Aside from pointing out that this article is brought to us by Janell Ross at the Washington Post, there really isn’t much more of an introduction required here. A native New Yorker has petitioned Canada to grant him refugee status because cops are racists in the United States. This is apparently a thing which actually happened. (WaPo)

Kyle L. Canty, a native New Yorker, went before Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board in Vancouver and asked the country to grant him refugee status.

That’s the official term for political asylum-seekers granted permission to remain, work and live in another country. Canty told Canadian immigration officials that after living in seven different states, he has faced what he describes as harassment and undue targeting by police in each one of them because he is a black man. And, Canty says, the recent spate of high-profile cases involving alleged police misconduct and black male private citizens have only affirmed his fears that this pattern might wind up costing him his life.

Under Canadian law, those seeking permanent refuge in the country must provide evidence that they face grave danger in their homeland. That evidence can include “well-founded fear of persecution on the basis of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or affiliation or membership in a particular group,” the CBC reported.

Right off the bat here I want to offer a tip of my hat to Mr. Canty. Every election cycle here in the United States we hear an endless stream of people threatening to move to Canada. Democrats did it when George W. Bush was reelected and I heard some conservatives at least threatening to do so when Obama won a second term. But it’s rare that you actually see anyone doing it. So well done, Kyle. Way to stick to your guns. (Or lack of guns if you’re in New York City, that is.)

Ms. Ross has done her homework on this story, I must admit, finding precedent which could apply to Canty’s case. It turns out, as she informs us, that there have been other such requests granted by our neighbors to the north, some in quite recent history.

In 2014 Denise Harvey, a white Florida woman convicted in that state of having sex with a 16-year-old boy, sought and won asylum in Canada after she was sentenced to 30 years in prison. (In Canada, 16 is the legal age of consent in most cases.) Immigration officials granted Harvey refugee status after she fled to Canada with her family on the grounds that the punishment she faced in the United States was cruel and unusual.

You know, it seem to me that this case offers some real opportunities for improvement in our own country. First of all, the Canadians just elected a whole slate of liberals to run the country, so who knows what they might be willing to go along with? Canty could have a real shot at having his request accepted. And it sound s to me like Kyle is precisely the sort of citizen they should be looking for to improve their diversity and grow their population. (Black Canadians account for slightly more than two percent of the population there, so they need to beef up their numbers.)

But really, aren’t the SJW missing out on an opportunity here? If you really think that the police in the United States are so uniformly horrible that innocent citizens are being mowed down on a daily basis while minding their own business based on nothing more than their demographic profile, Canada could be just the ticket. The Canadians are also one of our major partners in all international matters and, as I mentioned, they need to diversify their population a bit. (To be clear, there are plenty of white people out there protesting the police as well, but they tend to be young and full of energy. I’m sure Canada could use them as well.) This could be a win win for both countries if it caught on in a big way. We just need their government to rule on Kyle’s case and get this movement started.