Evidence of meeting #83 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 yazidis.

A video is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Lorne Weiss  Working Committee Member, Operation Ezra
Nafiya Naso  Working Committee Member, Operation Ezra
Hadji Hesso  Director, Yazidi Association of Manitoba
Dalal Abdallah  Yezidi Human Rights Activist, Yazda
Payam Akhavan  Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, McGill University, As an Individual
Nadia Murad Basee Taha  President, Nadia Murad Initiative, Yazda
Haider Elias  President, Yazda
Matthew Travis Barber  As an Individual
Mirza Ismail  Founder and President, Canada Section, Yezidi Human Rights Organization-International

10:10 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant

Mr. Elias.

10:10 a.m.

Haider Elias President, Yazda

Mr. Chair, members of the committee, ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for inviting me and my colleagues to speak and give our perspective about resettling the Yazidi community members in Canada.

I will keep my remarks very brief, as my time was cut down to 10%. I will talk about some difficulties and challenges of Yazda as an organization participating in the process of submitting applications to the Canadian government during the resettlement project over at least the past eight months. I will talk to you briefly about some of our challenges since we established our organization in late 2014.

We created a database of Yazidi women, female children, and any other survivors traced back to their community who'd been victimized by ISIS and the violence in Iraq. We had all the data already available for those applications. We had qualified those members of the Yazidi community, especially female children and women, who'd been victimized. We submitted their applications. But we faced a challenge that made it very difficult for the Yazda organization. The bar was raised for us to submit those applications. We found that some of the difficulties increased with regard to submitting applications for the families admitted to Canada. One of them was that UNHCR was dealing with multiple random individuals and organizations. As a result, the applications were duplicated. Many cases were rejected and denied, because two copies of the applications would be submitted to UNHCR by two different individuals or organizations. Families had to bear the responsibility of not being accepted as refugees when it was through no fault of their own.

They raised the bar recently for those applications—for example, requiring that families must have very recently survived or very recently escaped from ISIS. Hundreds if not thousands of applications have been submitted to our database. Going back to January of 2015, we still receive, every single day, applications from people who have recently survived. That's one of the other difficulties we have. Being very selective, and requiring that for individuals and families who were recently released, is a very difficult thing for us to do.

As well, multiple organizations have been dealt with differently. Some of the requirements for Yazda have been different from those of other organizations. Yazda submitted multiple applications for cases that according to our database were qualified in terms of the Iraqi government and for any organization helping families go to Australia, Germany, or Canada. According to our standards, those families were qualified, but some of the families were rejected. They complained that—

10:15 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant

I'm afraid I need to end you there, just to make sure the members of the committee have time to ask questions. I'm sure you'll be able to get more of your thoughts out during the question period.

10:15 a.m.

President, Yazda

Haider Elias

No problem.

10:15 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant

Thank you very much.

Now we'll go to Mr. Barber.

10:15 a.m.

Matthew Travis Barber As an Individual

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair and honourable members. I am grateful for the opportunity to come and address this committee today.

My name is Matthew Barber. I am a Ph.D. student studying Islamic thought and Middle Eastern history at the University of Chicago. I had done research with the Yazidi community for several years prior to the genocide, and I was living in Iraq when the genocide took place. After that, I began to respond and advocate for the community, and later served for one year in Iraq, 2015-2016, leading Yazda's projects there in humanitarian relief and advocacy work for the Yazidi community.

As a non-Canadian, I cannot speak to the issues here in Canada, but I can talk about the situation in Iraq at length and hopefully provide some insight. I am really grateful that the Government of Canada is providing leadership and, hopefully, serving as an example to my country on the kind of response that's needed for the Yazidi community. We should feel embarrassed that we are not doing what you are doing, that we are not doing more.

In terms of the situation of the survivors in Iraq at present, there are still people living near the Yazidis who have strong sympathies for the IS organization—the Islamic State—but the organization has been dismantled and eliminated in terms of being an organized threat right now to the Yazidi community. That doesn't mean there will not be more possibility of genocide down the road, but at present slaughter and additional cases of enslavement are not the primary risk.

