• Maria Horner outlined available merchandise items including 2 styles of toques, graciously modelled (with much derision from members) by Bill Pegg.
• Mac Graham talked about his annual trivia night. More info to follow by email.

50/50 Draw:

• Marc Engle, Todd Aitchison, John Vickery tried for $148.00. No winners.

Guest Speaker:

Bryn McOley Topic: Refugee Crisis.

• Bryn was the recipient of the Rotary Peace Scholarship and is completing a paper on Canada’s Immigration and Refugee issues (perceived).
• The issue has been highlighted by irregular border crossing through non-traditional border areas as opposed to formal border crossing points. An “irregular” crossing by a foreign person is not “illegal” unless the entrant fails to appear at the nearest office of Canada Border Services or the RCMP.
• Canada still follows the safe 3^rd country protocol with the U.S.
• In a survey 67% of Canadians feel we have a crisis on our hands and that Canada can’t handle any more immigrants. The Opposition Conservatives believe we should abandon this protocol and that the entire border must be deemed a crossing point. In that scenario, all people who cross would be processed immediately and returned to the U.S. or their home country.
• Since 2016, over 58,000 refugee / irregular migrants have entered Canada. By contrast, over 1MM have entered Germany, 2MM have entered Turkey and 1MM have entered Lebanon. Over 400,000 have entered the U.S.
• Bryn’s Conclusion: we do have a situation regarding migrants and a backlog of assessing and processing them. We do not have a crisis.