FEATURED HEADLINE
The Trudeau Liberals have presided over a complete meltdown in Canada's asylum system, turning what was once a controlled and fair process into a chaotic free for all that has compromised national security and invited widespread abuse. What began with Justin Trudeau's 2017 tweet essentially inviting the world to cross the border irregularly exploded into a crisis: asylum claims skyrocketed from around 17,000 in 2016 to over 190,000 in 2024, with the backlog ballooning from 17,537 to nearly 300,000 pending cases by late 2025 a staggering 1,450 percent increase that no amount of staffing hikes or budget increases could contain.
To cope with this self-inflicted overload, the Immigration and Refugee Board operating with apparent impunity under Liberal watch rolled out the "File Review" policy in 2019 without cabinet approval or meaningful government oversight. This shortcut allowed claims from a secretive list of 24 high-risk countries, including Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, Yemen, North Korea, Russia, Eritrea, and Venezuela, to be rubber-stamped as positive refugee decisions based solely on written applications. Between January 1, 2019, and February 28, 2023, exactly 24,599 individuals from these dangerous jurisdictions were granted asylum without a single in person interview, without any direct questioning, and without the basic credibility checks that in person hearings provide. This meant skipping the single most reliable method for spotting lies, forged documents, fraud, or links to terrorism relying instead on paper files that smugglers, traffickers, and bad actors know how to game.
The results have been predictable and damning. Canada's asylum acceptance rate climbed to a record 79.8 percent in recent years, dwarfing rejection-heavy rates in peer countries like Germany (around 41 percent), Sweden (60 percent rejection), and Ireland (70 percent). This generosity acted as a magnet, pulling in bogus claims from students, tourists, and others exploiting the system as a backdoor to permanent residency. Former Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen publicly griped in 2018 about Nigerians abusing tourist visas for illegal crossings, yet his government later included Nigeria friendly shortcuts in the process. More recently, Minister Marc Miller called it "alarming" that thousands of foreign students were filing asylum claims as their visas expired, admitting the framework had become an easy entry point.
Security lapses were not abstract. Union leaders testified before Parliament that frontline screening was routinely skipped due to staffing shortages and pressure to move cases faster, letting claimants enter Canada before proper checks. A chilling 2024 example involved a Pakistani national from the high-risk list who was arrested mid-claim for allegedly plotting a terrorist attack on Jewish targets in New York proof that the paper only approach leaves gaping holes for real threats to slip through, including potential Iranian regime operatives or others from terror-linked regions.
Despite tripling IRB staff from under 1,000 to over 2,500 and boosting the budget to $350 million, the Liberals failed to fix the mess they created. The File Review experiment not only failed to shrink the backlog but arguably worsened it by signaling to the world that Canada was an easy mark encouraging more fraudulent applications and overwhelming resources further. Genuine refugees suffer longer waits, taxpayers foot endless bills for social supports, and everyday Canadians bear the heightened risks of unvetted individuals in their communities.
This is the legacy of Liberal mismanagement: electoral promises of boundless compassion devolved into reckless shortcuts that prioritized clearing politically toxic backlogs over protecting the country. The system is broken, trust is shattered, and the Trudeau era's open-door experiment has left Canada exposed and vulnerable.
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