The case for bringing survivors to Canada or to other countries for resettlement remains strong, however, and it has a lot to do with the conditions that people are living in now. There are four main areas that I believe are of issue regarding the recovery of survivors.

One is the lack of proper mental health and psychosocial supportive services in the country, which was discussed in the last panel.

Another is political instability. I disagree with Dr. Akhavan that somehow the Shia militias have replaced the IS organization as a threat, impeding the return of Yazidis to the area. That is not true. The Kurdistan Regional Government provided a much greater impediment to the return of people to Sinjar. That threat is no longer an issue, because KDP, the ruling party, has withdrawn the peshmerga. Things are actually more positive now with regard to the potential return of people, but things remain difficult and there is political instability. There needs to be a transition from the Hashi Shabi Shia militias to the kind of self-administration the Yazidis have been asking for in the last three years. In this context, there remains political instability, even if things are slowly improving.

Economic conditions are another factor. It is very difficult for people to return to Sinjar, where their homes and farms are destroyed. Many women who were enslaved, and now carry tremendous psychological damage and mental health issues, have to work long hours in a very difficult and bleak environment. This is not the environment that can provide the opportunity for a person to rebuild their sense of personal dignity after having suffered the kind of trauma that Mr. Hadji Hesso talked about in the previous panel. Canada can provide an environment where women who have been subjected to this form of violence have a better opportunity to recover in terms of their mental health and so forth.

The last issue, I would say, would be the Yazidi family. Some families are very healthy. They have embraced their female family members post-enslavement in the way that the Yazidi religious leadership has requested they do. Other families—as is the case with families anywhere in the world—are less healthy and are struggling with issues of stigma and so forth. Also, there is an issue if young women are pushed towards early marriage and towards becoming mothers while they haven't had a chance to recover psychologically from these issues or even think about whether they want to be mothers. Motherhood is very challenging in this post-enslavement context. I believe that expanding the number of Yazidi refugees who can be resettled in Canada, specifically for the survivor population, is a very good idea and an important idea.

My last point, before I finish, is that I believe that, in addition to this resettlement strategy, there needs to be a multipronged approach to a comprehensive response to the Yazidi genocide and the needs of the people. The purpose of all these resettlement efforts and so forth should be the long-term preservation of the Yazidi community. It is wonderful to resettle several thousand people here. That is of major benefit to them. However, there are several hundred thousand Yazidi people who will not leave Iraq, who will remain there, some by choice, some by lack of opportunity to leave. Some of them who stay by choice are committed to rebuilding their homeland, the Sinjar area, which is a very important religious centre. I can speak at length about the nature of the Yazidi religion and the fact that Iraq remains an important focus for religious practice. It is hard to replicate that in the diaspora, so preserving the Iraqi homeland for the Yazidi community is very important for its tradition and culture.

I know that this committee is focused on citizenship and immigration, but I believe it should dialogue with other committees in the Canadian government and other agencies to also focus on humanitarian relief and reconstruction efforts for the Yazidi community that remains in Sinjar. This is vital.

Lastly, I will just mention that when I was in Iraq, I supervised a resettlement program on our side—the NGO side, with Yazda—with the Australian government to resettle Syrian-born Yazidi refugees who had crossed from Syria into Iraq because of the violence of the Syrian conflict. Australia resettled that entire population to their country and worked entirely with us through that process. With regard to all of the questions that the other member had about working with the UNHCR, about whether Yazidis want to leave, and ethnic and religious identity, and challenges like these, it's unfortunate that the member has left because I can also speak to those issues in the Q and A.

Thank you.

10:20 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant

Very good.

I feel you have more to say.

To all the witnesses, I just remind you that if you want to send anything in writing to the committee, that's also helpful.

10:20 a.m.

As an Individual

Matthew Travis Barber

I have submitted a detailed handout with my recommendations and suggestions.

10:20 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant

It's here. I have—

10:20 a.m.

