Citizenship and Immigration committee  Very good. I don't know. In my opinion, I don't think the Americans went there to save the people of Iraq; I think the Americans went there to save their own policy and their own goods and their own ideas. Sure, maybe in 10 years Iraq may be a better place to live. There are to

Citizenship and Immigration committee  My view is that the Canadian government doesn't have enough resources in Syria, because it handles Jordan, Syria, and basically the rest of the Middle East besides Egypt. Egypt is dealt with more like Africa. We have no processing coming out of Turkey. The Canadian embassy in Tu

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It's only dealing with the UNHCR cases. The rest are all dependent on Syria. I don't think the Canadian government has enough resources in Syria to process the files they have.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Well, I think Helen mentioned that there's a program for Kosovo. For example, the UNHCR just took 500 people to Canada. We should do more. There are over two million people out of Iraq right now who have no homes. I think we have the capacity to do more. In Canada, it's especiall

Citizenship and Immigration committee  No, you're right. When the money goes inside Iraq it is not going to the refugees, so it's really two different issues. Refugees are out of Iraq. We're not talking about refugees in Iraq, because they're in Iraq. We all know you have to be out of the country to be a refugee. I

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I would like to have a special program for refugees of Iraq, out of the Iraq--

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'll start. I would like to thank you for inviting us here this morning. I will introduce myself as Alex Istifo from St. Maratken Society in Saskatoon. I immigrated to Canada in 1983. I'm from Iraq, and I've worked with refugees for over 20 years, in private sponsorships and se

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I own two restaurants and I have over 30 people working for me right now. So I'm one of the lucky ones, I'd say, because not many refugees can become successful in a lot of places around Canada, especially in Saskatchewan. But I have always fought for more refugees to come to Sas