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.
November 9th, 2017 / 8:50 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair (Mr. Robert Oliphant (Don Valley West, Lib.)) Liberal Rob Oliphant
I call to order the 83rd meeting of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration.
Good morning, everyone. We are continuing our brief series of meetings on the resettlement issues related to Yazidi women and girls, following a motion by the committee.
We are delighted to have the three of you here, as people who can inform us on the experience and the state of resettlement of Yazidis in Canada.
We will start with Operation Ezra. Nafiya and Lorne, you have seven minutes between you.
Lorne Weiss Working Committee Member, Operation Ezra
With the chair's permission, Nafiya will begin.
Nafiya Naso Working Committee Member, Operation Ezra
Thank you very much.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
Operation Ezra is a grassroots project, founded in March of 2015, with the primary objectives of raising awareness and fundraising to privately sponsor Yazidi refugees to Winnipeg. To date well over $500,000 has been raised by Operation Ezra across Canada. Applications for private sponsorship were submitted for a total of 10 families, or 55 people. Seven families, or 41 people, have arrived to date. We have one family arriving later today, actually, and two more families will arrive over the next few weeks.
Operation Ezra is a well-organized, community-wide project guided by a steering committee and several programming committees. In addition to providing support, Operation Ezra partners and a large group of volunteers provide the following tools and services for a successful integration: furnishing and setting up complete homes with donated goods from private and corporate donors; clothing and shoes through corporate donors; welcoming new families and assisting with all the necessary paperwork required to start new lives in Canada; assisting with public transportation, banking, finding medical professionals, and accompanying refugees to all their appointments; enrolling children in school; and assisting with finding employment. To date we have 13 people employed by Operation Ezra volunteers. We run a supplemental EAL program. It is staffed by professional volunteers. We also provide assistance with coordination of Yazidi community events to help create a strong, cohesive, and supportive community in the city.
Our future plans for 2018 are to continue to raise awareness, to continue to support the current Operation Ezra privately sponsored families, to continue to fundraise and privately sponsor Yazidi refugees, and to continue to provide support to government-sponsored families. This includes providing translation services, furniture and furnishings, clothing and shoes, access to Operation Ezra's EAL program, and invitations to all social events, and finding housing and employment.
I will pass it over to Lorne Weiss.
Working Committee Member, Operation Ezra
Thank you.
One of our challenges is that we're not only trying to help individual Yazidi women, children, and families, but also trying to assist them in rebuilding community. We think that's important in settlement, both in terms of support and a feeling of security within a very strange and foreign environment.
One of our problems in terms of logistics is that we spend a lot of time looking for sponsorship agreement holders who have available quota to allow us to sponsor private families. That is a bigger challenge to us than raising the required funds to provide them with the year's support that's necessary. We need more sponsorship agreement holders in major centres where there are already Yazidi communities in existence. We need more quota as well. We have sponsorship holders who don't have quota. We understand they're having challenges getting more quota or even maintaining the quota levels they have. To us, that's a large challenge in terms of the success going forward of private sponsorship.
We would also like the government to encourage private sponsors to be more active in sponsoring Yazidi families. I know that the focus of this committee lately has been the issue of women and children who have been damaged through the activities of ISIS and the disruption and loss of family members. But in order to build a strong community, there has to be a foundation for that community as well. We believe that increasing the number of families who are available to come to Canada will help build that foundation.
The other thing we are recommending is that in settling families in any cities, strong consideration should be given to cities with existing and thriving Yazidi communities. We should avoid settling new families in cities where there is no Yazidi community to assist them in the settlement process. In many cases, municipal settlement agencies are lacking the resources to provide adequate levels of settlement assistance. When we were here a little over a year ago, one of the recommendations we made was for a hybrid program between the government and private sponsorship organizations like Operation Ezra so that we could work together in an agreement to assist these government-sponsored families who need more help than government workers are able to give them on an ongoing basis.
Right now we're filling that void, but one of the difficulties we're having is that we can raise funds specifically to sponsor refugees, while fundraising for private organizations is difficult to cover off operational costs. Most people who give money want to see actual results of where that money is being spent. One of the difficulties we have is that we could do a lot more if there were some form of partnership between the government and private sponsorship agencies so that we could hire people to help—not to replace government workers, but to enhance the work the government is able to do with these people.
