Article content continued

On Thursday, the last night stats are available for, there were 6,868 people seeking urgent housing from the City of Toronto. Stats also show that the number of illegal border crossers/asylum seekers looking to the city has grown over the last two years from fewer than 700 to more than 2,500 a night.

In Ottawa, the numbers are smaller but still putting a strain on the system.

In a letter that was written in December but obtained by the media last week, Mayor Jim Watson wrote to Trudeau’s social service minister Jean-Yves Duclos to ask for extra funding.

Photo by Chris Young / THE CANADIAN PRESS

Watson pointed out that Ottawa’s shelter system has seen a spike in families seeking assistance including, “refugees/refugee claimants seeking emergency placement.”

The City of Ottawa had almost 600 applications, mostly from families, seeking emergency shelter as of the end of November. Watson said those requests were from “refugee claimants entering Canada via the United States only.”

Trudeau’s response to all of this?

So far it has been to offer a little bit of funding and a lot of lecturing.

“The kind of fear-mongering, the kind of intolerance, the kind of misinformation going on across the country and around the world is something all of us have a responsibility to engage with a positive and a thoughtful way,” Trudeau said the other day in New Brunswick.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or

Of course, engaging in a thoughtful way would not include dismissing those that have concerns about the current system as racists.