Justin Trudeau's Liberal government will be allowing 1,000 Palestinians, with Canadian relatives willing to support them, to obtain visas for three years as of Tuesday. Minister of Immigration Marc Miller posted a statement to the Government of Canada website December 22 that as “Canada remains deeply concerned about the ongoing war and the scale of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza,” the government made a public policy to “facilitate temporary resident visas for certain extended family affected by the crisis in Gaza.”“This public policy will provide a family-based temporary refuge for Palestinian nationals directly affected by the crisis in the Gaza Strip and who have Canadian citizen or permanent resident family members in Canada willing to support them during their temporary stay,” Miller wrote. It goes into effect January 9 and “will expire once 1,000 applications have been accepted into processing or one year after the public policy comes into effect, whichever comes first.”The policy includes “the requirement for a foreign national not to be inadmissible for financial reasons,” and that the person “establish they will leave Canada by the end of the period authorized for their stay.”“This temporary public policy may be revoked at any time, without notice,” Miller concluded. The National Council of Canadian Muslims says Ottawa is not doing enough, and there “should not be a cap” on how many Gazans can come to Canada, per CTV. Director of communications Uthman Quick said the organization has already heard from more than a thousand Canadians wanting relatives in Gaza to come to Canada. Addressing the policy in a statement Tuesday, Immigration Department spokesperson Matthew Krupovich said the cap "takes into consideration the volatility on the ground and the difficulty that Canada and like-minded countries are having in moving people from Gaza to Egypt."