As an Individual

Matthew Travis Barber

It's being translated into French, I understand, so it supposedly on Friday will become available to the members.

10:20 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant

Perfect.

Mr. Ismail, our last witness, is next.

10:20 a.m.

Mirza Ismail Founder and President, Canada Section, Yezidi Human Rights Organization-International

Good morning all.

Honourable Chair, committee members, and honoured guests, I am honoured to be here today. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak at this briefing on the settlement issues related to Yezidi women and girls.

I would also like to thank our respected Canadian government for recognizing the Yezidi genocide by ISIS. The Yezidi are, indeed, the victims of genocide and I am pleading with each and every one of you to rescue them from certain destruction.

Yezidis are an ancient and proud people from the heart of Mesopotamia, the birthplace of civilization and the birthplace of many of the world's religions. We believe in a supreme God and in God's seven archangels. Yezidi is a religion, a language, and a culture.

You are probably aware of the current political strife in Iraq between the KRG and the central government. When the KRG declared an independent Kurdistan on September 25, Iraq's Popular Mobilization Force started fighting the KRG and has re-taken Kirkuk and most parts of Mosul province, including Sinjar, the main Yezidi city that was hit the most by ISIS. Since most of the Yezidis and Christians live in the so-called disputed area, Sinjar and Nineveh Plains, a strip between the Arabs and the Kurds, we are caught in the crossfire of the battle. When there is fighting, we minorities are paying the cost with our lives.

Yezidi women and girls who have resettled in Canada are very happy and deeply appreciate the Canadian government's efforts to bring them here to safety and freedom where they can sleep without fear. It's truly heartwarming to see these traumatized women and girls coming back to their normal life. However, the Yezidi women and girls arriving in Canada do not know there is an established Canadian Yezidi community here. They are not informed and the government does not connect them with our established Canadian Yezidi community here, which adds to their trauma, fear, and feeling of isolation.

Some Yezidis do not speak Arabic, and upon their arrival at Canadian airports, they are met only by Arabic-speaking government translators. When those Yezidis ask to stay with their extended family or relatives here, the translators tell them, “No, you are to resettle in a different city, different province. You have to go there. This is the law.” This adds to their confusion and fear. Some Yezidis thought they were back in the hands of ISIS.

There are problems when it comes to finding housing. It is left to the refugees to find their own dwellings. The housing NGOs provide apartment listings and it's then the job of the refugees to follow up on their own. They have to do this without any familiarity with Canadian culture, language skills, and transportation etc. The newly arrived Yezidi families who come to Canada in the escape program consist of women with young children who have lost their husbands.

There are also issues with the children. Some families, including Ms. Basema—who is supposed to be here but, unfortunately, due to personal issues, she couldn't—have been in Canada for more than four months and still have not received their child tax benefit. Until that happens, the amount of the money allocated to families barely covers the rent, let alone food and other expenses. Also, landlords are asking not only for the first and last month's rent, despite it being illegal, but up to four months rent in advance. This leaves the refugees with no money, no food, no transportation, no clothing and other necessities.

Case workers who are looking after the refugees often have more than 70 families in their caseload. This leaves traumatized refugees isolated and without the full support they need. Since these Yezidi women and their children are the firsthand survivors of ISIS and are severely traumatized, there needs to be a trauma support program for them.

When a refugee family moves into their new home, sometimes it takes up to two weeks or more for the government to provide furniture, including beds. This means they must sleep and eat on the floor until the furniture arrives.

Therefore, the newly arrived Yazidi families are more comfortable housed close to the Yazidi community. This is important for the Yazidis' sense of connection and well-being. Our community embraces newly arrived Yazidi refugees, which goes a long way toward the healing of our traumatized, escaped women and their children. The contracted NGOs do not take this into consideration when helping to resettle Yazidi families. This leaves the new Yazidi refugees isolated, without language skills, transportation, and their network of support.

