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Malala Yousafzai, the 19-year-old Pakistani education activist who was recently named the U.N. Messenger of Peace was awarded an honorary Canadian citizenship by Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Yousafzai becomes the sixth person to join the list. The ceremony took place at the House of Commons, where Malala Yousafzai received standing ovations from the parliamentarians.
"I'm humbled to accept honorary citizenship of your country," Yousafzai said as she received the symbolic certificate of citizenship from Trudeau. "While I will always be a proud Pashtun and a proud citizen of Pakistan, I'm grateful to be an honorary member of your nation of heroes." The token certificate, however, will not grant any voting rights or citizenship privileges to the recipient. Moreover, this token action means little when in December, 2016, Trudeau's government put a cap on the number of private applications to sponsor Syrian and Iraqi refugees in 2017 to just 1,000. Canada accepts far fewer refugees per capita than most European countries.
As part of his tall promises, soon after Donald Trump's election, Trudeau once famously tweeted, “To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength #WelcomeToCanada.” But Canada is one of the few countries that reserves the rights to detain migrants for an indefinite period of time. The system has drawn contempt from international organizations such as the U.N. and the Red Cross as it "contravenes international standards, increases the detainees' exposure to violence and could trigger or exacerbate mental illnesses."
Last year in July, Canada detained 60 migrants who went on an indefinite strike. Canada outrightly chooses to ignore the U.N. recommendation that governments must release immigrant detainees after a limited period if they can't be safely deported to a different country. Currently, this "presumptive period" is 90 days in the U.S. Due to Canada's horrendous policy, some of the migrants have spent as long as 12 years in deplorable prison conditions. There are an estimated 242 children detained in Canada's detention center, according to reports.
On Trudeau's stance on the recent U.S. missile attack on Syria, University of Ottawa professor Thomas Juneau told the Global News, "Canada’s position has everything to do with staying on side with Trump and little to do with influencing anything internationally because the only role Canada has to play is as part of a U.S.-led coalition."
Canada, like the U.S., is rife with racism and Islamophobia. According to the recent studies, there are around 100 active groups said to be right-wing, ultra-nationalist, and anti-Muslim operating in Canada.
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