Citizenship and Immigration Committee on June 7th, 2016

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Good morning. Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) and the motion adopted by the committee on March 8, the committee will resume its study on the federal government's initiative to resettle Syrian refugees.

Appearing before us today are Mr. Brian Dyck, national migration and resettlement program coordinator for Mennonite Central Committee Canada; Reverend Majed El Shafie, founder and president of One Free World International; and, in a change, Ms. Leslie Emory, board director of the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants.

Welcome. Each panellist has seven minutes for an initial presentation.

Mr. Dyck, we will start with you.

[Brian Dyck, National Migration and Resettlement Program Coordinator, Mennonite Central Committee Canada]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for this opportunity to come before you today to talk about our part in the efforts to respond to the Syrian crisis. Canada's private sponsorship of the refugees program has been an important part of Canada's humanitarian immigration program, and it's important to understand how it fits with the current context of refugee resettlement in Canada.

The Mennonite Central Committee was the first non-governmental organization to sign a sponsorship agreement, in March 1979. We have continued to be a part of refugee resettlement work with Mennonite and Brethren in Christ churches in Canada, as well as other partners over the years, to bring tens of thousands of refugees to Canada. We've also been involved in relief, development, and peace-building around the world.

We are currently involved in the largest operation in our 96-year history. Between donations from our sponsors and grants from the Canadian government, which we are very grateful for, and others, we have spent $35 million U.S. on programming for supporting displaced people in the Middle East, with about half of that money going to support displaced people still in Syria.

Resettlement of Syrians and Iraqis is something we started looking at promoting in a bigger way at the beginning of last year, in 2015. We developed plans to raise awareness about resettlement and the role it could play. Then, in September, when the picture of Alan Kurdi hit social media, we set aside our awareness campaign and started answering the many phone calls and emails coming into our offices.

Our response as a sponsorship agreement holder, SAH, has taken three basic forms.

First, we and other SAHs have often been the first place that people turn to for information about refugees and about refugee situations in general. Our staff in the provinces we work in, from British Columbia to Ontario, went out to countless information nights that had crowds of a size we'd never seen before. People wanted to know more. They wanted to know how to get involved.

Second, once groups were formed, we walked with them through the settlement commitments they were making, helping them match up with often the blended visa office referred profiles that were coming out from the government. In other cases, we worked with people in Canada who had family members who were refugees in the more complicated process of filling out the sponsorship application forms and filing them with the Canadian government.

Third, we helped these groups, once the arrivals started to happen, to sort out arrival details and to navigate the first full days of helping someone settle into a new home.

There have been some challenges in this process. First and foremost is keeping up with the demand of our constituents and others who want to work with us. We've had so many new groups coming to us, in addition to the groups we've always worked with over the years, and there's been a steep learning curve for many of these groups. It has been a challenge.

Second, it has been difficult to get blended visa office referred profiles all the time. There are hundreds of groups across Canada still waiting to get involved, and the number of profiles that the visa officers can provide is limited. However, one positive development because of this is that groups are coming to us and asking who else they can help. It has been exciting to see that while last year we as the Mennonite Central Committee had a tenfold increase in the number of sponsorships we have submitted, it was not just Syrians and Iraqis; many other populations benefited from this.

Third, the frenetic pace of the arrivals during the surge was nearly overwhelming as we tried to make sure that the right people got information about arrivals. In addition to that, some of the blended VOR profiles came with high needs. It has been a challenge to find the resources for that, but we have been working with that, and in the early days it appears it's still going well.

As we look ahead, I think there are a number of things we need to keep an eye on. First, we want to make sure that the help that this refugee population is getting does not divert help from other populations. We have been hearing from the government that they want to continue to deal with the backlogs of other populations around the world, where people can wait for up to five years, sometimes more, for a decision to be made.

Second, we anticipate that Syrian refugees, like other populations, will have sponsorship needs themselves. They will look to us to help them find ways to get their family members here. That's something we'll need to think about as we go. We'll need to make sure, in the years ahead, that's part of the plans for immigration levels going forward.

