Citizenship and Immigration Committee on June 14th, 2016

[Eman Allhalaq]

Yes.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

How long did it take for you to receive that diagnosis, and what were the problems in the process of you getting that information?

[Eman Allhalaq]

For four months I'd been going back and forth to the hospital for different tests and appointments. Two months after the mammogram was done, the doctor said there were cancer cells and I would have to go through some more testing. We don't know if I was called and did not get the message, but basically they said that it's the hospital that has to call me directly, and they won't answer anyone else who tries to call the hospital on my behalf.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Were the issues around translation or were the issues around just not being able to connect with the hospital to get the diagnosis?

[Eman Allhalaq]

Well, I call the hospital and sometimes I go to the hospital and there is no interpreter, so they are not able to communicate with me. Sometimes they call Mr. Imad to try to get the help, but they say no, there has to be somebody with me in the room itself to discuss the tests and then I was postponed for another week and then eventually the hospital is the one who brought the interpreter, but not the agency.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

How much time had lapsed for you because of this back and forth, not being able to get the information because of language issues? Was it two or three weeks before you got your diagnosis?

[Eman Allhalaq]

Well, the first week I went, I had no interpreter. The second week I was called to go and get the results and again I went and there was no interpreter to advise me of the result. There was somebody else from Iraq who was there and I said I could not understand, so that person volunteered to help me. But I needed to have someone with me while I was receiving this kind of news because it was so traumatic. Again, I was given a ride home. Then I went to the hospital the following day, and for two hours I had lost consciousness.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

You have 20 seconds, Ms. Kwan.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Okay.

Last, in terms of agency support, was it the case that Syrian refugees were offered a meeting in the library on a regular basis to connect up with their agency resettlement workers to get support? Tell us about that experience.

[Eman Allhalaq]

They have offices. We go to their offices, but they are far away and it is not easy for us to get there. We did go the first time. The second time they said to us that there is an office at the library and perhaps we could come on Monday or a Tuesday. When we went, we found the office closed. In general, the people who are in the library were not sure what time the different workers would arrive actually.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you.

Ms. Zahid, you have seven minutes.

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

Thanks to all the witnesses for providing your input.

My question is for the Calgary District School Board.

I know that Minister John McCallum has been in touch with his provincial counterparts to discuss how the federal government can better support the provinces in welcoming the new Syrian refugees. I know the provinces were consulted in regard to the number of immigrants they can take out of the total of 25,000. While we must be mindful of the jurisdictional issues, is there support in terms of programs or best practices that the federal government can provide to assist with the integration of the newcomers to Canada?

[Joy Bowen-Eyre]

I'm not aware of a best practices approach, but I know our school board in particular has been approached by several school boards across the country, including Halifax and B.C., in terms of the LEAD program that we offer to all refugee students who come through our doors.

The LEAD program is a specialized program that looks specifically at when the students come to us through our reception centres. We identify their written and spoken literacy and how much formal education experience they have had. We then place these students in small school classrooms with a maximum of 15 students with one teacher and a support staff member. These staff have a lot of experience, professional development experience, with trauma and working with students who have experienced trauma, have witnessed trauma, and have some significant delays. Once those students have been in those classes, they are assessed on a very consistent basis to ensure that this is the best placement for them. Once it's determined that those students are able to transition into a community-based school, that's what we do. Sometimes our refugee students can spend up to two years in a LEAD class.

We know that other school boards have come to us to ask what we are doing that makes our students successful. Not to brag, but we are very proud of our school system and the way we work with our refugee students and their families to ensure that each and every one of them is successful.

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Regarding this LEAD program, do you just develop their basic English skills, or for example, in terms of the high school kids, do you provide them with basic mathematics and science skills also? Is it just based on developing their English skills?

[Joy Bowen-Eyre]

No, it's a full comprehensive school experience, which also includes cultural awareness and integration into a Canadian city. Since our students come from early learners, kindergarten all the way through to grade 12, we look at each and every student as to what they need, and then we put the supports in place to ensure they can be successful.

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Thank you.

My next question is for any of the school board people.

Many newcomer students who may have been out of school for some time and forced to leave their homes and live in limbo will undoubtedly experience trauma. That would make it difficult for them to adjust to Canadian school life and succeed to the best of their abilities. Are you providing any kind of counselling services to work with the mental health of some of the traumatized students?

[Anne-Marie Hagel, Supervisor, Diverse Learning, Calgary Catholic School District]

Good morning, it's Calgary Catholic School District.

We do offer a program through what we call our intercultural team. We have two counselling psychologists as well as nine counsellors on the team who provide trauma counselling and mental health support.

We are seeing an increase in the number of referrals coming in each year. With the majority of the referrals that come into our team, half of them go to our mental health support. We try and support these families and these students. If they're long term, then we look for support outside of the district.

We also ensure that we have interpreters available and that these intercultural team members can support and work with the families directly, so there's the clear communication that is needed to support these families.

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Further to this, I know that in addition to the classroom study the integration into social life outside classrooms through extracurricular activities is also important for the newcomers. We had the opportunity of listening to the Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada. They provided their input as to what they are doing in regard to their programs for newcomers.

Are you working with similar organizations to help provide extracurricular programming to newcomers and the other students?

[Jeannie Everett]

It's Calgary Public. Yes, certainly. We have a partnership with the Calgary Bridge Foundation for Youth, as well as with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada. We look to enhance the extracurricular activities for students, and we enforce English acquisition in after school activities. It's a rich program that we have to offer in collaboration with our partners.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Ms. Zahid, I believe the Peel board wanted to answer your previous question.

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Okay. Yes, go ahead.

[Louise Clayton]

In addition to our social workers who are providing counselling support to our Syrian students, we also have a partnership with the Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture who come to our We Welcome the World Centres once a week and provide counselling services on site. They are based out of Toronto, and they come into Mississauga once a week. We are working to find other opportunities for increased services, because we are backlogged with that service.

[Zaiba Beg]

I could also add about the social extracurricular programs. During the summer, we're particularly focused on making sure that students who have had gaps in education have lots of opportunities in the summer. With some of our programs that already exist, such as Camp I Can and Camp SAIL, we are trying to target supporting the students who speak Arabic, and trying to get Arabic-speaking students to support the program Camp I Can.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you.

Mr. Saroya, for five minutes, please.

[Bob Saroya, Conservative, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to all the witnesses for giving us your side of the story on how we can improve our system.

My first question is for Mr. Imad. Am I allowed to call you Mr. Imad?

Over and over and over, if I hear you correctly, you're saying we are paying money to the wrong agencies. They're not helping hands. They're not doing what they're supposed to do. If I hear you correctly, you're saying those agencies are getting paid by the government and by the taxpayer, but they're not doing what they're supposed to do. Am I correct? Is that what I'm hearing from you?