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Olympic Stadium In Montreal Turned Into Welcome Center For Refugees From U.S.
NPR ^ | August 2, 2017 | CAMILA DOMONOSKE

Posted on 08/03/2017 5:32:26 AM PDT by a fool in paradise

Faced with a flood of asylum seekers traveling from the United States into Quebec, Canada, local authorities have repurposed Montreal's Olympic Stadium and turned it into a refugee welcome center.

A spokesperson for PRAIDA, the local government agency that helps refugees, tells the CBC more than 1,000 asylum seekers crossed the border into Quebec last month. "In comparison, PRAIDA helped 180 people in July 2016," the CBC writes.

The vast majority of the asylum seekers are Haitians who initially fled the devastating earthquake in 2010, and whose future status in the U.S. is unclear under the Trump administration.

The surge of refugees overwhelmed the YMCA facilities that are normally used to temporarily house new arrivals.

So the agency turned to the Olympic Stadium — specifically, to the area by the concession stands, the CBC says.

The first refugees to stay at the stadium were bused in on Wednesday, The Associated Press reports.

"Volunteers from the Quebec Red Cross helped set up the cavernous, concrete stadium for a temporary stay with cots and food in the rotunda," the wire service writes. "The stadium was the main venue of the 1976 Olympics. It has not had a main tenant since the Montreal Expos left in 2004."

The stadium will be hosting up to 450 people for several months, but cannot provide shelter permanently, given the event schedule, the AP says.

The Guardian reports on the transformation:

"It took just 24 hours for the stadium – built in the 1970s as a venue for the city's 1976 Olympics – to be converted into a welcome centre where the asylum seekers will be sheltered and receive help in finding housing and completing paperwork related to their asylum claims. "So far, 150 cots – arranged neatly into rows among the concrete walls of a windowless area ... of the stadium – have been set up, along with access to showers and a cooking area." The Haitians who make up the majority of the new arrivals are in a precarious legal situation in the U.S. Tens of thousands of people fleeing the disastrous earthquake were given temporary protected status in the U.S. under the Obama administration; that's not the same as asylum or refugee status, but it acknowledges a person can't return to their home country safely.

The Trump administration extended that status for just six months — and urged Haitian refugees to "prepare for and arrange their departure from the United States." The administration cited "Haiti's success in recovering from the earthquake," although Haiti continues to struggle with a number of crises, including an ongoing cholera epidemic, a nightmarish sewage problem and a catastrophic hurricane.

That helps explain why a sudden surge of refugees are leaving the U.S. As to why they're entering Quebec, the CBC cites the large Haitian community in Montreal.

"Obviously, there is a stronger attraction to coming to Quebec for Haitians than in other provinces," PRAIDA spokeswoman Francine Dupuis told the CBC. "They have the help of their community to get settled."

But it's not clear if the Haitian refugees arriving in Canada will be permitted to stay, the CBC reports. The challenge is fundamentally the same as in America: A government evaluation of just how bad life is in Haiti.

"Asylum seekers originally from Haiti who have crossed the Canada-U.S. border could be deported back to Haiti if their application is refused because Canadian authorities deem Haiti as a sufficiently safe country," the CBC writes.


TOPICS: Canada; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
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This was "trending" on fakebook today and it smells a bit of fakenews.

All of the sources cited in this article are other news sources (CBC, Guardian, AP, et al). A left wing media circle jerk.

The lead paragraphs on google news all read as if they were typed from the same press release.

How very queer it all is.

1 posted on 08/03/2017 5:32:26 AM PDT by a fool in paradise
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To: a fool in paradise

And we were told that people would not self-deport.


2 posted on 08/03/2017 5:33:25 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (Bill Clinton and Al Gore took illegal campaign contributions from the Chi-Coms and 'nobody' cared..)
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To: a fool in paradise
...tells the CBC more than 1,000 asylum seekers crossed the border into Quebec last month.

Were there any Rosie sightings?

3 posted on 08/03/2017 5:34:56 AM PDT by Road Warrior ‘04 (Molon Labe! (Oathkeeper))
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To: a fool in paradise

From the Montreal Gazette:

http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/montreals-big-o-used-to-shelter-haitian-refugees-flowing-from-u-s-to-canada


4 posted on 08/03/2017 5:37:00 AM PDT by Right_in_Virginia
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To: Right_in_Virginia

“It’s not good for us there now,” he said. “It’s not safe in the U.S., and I can’t go back to Haiti.”

Translation:

“It’s not good for us there now,” he said. “It’s not safe in... Haiti.” < /projection turning his hatred of his homeland against the West >


5 posted on 08/03/2017 5:40:56 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (Bill Clinton and Al Gore took illegal campaign contributions from the Chi-Coms and 'nobody' cared..)
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To: a fool in paradise

Did these northern travelers deposit their un-needed voter registration cards, as their entered the asylum?      /s


6 posted on 08/03/2017 5:40:59 AM PDT by ptsal ( Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please. - M. Twain)
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To: a fool in paradise

I must have missed the news where the earthquake persisted for 7 continuous years. They need to go back.