Finally, we want to make sure that the refugee resettlement in this context does not overwhelm, that we think about this in the context of everything else that's going on. MCC believes that while resettlement plays an important role in mitigating suffering and is good for Canada and the hosts who supply support, it's important for us to make sure that the focus is on the root causes of forced migration, and trying to deal with it is important in diplomacy, peace building, relief aid, and development.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you, Mr. Dyck.

Reverend El Shafie, you have seven minutes, please.

Thank you.

[Rev Majed El Shafie, Founder and President, One Free World International]

Mr. Chair, respectful members, thank you for having me here today.

On September 2, 2015, the world woke up to a small child by the name of Alan Kurdi face down on the beach. That's when the rest of the world started to react, to do something with regard to the refugees, having known it had been happening for the last four years. The picture of Alan Kurdi was not new.

One Free World International has been operating with different refugees on the ground for the last 13 years in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and Syria. Next month we will be taking members of Parliament to the Soleimani and the Kobani areas to witness the situation there on the ground, not just helping the refugees here but helping the refugees there as well.

One of the MPs who joined us in the past, Mr. Brad Butt, is behind me here, and I want to acknowledge his presence. In the last year or so there were conversations about the migrant crisis, which is how the media labelled it, but I cannot disagree more. They are not migrants. They are refugees. They are legitimate refugees and that's what we should call them, not migrants. They didn't leave their countries of their own choice. They were forced to leave their home.

Before we speak about resettling the refugees here in Canada, we obviously have to talk about jobs, education, access to health care. There are way more important things before we even get to this point, even before the refugees get on a plane to come to Canada. More issues have to be discussed.

The first step is to discuss the source of the problem. Without dealing with the source of the problem, I can guarantee there will be more refugees. It doesn't matter how many you take here in Canada, there will be more and more refugees. It's not a matter that 25,000 came here to Canada; it's a matter of the five million refugees that are elsewhere right now. Without dealing with the situation in Syria, in Iraq, this issue will not be resolved. Dealing with the source as an international community, as Canadians, as part of NATO is the only way to end this refugee crisis.

The second step is green zones. We've been working very closely with the refugees there. Many of the refugees indicated to us that they don't want to leave their home. It doesn't matter what you want to think about it, but many of the refugees do not want to leave home. They want to be in an area protected by NATO troops, by UN troops, known as a green zone, and to return home if they wish after the war is over. We have to understand it's not easy to leave your home, your roots, your language, your friends, your neighbourhood. Many of these people would love to stay home, but in a protected area known as a green zone.

On the third step, the original resettlement, there's one question I need an answer for. I have no idea why countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Dubai are not taking any of the refugees. Everybody is talking about Europe, Canada and the United States while these Arab Muslim countries are wealthy, share the same language, traditions, culture, even the jokes. If I told you an Egyptian joke right now, you would not laugh. The fact and the reality is that one question that we have to understand and we have to ask the international community is why none of these Arab Muslim countries are taking more refugees and trying to help on the ground.

The resulting regional resettlement we are talking about, what I call the chosen ones, the ones we chose, came to our attention through the work on the ground. Most of the 25,000 Syrian refugees who came to Canada are Sunni Muslims. Now, I don't have a problem with Sunni Muslims.

Listen, I'm a man who used to be in prison. I'm a man who was tortured for his faith back home in Egypt, so I will not be talking to you in political correctness. I will be talking to you in honesty.

It's not about the fact that most if not all of the 25,000 are Sunnis. I don't have a problem with Sunnis, but my question here is why none of them are what we call the vulnerable minority. Why are none of them Christians? Why are none of them Yezidis? Why are none of them Ismailis? Why are none of them Muslim Shiites? Why are none of them Druze?

If today, it was a Conservative government and they brought in 25,000 Christians, we would not hear the end of it. The truth is that I would not even be happy if all of the 25,000 they brought in were Christians, because there are more and more vulnerable minorities that need to be helped.

