Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson and refugee organizations are leading efforts to welcome Syrian refugees to Ottawa, but say they are facing complications because of the federal government.
Watson is hosting an information forum this afternoon and evening on how local residents can respond to the Syrian refugee crisis. Hundreds of thousands of Syrians and other people from Africa and the Middle East are pouring into Europe and seeking refuge in other countries — including Canada — as they escape war in their homelands.
“The whole purpose is to try to bring as many experts as possible under one roof and, in essence, share their knowledge and information with those many hundreds of people that are very interested and wanting to help,” says Watson.
There are two main ways that refugees can come to Canada. The first is by private sponsorship and the second is to be a government-assisted refugee, in which case the Canadian government covers the cost of resettlement.
Immigration Minister Chris Alexander says the Canadian government will take in 10,000 refugees by September 2016. It is not clear how many refugees will be government-assisted or privately sponsored.
Watson says Canadians are frustrated by what he calls a lack of urgency on the part of the federal government.
“We’ve been underwhelmed with their response,” says Watson. “We are dealing with a situation in the millions of Syrians fleeing their country, so I think the federal government has to do a much better job of clearing the backlog.”
A leading advocate for refugees agrees.
“Canada has absolutely got the capacity to bring in significant numbers of people,” says Janet Dench, executive director of the Montreal-based Canadian Council for Refugees. “I think internationally people would expect Canada to do more when you see how many countries are taking in tens of thousands, if not millions, of refugees.”
There was an overwhelming response by Canadians to help Syrian refugees after a photo of three-year-old Alan Kurdi made global headlines in the first week of September. The photo showed the young refugee’s body face down on a Turkish beach after he’d drowned in the Mediterranean Sea.
Many refugees are making desperate trips across the Mediterranean to escape the violence of Syria’s two-year-old civil war.
“When the body showed up on the beach, that touched peoples hearts, but it’s definitely not the first body,” says Norma McCord, executive member of the Coalition in Ottawa for Refugees. “All of a sudden the response is wonderful, but it is overwhelming for people like me, as a sponsorship agreement holder (SAH).”
An SAH is typically a faith-based or community organization that has the ability to authorize other groups within the community to sponsor refugees under its agreement. McCord stresses that there are not enough staff members to deal with the high demand.
In the 1970s, during the Vietnamese resettlement in Canada, there was a two-page form to fill out for the so-called “Boat People.” But now the forms are more than 100 pages in length, explains Watson. “It’s just become so convoluted and confusing that it’s taking longer,” he says. “They don’t have enough staff on the ground overseas to process people so there seems to be a massive jam in terms of people getting through.”
Watson held a meeting via phone during the week of Sept. 14 with other big city mayors to share information about plans for refugees. The consensus was to follow a two-pronged approach. First, municipalities must continue to push and pressure the federal government to improve the process of accepting refugees, and second, Canadian cities must prepare for an influx of immigrants.
“It’s great that many mayors across the country and provincial governments have expressed their interests in taking in more refugees, but the federal government has to be part of the process,” says Kitchissippi Coun. Jeff Leiper. “Municipalities don’t have a lot of money to put in, but we can play a leadership role with respect to coordination and awareness-raising.”
The forum was organized to clarify any questions Ottawa residents have about the complicated process of refugee resettlement. Watson says the city will create an email list of people who attend so that participants can “keep in touch with the progress (Ottawa is) making to welcome these citizens to our shores.”
At the forum, community members will hear short presentations from previously sponsored refugee families, experts in refugee resettlement and representatives from frontline organizations such as the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers.
A question-and-answer period will follow.
The forum is being held today from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Jean Pigott Place, Ottawa City Hall.