is in a tight race for his Toronto-area seat and has to dedicate himself to the riding campaign as much as possible. The Conservative candidate last week temporarily suspended his campaign to address the Syrian refugee crisis and has since returned to the hustings.

A Conservative campaign spokesman was unable to elaborate on what the Tories might do to accelerate the processing of Syrian refugees.

The party official, who spoke only on condition they weren't identified, could only talk of past efforts to speed up processing.

The government has eliminated the backlog at a refugee application processing centre in Winnipeg, more than doubled the number of staff working on applications at Canadian embassies in Beirut and Amman from what it was 12 months ago and has made applications from Syria and Iraq a priority since 2014.

Still, Ottawa is facing growing pressure from Canadian religious leaders, premiers and municipal politicians to do more in light of the tide of refugees flooding Europe and the increased media spotlight on the plight of Syrians.

NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair this week suggested using the Canadian military to transport Syrians to Canada.

Mr. Harper has cited security concerns and the need to carefully screen applicants from "a terrorist war zone" before bringing them to Canada as a reason for resisting calls to do more. More than four million Syrians, their country plagued by a bloody civil war and Islamic State terrorists, have fled for refugee camps in nearby countries or new lives elsewhere.

Even premiers with whom Mr. Harper is on particularly good terms, however, seem to be pressing for more compassion from Ottawa.

"I don't accept the fact you can't do more without risking security," Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall told reporters in Regina Wednesday as his government announced money to help refugees resettle in the province.

"I would hope we are doing whatever to make sure that screening and security process can be done as quickly as possible so we could … perhaps take more."

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau challenged Mr. Harper's security rationale on Syria, comparing how previous prime ministers responded to humanitarian crises.

"Quite frankly, security concerns didn't stop Wilfrid Laurier from bringing in record numbers of Ukrainians," Mr. Trudeau said in Toronto.

"Louis St. Laurent didn't let security concerns stop him from welcoming – at the height of the Cold War – tens upon tens of thousands of Hungarian refugees.

"Joe Clark certainly didn't let security concerns prevent Canada from welcoming tens upon thousands of boat people fleeing what had been a war-ravaged area of the world."

The Conservative government made two specific commitments to Syrian refugees in recent years. In mid-2013, two years after a civil war began in Syria, Ottawa pledged to resettle 1,300 by the end of 2014 – a promise it fulfilled in early 2015. In January, 2015, the Tories promised to take another 10,000 Syrians by 2018 – and more than 1,000 of these refugees have already arrived.

A Conservative Party spokesman estimated there are about 5,000 Syrian refugees currently in the application process.

Mr. Harper also made a campaign pledge in August to resettle 10,000 additional refugees from Iraq and Syria over four years with a preference for religious minority groups in the predominately Muslim region who face persecution or the threat of extremist violence.

Separately, the federal government in recent years has also resettled 22,000 Iraqis in Canada.

A Department of Citizenship and Immigration spokeswoman, pressed to explain what new efforts are being made to accelerate the intake of refugees, talked mainly of efforts that have already taken place. Sonia Lesage said the department, however, continues to "look at ways to streamline processing."

With a report from The Canadian Press