Evidence of meeting #26 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 42nd Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was yazidi.
A video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Rev. Majed El Shafie
I cannot answer your next question unless you allow me to respond to you.
Liberal
Randeep Sarai Liberal Surrey Centre, BC
I'm not asking you the next question, but asking another witness.
Rev. Majed El Shafie
I will respond to another part of your question, sir. You said I never went to the previous government and criticized them for the Yazidi situation. I presented my proposal to Minister Chris Alexander twice, two months before the election. So I went to the previous government and I gave them the same proposal, and I was working with them to bring the Yazidi girls here. That's with the previous government, and two months later the election happened.
Liberal
Randeep Sarai Liberal Surrey Centre, BC
I commend you for doing that, but I'm saying that you never critiqued them or never had any problem with the fact they took no action.
Rev. Majed El Shafie
It's because they approved our proposal. Minister Chris Alexander approved our proposal.
Liberal
Randeep Sarai Liberal Surrey Centre, BC
My next question is for Mr. Weiss or Ms. Naso. I have a shortage of time so I have to ask my questions.
You have now received 41 Yazidi families, or members of Yazidi families? Am I right or close?
Representative, Yazidi Community of Winnipeg, Operation Ezra
We're sponsoring seven families, but we've only received two families, a total of nine people.
Liberal
Randeep Sarai Liberal Surrey Centre, BC
I just came to hear from Mr. Weiss that you know of no other privately sponsored Yazidi applications in the process. Do you know of any sponsorship agreement holders applying for any Yazidi refugees?
President, Shaarey Zedek Synagogue, Operation Ezra
As far as we know, based on the comments and the questions we've had from across the country, we are the only organized group that is focused on privately sponsoring Yazidi families in Canada, maybe in North America.
Liberal
Randeep Sarai Liberal Surrey Centre, BC
So it's not a government stall by any means. It's just that there hasn't been any sponsorship holder who has applied for any Yazidi families to come into Canada that you know of.
President, Shaarey Zedek Synagogue, Operation Ezra
I would like to qualify that by saying that we would apply for a lot more, and I know that our community would put up more money if we could find quota to bring more families in.
Liberal
Randeep Sarai Liberal Surrey Centre, BC
I appreciate your work—don't get me wrong. I'm just asking. But there have been no others and nobody else has applied for these?
President, Shaarey Zedek Synagogue, Operation Ezra
Not as far as we know.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Borys Wrzesnewskyj
Thank you, but your time is up.
Mr. Saroya, I understand that you'll be splitting your time with Ms. Gallant.
Conservative
Bob Saroya Conservative Markham—Unionville, ON
Once again, thank you to everybody. I commend all of you for going out of your way and doing all the work yourselves and for all Canadians.
My question is for Mr. Allos. You mentioned Carolyn Bennett and her announcement on indigenous people and that it doesn't apply to Canadians. What are you talking about?
Director, Catholic Refugee Sponsors Council
The commitment Canada made to protecting indigenous people, according to the United Nations, applies to all indigenous people, not only to Canadian first nations. So now Canada is committed to protecting all indigenous people across the world, the Yazidis in addition to the Chaldeans, Assyrians, and Syriacs, who are the indigenous people of Iraq.
Conservative
Bob Saroya Conservative Markham—Unionville, ON
I understand.
My next question is for Mr. El Shafie. When you're talking about creating a green zone for the minorities, how do we create this green zone? I'm assuming that we're talking about protecting the Yazidi people as well as the Christians in Iraq and Syria. How do we create a green zone?
Rev. Majed El Shafie
The green zone came from a request from the refugees themselves. Once again, many of the internally displaced persons don't want to leave their homes. Nobody wants to leave their home. Some of them have found that their lives there are absolutely impossible at this point. They have a stigma against them. They're persecuted, and that persecution does not stop. The Kurds are unable to protect them. The Iraqi soldiers are unable to protect them. The Shia militias within the Iraqi army are not protecting them.
So the idea came to have the immigration option and/or to have a green zone where the refugees could be protected if they chose to stay in their homeland. But if they chose to leave, they would be free to request to be refugees.
Conservative
Bob Saroya Conservative Markham—Unionville, ON
In your mind, do you think the Yazidi or the Christians or any other minorities can live in peace and harmony in Iran or Syria?
Rev. Majed El Shafie
Right now I would say that I doubt they can live in absolute peace and harmony, because with the Kurdish troops and their agendas, the Iraqi soldiers and their agendas, and the Shia militias and the Sunni groups, a lot of the minorities do not have militias to protect them. They would always be a target, even if we defeated ISIS and other extremist groups. They would always be a target, because they are different, because they are a minority.
However, this green zone I was talking about would be under international protection, not local protection.