Foreign Affairs committee  To be honest with you, we gave the foreign minister a study on how Canada can support Syria. There were different ideas, different projects; even telecommunications were involved, actually. For example, one idea was to buy...activists could film what's happening. There was help to better coordinate scholarships, and even family reunification.

Foreign Affairs committee  First, it's important to distinguish between political opposition and what's happening on the ground from non-violent activists, local coordination committees, and the rebels, who have been dubbed the Free Syrian Army. For sure, the rebels who are fighting have been fighting in a quite decentralized way for a very long time.

Foreign Affairs committee  It's been highly documented that the Syrian opposition have difficulties unifying. At the same time, we are in a democratic, free country, and I don't think everyone here is unified. We have an opposition and we have—

Foreign Affairs committee  I think the big problem we have is that inside Syria we have so many groups, and we have a strong opposition, but they are not in the media.They haven't been heard about. As you know, opposing the regime inside Syria is either a death sentence or you're thrown in jail. Outside Syria, I can tell you that the Syrian National Council right now, which is actually going through restructuring, has a meeting in Doha at the beginning of November.

Foreign Affairs committee  I think for us in Syria it's no surprise. We know that it's not the people who are dealing with the dictatorship. We know that there are multiple layers in this geopolitical game. We know that we're fighting Iran. We're fighting Russia and whatever other players there are in this region.

Foreign Affairs committee  We can start with the easy stuff, which is what we can do domestically. As I told you, the family reunification program is extremely important. I can't tell you the amount of anxiety and stress that Syrians are going through. As you probably know, and I have said in my testimony, when a Syrian plane is bombarding a neighbourhood, it is not distinguishing between whether you are pro-regime or you're in opposition or you're just crossing the street randomly.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, everyone. I think Mariam really gave a description of what's happening in Syria and the horror. I'm going to concentrate more on what we can do. I think everyone has been touched by what they heard, and there's a lot we can do in Canada. First, I would like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak in front of your committee about the situation in my country of origin, Syria.