Canuck

  Friday, 27 August 2004

The Globe and Mail-Parrish defies Martin in U.S. 'idiots' uproar < 10:59:34 PM>.

Maverick MP Carolyn Parrish has rejected Prime Minister Paul Martin's request to withdraw her comment that the United States and other missile-defence supporters comprise a "coalition of the idiots."

She said yesterday that her verbal attack was aimed only at supporters of missile defence -- not all Americans, or even the U.S. government -- but that she didn't regret her comment or the way it was phrased. "This is a very apt word."

Fleeing sunny Latin America, refugees flock to Whitehorse < 10:52:49 PM>.

[GAM-National] 'Mildred Orozco swears it was the Arctic poppies and salubrious mountain air that brought her to Whitehorse, not the prospect of dodging immigration authorities in the land of the midnight sun.

She is one of more than 50 refugee claimants from Latin America who have made the gruelling, four-day, $130 bus trip from Toronto to Whitehorse in recent weeks -- much to the surprise of the Immigration and Refugee Board, which receives so few claims in Yukon it doesn't even have a satellite office there.

"People in Canada think the Yukon is dark for six months of the year and that only aboriginals in their sleighs live here, but it is beautiful and the people are so nice," said Ms. Orozco, a 29-year-old Costa Rican who arrived last month with her husband and three children.

"We are hoping to find a better and more peaceful life here."

The family, from sunny San Jose, hasn't yet lived through a Yukon winter, when temperatures at times can drop to -50 C and darkness descends for 18 hours a day. [snip]

The Orozcos fled Costa Rica in March and initially made their refugee claims in Toronto (at the time, Costa Ricans did not need visas to enter the country). The couple became frustrated after failing to find work and affordable accommodation in Toronto, and read about Whitehorse on the Internet.

The bus trip was arduous, especially for the children, but the beautiful scenery and buffalo, moose and baby black bears they saw en route made up for the fact that they couldn't bathe for several days.'

Fantastic. I hope there is a follow up story.