Canada's Justin Trudeau reminds The Daily Show why Syrian refugees matter
For most of Hasan Minhaj's report on Syrian refugees in Canada, he's playing the typical Daily Show correspondent role of trollish devil's advocate, warning about the danger of Syrian refugee terrorists crossing the border from Canada to the U.S. — a risk that is seriously featured on Fox News, he points out. His first interview was with a group of Canadians who promote private sponsorship of Syrian refugees, a Canadian immigration system Minhaj called "KickStarter for terrorists." He met with one family of Canadian Syrian refugees. And then he sat down with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and that's where a good segment became great.
Minhaj and the young, progressive prime minister engaged in a little trash talk and light inspirational banter about the importance of refugees, then Minhaj asked a serious question. If even 0.01 percent of the refugees get radicalized, that could mean 25 terrorist attacks in Canada. "How can you go to sleep knowing that risk is imminent?" he asked. Trudeau said this: "We live in a world where there are always risks, and the question is, how much do you want to live in fear of those risks? The best counter to the type of radicalization and marginalization that we've seen in other parts of the world is to create an inclusive society where everyone, including and especially Muslim Canadians, have every opportunity to succeed just like anybody else."
Trudeau's subsequent metaphor of immigrants as different flavors reminded Minhaj about America's melting pot, and he ended on a hopeful note — and an inspirational quote from an unlikely source. Watch his report below. Peter Weber
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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
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