We're committed to rebuilding communities, particularly in Winnipeg, where we've had private families come. We've tried to settle them close to each other so that their children are attending the same schools together and the families have an ability to interact. Unfortunately, our hands are somewhat tied. We don't have any funds to really do this. We're relying almost entirely on volunteer help. We'd like to be able to have some professional assistance on a full- or part-time basis to assist these families.
Working Committee Member, Operation Ezra
Sure.
Family reunification opportunities should be prioritized, as families play an important role in the integration of newcomers.
Mr. Chairman, those are my comments and our recommendations.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant
Very good. Thank you very much. That sets a very good scene for us.
Mr. Hesso.
Hadji Hesso Director, Yazidi Association of Manitoba
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.
Director, Yazidi Association of Manitoba
Yes.
In Winnipeg, because the newly arrived Yazidi are met by the community and various helpers right from the day they arrive, they appear to be starting the new journey to recovery much sooner, and we are hopeful this will continue. This is significant because the Yazidi people are beginning to make connections and form relationships with others. This takes a lot of courage on the part of the arriving Yazidi people and on the part of the community trying to help.
In February of this year, the Government of Canada promised to bring in 1,200 people. That's when it started, and up to today we've seen 650 people. Now we are almost two months away from the end of this year, and I don't know if we are going to reach that number. A couple of years back, when we had the Syrian civil war, they brought 25,000 Syrians to Canada. We cannot reach the 1,200 number of Yazidi people by the end of the year, when entire religious and minority groups such as Yazidis and Christians have been through all these massacres, raping, and killing. The United Nations has acknowledged that it's a genocide against humanity.
Dalal Abdallah Yezidi Human Rights Activist, Yazda
Thank you.
Mr. Chair, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for having me here today.
My name is Dalal Abdallah, and I'm from the Yazidi community in London, Ontario. I'm here representing Yazda.
I came here on May 3, 2016 to bring you the voices of Yazidis girls from Iraq, Syria, and Turkey.
My family fled during the Gulf War to Syria to have a chance at a better life. My family stayed in Syria in refugee camps for eight years until we were accepted to come to Canada. As a little girl, that was a dream come true for me and my family. That opportunity of Canada bringing me and giving me a new life that day when we got accepted to Canada has been one of the best days of my life. The struggle and the pain that my family went through was unimaginable.
That struggle and pain is still going on with Yazidi families back in Iraq, Turkey, and Syria. On August 3, 2014, we were all left speechless while witnessing a horrifying genocide happening in front our eyes. Thousands of Yazidis lost their homes and loved ones, some witnessed horrifying massive killings, and some were sold and endlessly raped by members of ISIS.
Today I stand in front you again because these activities are still happening to the Yazidis in Iraq. There are still thousands of Yazidis missing, and still hundreds of girls are being raped on daily basis and being sold for as little as the price of a pack of cigarettes. I stand here fighting for the voiceless souls left behind in Iraq.
I thank the Government of Canada for opening their doors to the Yazidi survivors. I've had the pleasure of working with some of the survivors who have recently come to Canada. One of the ladies I keep in touch with is named Ghazel. I told her that I was coming here, and she asked me to share her experience with you today. She came here to Canada less than two years ago with one daughter and two boys. Her husband was captured by ISIS, and one of her daughters, younger than 12 years old, was also captured by ISIS. She managed to escape with two boys and one girl.
She wanted me to tell the Government of Canada, “I thank you from the bottom of my heart. You have given me life that I will never ever be able to thank you enough for.” Her kids are in a safe school here in Canada, and she also attends ESL classes herself. Her determination motivates me to be a better person. Despite of all the pain and struggle she went through and is going through, she still has that beautiful smile that keeps up with our world in Canada. She wants to learn English and become a voice for the voiceless.
When I asked her what she wanted from the Canadian government, she said exactly what she wanted from Canada, and that is to keep the doors open and bring more survivors to Canada, to protect the ones who do not want to leave Shingal to be able to live a peaceful life, and lastly, to help provide any necessary aid to the families who are still in Iraq. The last thing she shared with me is that a lot of the refugees who come to Canada have been separated from their families back in Iraq. We would like a program for the Yazidis to reconnect with family members left in Iraq to have them come and join them here in Canada.
The Yazidis have always been used and abused, either by the Kurdish government or by the Iraqi government, and yet they still do not have a voice in Iraq. It's time for the Yazidis to have a voice. These acts that are happening to the Yazidis are crimes against humanity.