We have to help the most vulnerable minorities. We cannot be politically correct about it, and we cannot count only on the UNHCR or the United Nations. There are many other organizations on the ground that can also be assets to us and help us. We have to be fair.

When the refugees arrive, there are many challenges they face. At One Free World International, we worked on a closed project with over 600 families here from Syria. We did a project to bring previous refugees to work with the newcomer refugees. We were able to build bridges between old refugees who came here to the country and new refugees who just arrived.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Reverend El Shafie, you have 15 seconds.

[Rev. Majed El Shafie]

In my last 15 seconds, I don't want you to think I am anti-immigrant. I don't want you to think that I'm anti-Syrian, or something like that. I used to be a refugee myself. I came to this country 13 years ago. I ate as a refugee. I drank as a refugee. I bled as a refugee. But with all due respect, there is nothing more important to me than the safety and security of Canada, and the fairness of our process. I am here for the refugees.

Thank you, sir.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Ms. Emory, you have seven minutes please.

[Leslie Emory, Board Director, Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants (OCASI)]

Good morning, committee members, and thank you so much for the opportunity to speak today.

The Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants, OCASI, represents the collective voice of Ontario organizations serving immigrants and refugees. We have over 230 member agencies across the province.

OCASI is supportive of the government's decision to resettle 25,000 Syrian refugees in Canada. In fact, we joined our 10 sister umbrella organizations across Canada to issue a news release in December 2015 to affirm the support of the national immigrant and refugee serving sector for this initiative.

We are proud of the way our sector stepped up to meet the challenge, sometimes at personal cost to many of the front-line workers who went above and beyond. OCASI acknowledges that there were challenges overall, including for our sector, and there are aspects of our program delivery and structure that may need to be strengthened.

Despite all the challenges, we believe this experience demonstrated our strength. It demonstrated the value that we provide: one, through services and programming; two, through strengthening community capacity and leadership; and three, in supporting individuals and families on their journey to becoming Canadians.

In September 2015, we collectively issued a set of recommendations on how Canada should respond to the Syrian refugee crisis. We believe these recommendations are still relevant, even more so today. I will mention some of them here.

The first is on improving family-linked admissions. Flexible measures, such as temporary resident permits, should be introduced for Syrians with family in Canada. We recommended that 10,000 government-assisted refugees be admitted by the end of 2015, and we are happy to see that the government exceeded that number. However, the fact that the government shut down the infrastructure after reaching the 25,000 target left a bad taste and threatened the goodwill that had been created in the Canadian public. We welcome the announcement that these resources are to be restored.

Regarding the facilitation of private sponsorship of Syrians, the government has supported the efforts of private sponsors, including efforts to restore full access to interim federal health coverage to privately sponsored refugees. The risk of large medical costs no longer deters sponsors. However, much more can be done. In particular, we should work to reduce the red tape for sponsorship applications and make processing of applications faster.

The government must allocate significantly more resources, human, financial, and logistical, in order to realize these recommendations. In particular, it should allocate more resources for processing and allocate additional resources for overseas visa offices so that refugees can arrive more quickly. The government should alleviate the pressure on the visa offices by transferring some of the overseas processing of visas to an office in Canada. The government should continue to provide timely information through the government website, and to set up a hotline to answer questions and facilitate processing. At present, much of the burden of providing information is taken up by community-based organizations and by other groups that are often not resourced to do this work.

On the importance of maintaining responses to other refugees, we strongly urge the committee to recommend that the needs of other refugees must also be met, including the many refugees from sub-Saharan Africa who are in precarious situations in the Middle East and Europe. They should receive the same courtesies that are given to Syrian refugees.

In addition to refugee resettlement, there is an urgent need to fast-track family reunification for Syrian refugees as well as refugees from other countries.

OCASI believes there are additional priorities that need to be taken into consideration going forward. Canadians have opened their hearts, their minds, their homes and communities to create the space for so many people to be involved in refugee resettlement. This should be supported by the government.

