Good morning, members of the House of Commons standing committee and honoured witnesses. Thank you for the invitation to speak today.
Immigration is part of Canada's story. Refugees are part of Canada's story.
My name is David Berson. I'm a member of the Or Shalom Syrian refugee initiative. Or Shalom is an east-side Vancouver synagogue that has 180 members, is of modest means, and has a deep commitment to building community, pursuing social justice, and repairing the world.
Many of our members come from families of origin who have migrated, fled persecution and genocide, and experienced discrimination abroad as well as when arriving in Canada. We understand and appreciate how precious our lives are here, as Canadians, and welcome the efforts being made to improve our country's record of resettling immigrants, especially vulnerable refugees who are in inaccessible areas.
Our synagogue is sponsoring four families, including two families of four and five members in the Kurdish area of northern Iraq, and one family of five in eastern Turkey. These families are Kurdish Syrians who have family members in metro Vancouver. Our fourth family is an LGBT couple, presently in Beirut. We do our work in partnership and collaboration with the United Church and Rainbow Refugee.
Eighteen months ago members of our synagogue, in partnership with our local Tibetan community, resettled two displaced Tibetan women who came from remote areas of northeastern India. Our group raised additional funds so that we could provide training grants for these new Canadians by embarking on a trek to those remote areas. We showed up so that they could show up.
The Old Testament mentions 30 times, do not ill-treat a stranger or oppress him, for you were once strangers in a strange land. “Sometimes”, said our former minister of justice, the Honourable Irwin Cotler, “you need to get a taste of injustice to have urgency to fight against it.”. Our community has done so countless times during our history in Canada, together with many other Canadians.
For the purpose of my presentation this morning, “vulnerable” means families whose lives have been disrupted too many times by traumatic transitions, families with young children living with critical health issues and dwindling resources, families in despair, such as Alan Abdul-Rahim, a toddler who had heart surgery at the age of one and requires stable and accessible medical care, or his father, Adnan, who suffers from a serious respiratory condition and is limited in his mobility and physical activity. A distant hope they have is of immigrating to Canada.
“Inaccessible” in our case refers to areas where our families reside, which is the Kurdish region of Iraq, areas apparently inaccessible to our IRCC and consular staff. According to the inter-agency information sharing portal for the Syrian regional refugee response, 249,395 refugees are in the Kurdish region of Iraq, including the regions of Erbil, Dohuk, and Sulaymaniyah. That's 88,772 households. That is the population of Gatineau, a stone's throw from where you sit today. Despite specific suggestions to the Honourable Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, and despite opportunities to partner with the myriad agencies on the ground in northern Iraq, more than 100 individuals, Kurdish Syrian refugees, still await processing. These are individuals who are sponsored by families in metro Vancouver.
Dear standing committee members, there are more humanitarian and government organizations and agencies involved in operations and services than there are letters in the alphabet. In metro Vancouver, private sponsors have mobilized more than 3,000 people to participate in these resettlements. We've raised more than $775,000 and are prepared to do more. We've educated ourselves in terms of language, food, culture. We've been active long before November 2015 and we are ready to deploy.
Change is needed in how we expedite the processing of vulnerable populations in isolated areas. Here are some recommendations and possible solutions to consider.
Increase the number of private sponsorships allowed to sponsorship agreement holders because private sponsors significantly increase the acculturation process to Canada, even more so in cases where people are vulnerable and have special needs. Private sponsorships cost the government and taxpayers much less, and they develop more resilient communities and stronger community networks.
Encourage support and collaboration with agencies in isolated areas such as northern Iraq.
Recognize internally displaced people as candidates for sponsorship.
Take the UNHCR and the IOM to interview these folks to get the ball rolling.
Accept the UNHCR's designation in places where we, as Canadians, do not have processing centres. If we cannot send personnel, then interview the people by telephone.
Use existing UNHCR refugee cap mechanisms to accelerate security processing and vulnerability assessment. UNHCR has already introduced a digitalized protection monitoring tool to assess for vulnerability and identify needs, and 99% of the people in the camps have been scanned for these records.
Prioritize cases by expediting the ones that have the most sponsors or the most people actively engaged in sponsorship in Canada.
Waive transportation loans for the most vulnerable refugees.
Rent special armoured personnel vehicles to transport Canadian staff so they can safely travel to this area and interview vulnerable families.
Finally, a rather irksome suggestion. On numerous occasions I've thought to myself, being a philanthropic adviser, that perhaps we could embark upon a fundraising campaign to help the IRCC.
We will support your efforts. Let our people go so that we can tell our children and yours that our values called out to us and we acted; so that we can say with pride that our Canadian team is on the ground, well aware of the dangers, taking the risks to save the lives of vulnerable people; so we can say that together with our government we made miracles happen.
Let us resolve that vulnerable refugees' lives matter. Let's resolve to do something.
Finally, I urge you to be decisive in your deliberations and recommendations. Irwin Cotler said of the present crisis and the inaction of the world community that “We are living in the time of bystander leadership.” Let us not be bystanders. Let us enact the responsibility to protect. As our sages taught, “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, who am I? If not now, when?”
Thank you.