Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  We never asked the IRB to consider all the Copts to be qualified claimants. But we did ask the IRB to really do the research and find out about the genuine cases. These Christians, who are a Coptic people of Egypt, who are applying as refugee claimants, how can you consider them

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I've been asked that question by many IRB panel members when I make my presentation about the Copts of Egypt. Then the popular question pops up—no surprise—“But the head of your church doesn't say that the Christians of Egypt, the Copts, are being persecuted.” Here is my classic

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  The panel members need a lot more resources, a lot more sensitivity training. You have to bring their awareness to today's current issues. Some of them seem to have an old stigma. Some of them are quite partial, I would say. So we have to be sensitive when we have a Christian cas

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I would say education, education, education. You need some good coverage out there, not just American films, to get into the Egyptian media. You need more than that to educate the people. The majority of the women out there are uneducated, so you're dealing with uneducated masses

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I've been dealing with refugees for over 16 years now. Unfortunately, the system in Canada would allow more bogus refugees than genuine refugees. The system needs to be looked at quite thoroughly. We are burned by that because the good people who are genuinely persecuted don't ma

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I'll try to pace it and see how fast I can go. Just to answer this particular point about kidnapping young girls, this is now a trend in Egypt, because young Christian girls in Egypt are the most vulnerable and the easiest target for the Islamic groups and the Islamic fundamenta

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you. My name is Sam Fanous. I've been in Canada for 37 years. I am a proud Canadian and I am a proud Egyptian—Copt, that is. I thank my colleague here who highlighted a lot of facts. I'm not going to take you through all these incidents, but I'm going to focus on some re