7 posted on 08/03/2017 5:41:42 AM PDT by Chipper (You can't kill an Obamazombie by destroying the brain...they didn't have one to begin with.)
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To: a fool in paradise

Good riddance.
Now if we could only get the Hollyweirdos to go into exile.


8 posted on 08/03/2017 5:44:06 AM PDT by Little Ray (Freedom Before Security!)
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To: a fool in paradise

Nope. Not tired of winning yet.


9 posted on 08/03/2017 5:45:32 AM PDT by Hugin (Conservatism wiithout Nationalism is a fraud.)
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To: Chipper

Each one should get a million dollars from the billions the Clintons’ ripped off, go back home to Haiti, and build a nice home or business.


10 posted on 08/03/2017 5:45:47 AM PDT by mosaicwolf
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To: Chipper

Apparently with globull warming they won’t need a change of clothes from what they wore back home.


11 posted on 08/03/2017 5:46:32 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (Bill Clinton and Al Gore took illegal campaign contributions from the Chi-Coms and 'nobody' cared..)
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To: a fool in paradise

Haitians? Those are Clinton’s refugees. Send them to her house. Bush W also since he let the Clintons take over the Haitian help $$$


12 posted on 08/03/2017 5:48:40 AM PDT by Pollard (TRUMP 2016)
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To: a fool in paradise

Smells fake.

But if it is real, I love the winning winningness we have been experiencing since Jan 20.


13 posted on 08/03/2017 5:56:04 AM PDT by robroys woman
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To: a fool in paradise
There is a large portion of liberals in Quebec who are welcoming this influx. Haiti is part of the "francophonie", in other words, they speak French. They see these refugees as reinforcing usage of the French language.
14 posted on 08/03/2017 6:01:37 AM PDT by Former Proud Canadian (Islam delenda est.)
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To: robroys woman

I suspect this ‘migration’ has been happening for some time but it hit the different wires all at the same time.

As queer as the lenghty news blackout of the corrupt DWS and the pakistani IT spies.


15 posted on 08/03/2017 6:04:32 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (Bill Clinton and Al Gore took illegal campaign contributions from the Chi-Coms and 'nobody' cared..)
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To: mosaicwolf

$1000 per person would probably buy them a house and some chickens
They aint gonna like Quebec winters


16 posted on 08/03/2017 6:21:50 AM PDT by silverleaf (We voted for change, not leftover change)
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To: mosaicwolf; Pollard

Haiti should be a paradise with the millions (billions) of dollars sent there since that earthquake, but it is still a hell-hole. Where did all that money go????? My church has made Haiti their outreach project and members go down there several times a year, as well as, asking for money, money, money. It doesn’t get any better, year, after year, after year......................


17 posted on 08/03/2017 6:34:30 AM PDT by Polyxene (Out of the depths I have cried to Thee, O Lord; Lord, hear my voice.)
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To: a fool in paradise; Liz

The vast majority of the asylum seekers are Haitians who initially fled the devastating earthquake in 2010, and whose future status in the U.S. is unclear under the Trump administration.

So what happened to the vast/large amounts of money the Clintoon Crime regime raised to help these people?


18 posted on 08/03/2017 6:48:22 AM PDT by Grampa Dave (Voting for Trump to be our President, made 62+ million of us into Dumb Deplorable Colluders, MAGA!)
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To: Grampa Dave
The Haitians are escaping to Canada.....So what happened to the vast/large amounts of money the Clintoon Crime regime raised to help these people?

Good question.....the conniving Clintons are most adept at monetizing natural disasters, and pocketing the monies that pour in.

NOTE---Haitian-Americans gathered at the Clinton Foundation to protest ..... telling the media that all of the billions were laundered through the nefarious Clinton Foundation. Not one penny went to poor Haitians.

19 posted on 08/03/2017 6:54:36 AM PDT by Liz (Four boxes to defend liberty: soap, ballot, jury and ammo; used in that order.)
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To: ptsal; Liz

“Did these northern travelers deposit their un-needed voter registration cards, as their entered the asylum? /s

Thanks for posting your /s.

These people will still be voting in our elections for decades.

They will still be getting income tax refunds inspite of not working.

They will be getting some of our SS $’s as disabled for decades until President Trump says not more!

Last but not least, did these people get any of the millions of $’s, that the Clinton Crime Family raised for them?


20 posted on 08/03/2017 6:54:50 AM PDT by Grampa Dave (Voting for Trump to be our President, made 62+ million of us into Dumb Deplorable Colluders, MAGA!)
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