The resettlement experience has highlighted for the immigrant and refugee serving sector that many challenges still need to be addressed, and there are gaps we have to fill, such as the lack of formal coordinating systems, including for service delivery and case management.

We see several areas for improvement, including the need for more funding that should flow faster, the need for more resources and information to support the work, and the need for improved communication between government and the sector at all levels.

In Ontario, we are thankful that the provincial government made its funding commitment several months before the federal government, allowing many service delivery organizations to prepare their capacity. Six years of federal funding cuts to settlement have had a detrimental impact on the sector, including capacity, especially in trained and experienced staff.

The Syrian refugee resettlement initiative highlighted the critical need for investment in social housing and the need for strategy and action on a national housing initiative. It further highlighted the need for a poverty reduction strategy, including an increase in social assistance rates, the monthly income that is given to government-assisted refugees. It also highlighted the need for rent subsidies.

We ask you to recommend that the government immediately end the transportation loan scheme, which only serves to further impoverish a group that is already facing significant financial challenges.

The Syrian refugee resettlement initiative highlighted the need for affordable and appropriate child care, more language classes for different levels of learners, and different service times outside of the usual daytime classes in many more locations.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Ms. Emory, you have 15 seconds.

[Leslie Emory]

Finally, the experience highlighted the ongoing need for public education on anti-Islamophobia, anti-xenophobia, and anti-racism. We are happy that the City of Toronto, the province, and other stakeholders such as the Red Cross have stepped up to counter the narrative of exclusion. The federal government must also step up by mounting a public education campaign on Canada's refugee and humanitarian programs.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you.

Mr. Tabbara, please, for seven minutes.

[Marwan Tabbara, Liberal, Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thanks to all of you for being here. Thank you for the work you've done and continue to do. This committee wants to thank you for all the hard work you've been doing.

Mr. Dyck, I want to ask you about the Mennonite Central Committee. In my region, the Waterloo region, they've done a tremendous amount of work. They are the one group that has done so much for Syrian refugees in working with all different types of agencies to help integrate them here in Canada and in our region as well. I've helped out with a number of fundraisers with the MCC to help sponsor a Syrian refugee family.

What have been some of the success stories? How has the MCC been so established in building these networks and in integrating so well these refugees who are coming to our areas? Could you elaborate on that?

[Brian Dyck]

Thank you very much for that question.

In the five provinces we work with, we have provincial staff in each one of those provinces who work hard to build connections in the community with our constituents, the people who are our natural constituents in terms of the Mennonite and Brethren in Christ churches. We have a strong relationship with them in all the things we do, so I think we build on that.

In communities such as Kitchener-Waterloo, we do have a high profile there. When things happen, people turn to us and ask what they can do. I think people come to us based on our reputation.

In particular, in Ontario we had one person before September working on refugee resettlement. I think we have about four staff working on that now and spreading out over the entire province. In the other provinces as well, we've had to add staff.

It's this direct connection with the community, I think, that's important: making sure that we're there to troubleshoot as problems come up and making sure that we satisfy our commitment as a sponsorship agreement holder to ensure that this settlement goes well in these 12 months that we are involved in.

But the commitment goes beyond that, usually, because relationships are built. That is really one of the strengths of the private sponsorship program. It's not just about resettling refugees, about bringing people from there to here. It's about building a community, a community that can go on beyond this.

I was at an event here in Ottawa-Gatineau on Sunday to remember the Nansen medal that the people of Canada received 30 years ago. That was an important event. It was celebrating the Indochinese, the Southeast Asians, coming here. We see that community now as a very important part of Canada and being one that is involved in refugee settlement at this point. I think that's what this is really about. It's about building a future Canada.

[Marwan Tabbara, Liberal, Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON]

Thank you very much.

I'd like to share a bit of my time with Mr. Ehsassi.

I have one more question, for Mr. El Shafie.

