Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you very much. I want to emphasize that the option described by my colleague probably works for Assyrians, but it does not work for Mandaeans because Mandaeans don't have that option, those roots. So it's very critical that we look at this minority. It's facing genocide, a

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I could say on behalf of our community that the answer is zero. We've seen nothing. What I'm saying is that they're doing construction, but we're now facing genocide. So the question is, what can CIDA could do to protect them? The question here is, how can we protect these peop

Citizenship and Immigration committee  In particular, Syria and Jordan are, because they're neighbouring countries. I think these two are. I think it would be a good idea to give more money to the UNHCR to fund NGOs to help those refugees with schooling and health. It's a deplorable situation. It's really miserabl

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I would answer this way. If we look back, we can find out what Canada did in other situations.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  They took 30,000, 40,000, or 50,000 in a situation where there were fewer than one million refugees. Now we have four million refugees and we're taking 2,000. What number? It should be in the thousands, from the point of view of Mandaean refugees, who, as I said in my opening r

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Actually, that's a very good question. The answer to that is that if you ask UNHCR, they will tell you the numbers of refugees waiting for countries to accept them. If Canada were to open the doors, I guarantee you that the numbers would be a lot higher than that. The question

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you very much. First, to address the question with regard to sponsorship, the number of Mandaeans who live in Toronto is around 400 to 500, so in terms of sponsoring, they'd be more than happy to do whatever they can. But be realistic in terms of what their contribution c

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Good morning, Mr. Chairman, and honourable members of the committee. I represent the Mandaean Human Rights Group. The Sabian Mandaean community of Iraq is a small ethnic religious minority, which is one of the oldest gnostic religions and is the only living one still surviving