Project Abraham was founded by Mozuud Freedom Foundation and the Yezidi Human Rights Organization-International three years ago. Its goal is to reunite the Yazidi families. Some of the family members are here in Canada and some are still in the UN refugee camps in Turkey or elsewhere. Project Abraham now has more than 150 volunteers, and they are providing excellent help and support to these new Yazidi refugees.

These are our recommendations and solutions. Over the next three years, we request that Canada bring in 20,000 Yazidis, with priority being given to escaped Yazidi women, their children, and orphans who are the first-hand victims of ISIS, and their immediate family members.

Citizenship and Immigration Canada should allow the escaped and traumatized Yazidis to stay in the same city where they have relatives and should inform the Canadian Yazidis of the coming of new Yazidis, prior to their arrival.

The monthly income of the Yazidis who come to Canada in the escape program is not enough, especially for rent. We strongly request the federal government work with the municipal governments to provide these Yazidis with government housing.

10:25 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant

I'm going to need you to come to a conclusion; you have just a few more seconds.

10:25 a.m.

Founder and President, Canada Section, Yezidi Human Rights Organization-International

Mirza Ismail

We request our Canadian government to intervene in the liberation of more than 3,000 Yazidi women and children who are still held by ISIS members in Iraq, Syria, and other states in the Middle East. We request our government to help support the creation of an autonomous region for the Yazidi and Chaldo-Assyrians in Sinjar and Nineveh Plains, with their own police and security forces, and provide necessary supplies and training to be able to defend themselves from any future attack.

We ask our government to send humanitarian aid on an urgent basis directly to those internally displaced in Iraq. There is a real threat of starvation, dehydration, and disease, especially in Mount Sinjar. This assistance should come from neutral, non-governmental sources to avoid the diversion of food, water, and medicine.

10:30 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant

I'm afraid I need to end you there. Thank you very much.

Just to give the committee members a heads-up, I'm going to suggest that we have three seven-minute rounds, which will take us to about five minutes over our normal time, if anyone has to run. If anyone wants to share time, there will only be one round for each party.

Mr. Tabbara, you have seven minutes.

10:30 a.m.

Liberal

Marwan Tabbara Liberal Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I want to thank all the panellists for being here today.

Since the the Yazidi crisis happened in August 2014, the international community has been slow to respond. From 2014 to 2015, the previous government only brought in three Yazidis under its watch. However, since the report, our government has brought in 807 survivors, and we'll continue to do more before the end of the year to bring in 1,200 refugees.

Mr. Payam Akhavan, after I cite the following, I want you to comment. Our witness in the prior meeting, Mr. Jean-Nicolas Beuze, said:

Throughout the world we have more than 22 million refugees. We have identified 1.2 million of them who are in need of resettlement, and out of them we will be able this year to settle less than 90,000, mainly to the United States, Canada, and Australia.

A large number of refugees around the world need resettlement, and only a small number can be resettled. Could you elaborate more on that?

10:30 a.m.

Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, McGill University, As an Individual

Dr. Payam Akhavan

As I said, and other panellists have also explained, it's impossible to resettle the hundreds of thousands of victims, and Canada must bear its share, hopefully in concert with other countries. That's why we also need to look at the protection of IDPs in the camps and how we can contribute to both the process of fleeing and finding ways that will allow them to return to their homes, which is why I was speaking about the security situation in Shingal. While this committee is focused on accepting Yazidi refugees, it should situate that within a broader engagement with the wider context of the situation. In that regard, I did want to emphasize the recommendation to have some sort of a truth commission as a very cost-effective way of helping both the healing process and the reconciliation process, because as one of the panellists explained, the tensions still exist with neighbouring Arab and Kurdish Muslim villages and neighbours who had a hand in these atrocities. We have to deal with those issues if there's going to be a long-term solution and opportunity for a return to Shingal for the displaced.

10:30 a.m.

Liberal

Marwan Tabbara Liberal Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON

That's a good segue.

Mr. Barber, you talked about a three-pronged approach in the region. I think everyone in this committee would agree that security and sustainability within that region is what the multinational community needs to do to ensure that we have ongoing safety not only for minorities, but for everyone in that region.

