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There was a seat sale last week to fly from Ottawa to Lagos, the former capital of Nigeria — $1,400 return, all taxes in; economy, of course — which was where federal Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen recently found himself while the House of Commons was still in session.

Although it is unlikely Hussen crammed his frame into a steerage seat to ride out that 18-hour flight, he was not there because he was scammed by one of those notorious e-mails telling him a Nigerian princess, killed tragically in a car accident, had left him multi-millions, and that all that was needed to grab this windfall was his banking information.

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No, he was sent to Lagos to beg Nigerians to wipe that now-famous unmanned border crossing in Quebec from their minds and spare his prime minister more grief for putting out that short-sighted tweet welcoming anyone wanting to flee the unpleasantries of life south of our border.

That tweet came a day after U.S. President Donald Trump issued his ban on anyone wanting to come to America from seven Muslim-dominated countries, and it offered Justin Trudeau the opportunity to unthinkingly play big man on the international campus.

“To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith,” tweeted Trudeau. “Diversity is our strength. #WelcomeToCanada.”