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Maybe it’s a bad idea to make policy by way of Instagram. Maybe it’s right to say that this crisis has been brewing for years and that thousands of other boys have been lying abandoned and dead on beaches. Maybe it’s kneejerk and unfair – improvised and impetuous. Maybe. Or maybe past indifference is no excuse for an inadequate ongoing effort. Maybe a single searing image is what’s sometimes required to jolt people out of their lethargy, galvanize public interest and brew popular demand for a fuller response.

Our government’s policy to date, championed by this minister, has not been sufficiently robust – taking in too few people in need, relying too much on private sector sponsors in the place of direct government action and permitting domestic politics to infect our humanitarian response. Of course we can’t save every life at risk. But we can do a lot more than we have been doing.

In fairness, it is complex and unforgiving territory. Immigration ministers have been striking the wrong balance, playing to the political bleachers and screwing up our refugee policy for decades, in governments of every stripe. On top of all that, let’s keep in mind that Alexander has a boss. He serves at the pleasure of the prime minister. So perhaps we’re expecting too much to expect much different.

Harder to excuse was the petty, nasty tone that accompanied Alexander’s initial defence of the government’s refugee policy. He scolded critics, deflected responsibility, questioned others’ commitment and, when backed into a corner of his own making, attacked the media as being to blame for it all. It came to a head on the Wednesday edition of CBC’s Power and Politics. Alexander grew hostile as he struggled to explain his position, eventually challenging the show’s host, Rosemary Barton. In full bluster, he tried bullying her, saying that the network had never discussed the issue before (not true) and had certainly never before interviewed him on the topic (only true because he had refused to participate in such broadcasts).