Melting snow new danger for those fleeing to Canada from U.S.

reuters ^ | Feb 27, 2017 | Rod Nickel | WINNIPEG, Manitoba

[mdittmar]

Asylum seekers crossing in the dead of night into Canada from the United States may face a new danger in coming weeks, as heavy snowpack melts in the flood-prone U.S. northern plains and province of Manitoba.

The western Canadian province on Monday said the Red River, which runs from North Dakota and Minnesota north into Canada, poses a major flood risk this spring.

Floodwaters that spread over land will make fields hard to navigate in the dark, said Bill Spanjer, emergency coordinator for the Rural Municipality of Emerson-Franklin, Manitoba, where 143 people have crossed illegally since Jan. 1, according to police, after 32 made the trip in December.

"Imagine gumbo and water," Spanjer said. "It would make even rescues difficult."

The exodus is partly out of concern they will be deported under U.S. President Donald Trump, whose crackdown on illegal migrants and travel restrictions against some Muslim-majority countries have alarmed asylum seekers.

[Peter ODonnell]

It won’t take too much of an increase in this asylum-seeker border crossing to generate a Canadian version of the Trump movement. There’s a leadership convention for the conservative party coming up in May and several candidates out of a crowded field are offering harder line suggestions than the current party leadership. Sound familiar?

In British Columbia, there are places where the border is nothing more than a ditch between two parallel roads about 20 yards apart. Sure, there’s electronic surveillance but some of these people have a ride waiting. I think the border situation between ND/MN and Manitoba is probably a combination of ignorance of Canadian law (more risk than is needed) and perhaps the desire to cross and disappear into the night. Like Minnesota, Canada has Somali communities and one would not have to be a genius to figure out why asylum seekers are not going through the border and applying directly.

However, our country is not governed by very bright people, a genius would be running three or four times the average IQ of the current Cabinet or maybe their combined total IQ.

Mind you, I assume most geniuses are liberals, they spent a lot of time at university so this does not help.

Public opinion in Canada on the refugee question is sort of like this — 100% compassionate and anti-Trump, 42% not even asked.

[swhiteman]

Not to mention black flies and mosquitoes the size of crows.
Just a reminder, don’t ware button fly jeans in black fly country.

[V K Lee]

The possibility of melting snow should make an imprint in the minds of snow flakes; and danger of flooding for many innocent victims.

[GreyFriar]

Any casualties from hypothermia I will consider to be the responsibility of the anti-Trump leftist Democrapt fanatics who are fostering and encouraging this hysteria.