Good morning, and thank you, everyone, for allowing me to be here to represent the Yazidi Association of Manitoba.
My name is Hadji Hesso. I stand before you today on behalf of my brothers and sisters, who are living in conditions of dire straits in Iraq and the rest of the Middle East. On behalf of them, I urge you to resettle vulnerable Yazidi women and girls here in Canada.
As a religious and ethnocultural community, the Yazidis have been in Manitoba, particularly in Winnipeg, in Ontario, and also in Calgary for a while now. We work closely with the settlement agencies in Winnipeg in particular. We help them. We work in partnership and provide socializing for those who are isolated, as well as some transportation services and interpretation.
Back on August 3, 2014, the Yazidis experienced the most devastating attack against them. The attack conducted by ISIS was the 74th attempt to eliminate them as a religious group. I think this is not news to anybody. I think we all know about what happened that day. Everything has been documented since then. They live it day by day, and it's still going on even though ISIS has been defeated in the majority of areas in Iraq and Syria.
We urge the Canadian government to unite Canadian Yazidi refugees with their captured relatives who have found refuge in UNHCR camps in Iraq, Turkey, Greece, Syria, and Jordan. Yazidis everywhere pray that Canada will provide them with hope for a better future that will allow them to live in dignity and freedom despite the unforgettable past.
I'm going to talk about what the Yazidis have been going through, and specifically the people who have arrived in Canada, in terms of trauma. Trauma is very present, whether someone has been captured by ISIS or has escaped into the mountains. All of us have noticed it. We've seen it on video or in recordings, whether it's television or in a magazine or whatever. We've seen what happened to them back on August 3, 2014, when they ran to the mountain to escape the ISIS militants and to survive. Every person I've met has been traumatized to a certain extent. A prime example of the trauma suffered by those captured by ISIS includes women being regularly raped by multiple people, sold to others, and used as servants. Children as young as four years old are regularly separated from their mothers and kept in rooms with no food or water for extended periods of time. There are several stories of adult women witnessing the torture and rape of young girls. Many male children have been separated from their mothers to serve ISIS men. Male children have been trained to fight and kill. Females aged 12 and up have been used as servants, sold to many different people, and forced to watch videos of ISIS killing Yazidi men on a daily basis.
Many of the women and girls who have arrived in Canada have been going through a difficult time. It's severe, and it varies from person to person. We see it every day as we see them for appointments, transportation, or whatever is needed.
The Yazidis are adjusting and adapting despite the previous list of traumatizing events. We see this in the way people settle in their new country, including attending English classes or learning English, or attending community gatherings of various groups. Large families that arrive seem to be adapting more quickly than are individuals and those who are from smaller families.
The existing Yazidi community in Winnipeg is very involved. They often check on people's well-being and have organized community gatherings. The new arrivals are very appreciative of the support of the existing Yazidi community.
Almost all of the new arrivals talk about family members still in the refugee camps. When they bring some families, there are still people left behind. Some have been captured or missing since August 2014. The majority of men, 95% of the time, have been killed, or there is no news from them, but we are hoping for the women and girls to be returned one day.
Many of you maybe saw the story of the Yazidi boy we reunited with his mother in August. He was captured by ISIS back in 2014, and he was found alive in July of this year. The mother was here in February, after she had lost everything. The whole family was destroyed, like many Yazidi families. She came here and then noticed that her son was alive. We hope and wish that this will be the case for many families that have been through this.
As for school and the education system in Canada, all the children have commented about loving the experience of attending school and learning. This gives them hope for the future. While they all describe loving school, they are having a hard time learning because of the impact of trauma, which makes it difficult to learn and retain information.
Adults all love attending English classes but often struggle to learn because of the impact of trauma. They appear to learn more through conversational groups where they make connections and build relationships with others. We asked the resettlement agencies in Winnipeg not to put all the people together, to eliminate the mother language so they can possibly learn faster than if having conversations together next to each other.
We regularly hear about how helpers are being impacted by the shared stories. This shows the horrific nature of the trauma the Yazidi people have been exposed to.