Could you elaborate on your three-pronged approach that you briefly got into in your statement?

10:30 a.m.

As an Individual

Matthew Travis Barber

The Yazidi community has been extremely consistent over the last close to three and a half years since the genocide about what they want. They're very unified in this. They want a self-governed, local administration within the Sinjar region that would provide the Yazidis from that area the opportunity to govern their affairs with a non-partisan security force, a local security force. One of the problems for the Sinjar region is that security forces that have controlled it in the past have always been party militias or aligned with particular political groups. The peshmerga, who withdrew from Sinjar and allowed the genocide to happen, were not a national Kurdish defence force committed to defending all of Kurdistan equally. They were beholden to a particular party, which is one reason why the trust of the Yazidis is so broken with the Kurdistan Region. I wholeheartedly agree with Dr. Akhavan about the need to restore security in Shingal, into Sinjar, and to bring the Yazidis from the camps back home. The time is ripe to do that now.

The Kurdish government doesn't have any legitimacy for the Yazidi community, so to me, a truth commission based in Dohuk is a little bit questionable. I also think the emphasis should be first on restoring the normalcy of Yazidi life—they've been stuck in the camps for over three years. Help bring them home; help them create the kind of local government they need in Sinjar, where they'll be safe; then work on reconciliation. It is hard to go to someone who has wronged you and work on reconciliation while you're still suffering in the conditions of the camps and so forth.

Now, the international community has been very slow to respond to this request from the Yazidi community. The fact that the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the peshmerga have left leaves two contenders in the Sinjar area now, PKK-sponsored militias and the Yazidi militias that are under the umbrella of the Shiite militias that Dr. Akhavan mentioned. These groups that are there now need to be transitioned into a less-politicized local force that will be run by the Yazidis, and they need the sponsorship of the international community to help facilitate that process.

10:35 a.m.

Liberal

Marwan Tabbara Liberal Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON

Can I just stop you there? I wanted to share my time with Mr. Ehsassi and to make sure he has time.

10:35 a.m.

Liberal

Ali Ehsassi Liberal Willowdale, ON

Thank you.

I'd like to welcome back Professor Akhavan. First of all, congratulations for being the keynote speaker at the Massey Lectures.

I was looking at the transcript of your testimony over the years. You've always been very consistent. You've looked beyond immediate challenges. You've always considered a truth commission to be a very significant part of that, but you said today that this has largely fallen on deaf ears. Could you tell us if there is any country that is assisting in this endeavour, and what Canada should be doing at this juncture?

10:35 a.m.

Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, McGill University, As an Individual

Dr. Payam Akhavan

Thank you very much, Ali, for inviting me.

The answer to your question simply is that there has been little to no interest in looking at some of the more grassroots initiatives, which will allow for not just a process of healing but also a transforming of the political culture that has allowed these atrocities to be committed and allows for this culture of intolerance to persist. I agree that there are—

10:35 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant

I'm going to need to cut you off, sort of rudely, because I really am under a time strain. I'm sorry about that.

Ms. Kwan.

10:35 a.m.

NDP

Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to all of our witnesses. You've given us some very important and also very compelling information.

I'd like to first say a big hello and a thank you to Nadia, who is coming to us all the way from New York. I recall that the last time the various witnesses came there was a request for urgent action from the government in terms of resettlement of Yazidis, to which the government accepted with the 1,200 number. My recollection was that it was also just the beginning that people were hoping for in terms of action to be taken.

We heard Mr. Ismail today suggesting the 20,000 number, so I want to ask this question that I asked of the last panel: whether or not you would support the government for it to increase the resettlement numbers for the Yazidi population as a special measure, so that the number does not come out of existing government-assisted refugees or privately sponsored refugees, to reach a minimum of 5,000. Can I get a quick answer? I'll start with Nadia.

10:35 a.m.

As an Individual

Matthew Travis Barber

I won't answer—