Citizenship and Immigration committee  I can't say it's a double standard, because Syria was a special initiative, and we appreciate it. We applaud the government for this initiative, and it had to do it. What we are saying is the needs of other refugees, whether they are overseas or they are here in Canada, have to b

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Being a women's organization, we have always had special programs for women. Of course, for the support of the Syrian refugees, we have to enhance our programs. We have to include support based on the needs of the Syrians, but all our programs are women centred and look at the sp

Citizenship and Immigration committee  There has been. One of the positive aspects of working with the Syrian refugees is that there are lots of volunteers from the public that get involved. We used to have 100 volunteers, and now it has increased to 250 volunteers who are coming to help with the Syrian refugees. That

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We have only one settlement worker in Toronto, but our Peel office.... We have an office in Peel, and we have a contract with the government. It doesn't get additional funding. What happened is we were cut in our overall funding. A percentage of our funding was cut. There's a lin

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Also, one of the women had to be taken from a forced marriage. Lots is happening. Also, there an is impact on their settlement when they come back to Canada.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The longer they stay, the more difficult it is to settle into Canadian society.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  For language classes?

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Do you mean overseas? As I mentioned, the waiting period, especially for Pretoria and Islamabad, is five to six years for the refugees to come here. We had some of the refugees sponsored on our program. They couldn't wait that long. One of our sponsored refugees went back and wa

Citizenship and Immigration committee  One would be that there has to be funding available for the mental health issue, support groups. Also one of the big problems is culture shock. Mostly when they come here, a different population is involved. They are under the impression that everything is different here. Support

Citizenship and Immigration committee  As a sponsorship holder, we are working with different groups, and actually diverse groups of the population who have not been involved in the sponsorship like the.... What we're hearing from them is that there has been concern because some of the refugees in some parts of the wo

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, I agree. The welfare rate has to be adjusted.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Actually, the best practice would be to reach them at home, in the safety of their homes. We have met some of the women who have been here for a couple of years, but they don't even know how to do their basic groceries. The approach we have taken is to reach them in their homes.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Actually, this is a big problem for the refugees who come here. First of all, for the period that they are not going to class, there are no programs for them. They stay at home, which will cause depression and more isolation. As I mentioned, there have been cuts for the past fiv

Citizenship and Immigration committee  In our organization, we are working with sponsored refugees. Lots of refugees are coming under sponsorship. So far, we haven't received any major health issues.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  First of all, I have to mention that all refugees, including Syrian refugees, when they come here, are already a hard-working population and they want to get into the workforce as soon as possible. One of the main problems the refugees are facing and that we are identifying is