I'm the same little girl who wished once upon a time on those bright stars, with no hope and no future, waiting for Canada to call my name in hopes of coming to a beautiful country like Canada. There are thousands of girls right now waiting for Canada to give them a chance for a better life. Imagine if that were your daughter screaming for your help, would we still stand here and turn our backs on the Yazidis? Canada is their only hope. I am a proud Canadian who will keep fighting for the beautiful souls who are struggling.
I want you all just for one moment—one moment—to be able to get out of those suits and think for one moment of the pain and struggle Yazidis are going through. Right now, as we speak, there is a girl screaming for our help. As a proud Canadian, I beg you to open your hearts and your doors to the Yazidis.
I had the pleasure of meeting Ahmed Hussen. I admire his work and his dedication to the refugees. I would like more Yazidis to be included among those refugees. We are bringing thousands of refugees to Canada. We have brought thousands of refugees. We want at least some of those refugees to be Yazidis. Particularly, I'm fighting for the girls who are struggling in Iraq right now. They go to Kurdistan with nothing. They have nothing. There are no services there. The whole country—Kurdistan, Iraq—is corrupt. This is not a place for a little girl to recover from being raped multiple times a day or from being sold to so many men. This is not a place for her to recover. Canada is the right place for her to recover.
I've seen that. I'm seen that from the women we've brought. The women I have met in my town of London, Ontario, are amazing examples. It's amazing to hear their stories. It's amazing how they are so motivated to do so much in this country. I believe in them, because I was once one of those girls. Somebody here fought for me, brought me to Canada, and gave me a chance at a better life.
Now I'm standing here, in front of you, to fight for my sisters who are left behind. I would like you guys to very much open your hearts. Whatever you can to help the Yazidis, please do so. They have nobody. Realistically, everybody is against them. We're watching a genocide still going on today. There are still hundreds of girls screaming for our help. There are still thousands of men, women, and children who are captured by ISIS. Yes, ISIS must be gone in some places, but these activities will continue. I strongly believe that Yazidis will be the target for a very, very, very long time.
As a country that helps, and that steps up to every situation that happens in the world—we are the first ones to step up—I'm very proud to be a Canadian just for that one reason. We need to step up. We need to step up and help the Yazidi minority group.
Yezidi Human Rights Activist, Yazda
Thank you so much for all your time and for listening to me. I hope—I hope—all of you guys will go and think about this not as politicians but as humans to humans.
Thank you.
Liberal
Salma Zahid Liberal Scarborough Centre, ON
Thank you, Chair.
To all of our panellists today, I want to thank you for your dedication in raising awareness of the plight of the Yazidi people and for your work to bring Yazidi refugees to Canada and help them resettle here in their new home. From the bottom of my heart, I really want to thank you.
First, to either of you from Operation Ezra, could you discuss your working relationship with the IRCC in regard to this project of bringing the Yazidis here and resettling them? Were they responsive to the issues you raised in this process?
Working Committee Member, Operation Ezra
We've had a pretty good relationship with the government, I have to say.
Working Committee Member, Operation Ezra
We've had some of the families reach out to us directly through the community—and directly through people like Nafiya, where they have the comfort to speak out—and they need some extra help. So we use our resources, which we use for our own sponsored groups, and we include those families in those activities. For example, once a week on Thursdays we have a gathering. Part of it is an EAL program, part is an opportunity for them to connect with each other, and part of it is for the kids to have supervised play areas. We're trying to create that.
We see ourselves as not being an alternative to IRCC but an enhancement to some of the programs they are providing. We're also stepping in to provide where there are voids for certain families.
Liberal
Salma Zahid Liberal Scarborough Centre, ON
Have they been responsive to the issues you have raised in this process?
Liberal
Working Committee Member, Operation Ezra
We've had good co-operation from them. They know what we're doing. We'd like to continue that co-operation. Our challenge is not IRCC. Our challenge is being able to fund the ability to continue to do that.
Liberal
Director, Yazidi Association of Manitoba
I do want to thank the IRCC and the partnership. We at the Yazidi Association of Manitoba have sponsored a family in Winnipeg through the IRCC. We are co-operating and talk regularly back and forth. We do have help from them. For all the families that have arrived in Winnipeg, particularly under the government resettlement program, in terms of the isolation, we provide socializing opportunities, transportation, medical care, and the most important is interpretation and integration into Canadian society.