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NDP Leader Tom Mulcair, centre, speaks to UNIFOR members as he is flanked by (left to right) Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, NDP candidate for Parkdale--High Park Peggy Nash, and NDP candidate for Spadina-Fort York Olivia Chow before walking in the Labour Day Parade in Toronto on Monday, September 7, 2015.Michelle Siu/The Canadian Press

NDP Leader Tom Mulcair says he's reached out to Prime Minister Stephen Harper's office for discussions on the Syrian refugee crisis.

Mulcair told a crowd at a Labour Day parade in Toronto that only Harper has the power to address the matter.

He also says the NDP wants a commissioner to deal specifically with the issue of Syrians fleeing the chaos in their country.

The Syrian crisis gained renewed prominence last Wednesday after the widely publicized drowning deaths of two young Syrian boys and their mother, who apparently wanted to join family in British Columbia.

Millions have fled war-ravaged Syria since 2011, but fewer than 2,400 Syrians have been resettled in Canada during the last two years as part of an overall commitment to accept 11,300 people.

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