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The Official Opposition NDP has written the UN’s refugee chief asking him to weigh in on revelations the Conservative government is trying to cherry-pick which Syrian refugees to accept into Canada.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres has not commented on the Conservative government’s push to prioritize religious minorities as a condition for resettling thousands more Syrian refugees over the next two years.

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Instead, the UN has been quietly resisting Canada’s request, as its policy is to help the most vulnerable, no matter their religious background. This includes families led by women, torture victims and those with serious medical conditions.

The disagreement is reportedly why Canada remained silent at a major UN conference in Geneva last week as other countries promised to help the world body resettle 100,000 Syrian refugees by 2017.

In his letter to Guterres, NDP foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar notes the UN urges countries not to select refugees with “discriminatory selection criteria” such as ethnicity or religion.