I liked your testimony, and I understand that you've been saying this situation will not disappear unless there is stability and security in these regions. It is critically important that we have stability in this volatile region.

In your testimony, you mentioned there's a lot of Sunni Muslims who are coming. I want to mention there's a lot of privately sponsored individuals. If sponsors are Armenian, then they will sponsor Armenian Christians. There are other families who are sponsoring their families from abroad through private sponsorships who don't associate with any religion. I think you're missing that aspect. I don't think we should keep grouping certain people and certain religious sects. There are a lot of individuals who are spiritual but not religious, and who are atheists, who may come from a Muslim or a Christian background because of their family name, but they might not be practising. I think you didn't underline that.

Maybe you could elaborate on that.

[Rev. Majed El Shafie]

Absolutely. Thank you for your comment.

With regard to private sponsors, there are private sponsors from almost every religion that exists here in Canada. The mosques are involved in private sponsorships, and the churches are involved in private sponsorships. This is absolutely fine.

I am not talking about private sponsorships. I am talking about government sponsorships. It is important we understand that many of these groups do not have the ability to take on private sponsorships, such as the Yazidi community, for example. The Yazidi community is not a big community here in Canada. The Yazidi community does not have temples here in Canada. This makes them more vulnerable in the sense they don't have anybody to support them or to be private sponsors to bring the community here.

The important thing about private sponsorship is that it involves individuals or organizations. I am talking about when the governments decide to move in to protect the most vulnerable. It doesn't matter who the most vulnerable are. I don't care if they are Muslims, Sunni or Shia. For example, you had 70 Ismaili people who were killed in Syria last year. Nobody knew anything about it. The Ismaili community does private sponsorships as well, and many of them will bring their own families. To bring all 25,000 from one community, from one sector...it should be, in my opinion, a balance. What we need to see is a balanced relationship between our government and the most vulnerable. That's how I see it.

Thank you.

[Marwan Tabbara, Liberal, Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON]

My remaining time goes to Mr. Ehsassi.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Yes, first of all I would like—

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

You have five seconds.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Oh, sorry.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Ms. Rempel, for seven minutes, please.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'll start my questions with Mr. El Shafie.

The government has said they are not using religion or ethnic minorities; they're turning a blind eye to prioritizing refugees. We had officials from the department tell us that out of the cohort that has been processed so far, and I believe this is how it was phrased, there were nine Yazidi cases.

For those of us in Canada who don't understand, because we are in a secular country, what it means to be in a region where warfare is conducted due to religious differences, can you tell us bluntly whether or not you think the government has done a good job of prioritizing those who are most at risk? As someone who has been tortured and sentenced to death for your own faith, can you tell us why it's important not to turn a blind eye to this?

[Rev. Majed El Shafie]

So far, I appreciate...I will not try to be politically correct. I appreciate the Prime Minister is trying to fulfill his campaign promise to bring 25,000 here to the country. I appreciate that he is trying, but it's not about fulfilling this promise. It's about saving the most vulnerable and the most in need of protection at this point.

Our organization went even to ISIS territory and was able to rescue between 300 and 400 Yazidi girls from ISIS territory. Some of these girls were as young as nine years old and were being raped 20 times a day. That's the truth.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Would you say, then, that the government has failed—

[Rev. Majed El Shafie]

Yes, the government has failed big time in helping them. Absolutely. This will bring me to my next point.

Even if the government brought only nine cases of Yazidis, what is nine cases of Yazidis? What will this do for a community that is facing genocide?

With all due respect, I have to sit down and debate whether what is happening to the Christians and the Yazidis in Iraq and Syria is genocide or not. Even after the EU, the U.K., and the United States have recognized that it is a genocide, we are still here debating whether it is genocide or not. This alone is a red flag.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Oftentimes when we talk about this issue, we are accused of being xenophobic or not tolerant of religion. I would say that this is not the case. I think we have a responsibility as a country to ensure that we are protecting the most vulnerable.

Do you think having this discussion would characterize us as xenophobic?