Citizenship and Immigration committee  I certainly can, but I think we should start from the position that was already stated here, which is that for the one-year period in which the co-sponsor or sponsorship agreement holder is working with the privately sponsored refugee, many of the refugees shouldn't necessarily b

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Those were busy days in December, so thank you very much.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  There are two separate streams for this. When they originally arrived, our goal was that they would come to our private school. The Armenian Community Centre is affiliated with the A.R.S Armenian School, which is a private school providing instruction following the Ontario curric

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We offer English as a second language, French as a second language, and classes to integrate, but most of the refugees who've arrived through the Syrian program have spent some time wanting to come to Canada. Obviously their parents haven't spent long enough to pick up the langua

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Therefore we haven't had the need for ESL that I thought we would have originally, but all the parents certainly do need it. Thank you.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  In late 2009 we applied to CIC, as it was then, and became a sponsorship agreement holder. We were accepted in 2010, and we began to accept our first privately sponsored refugees in 2010. At this time it was part of a government program to expedite a privately sponsored refugee p

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We were so fortunate that our ambition was shared by the Canadian government, and particularly IRCC staff. With their guidance, assistance, and support, we were able to reach our goals. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I could go in one of two directions with my presentation. I have written up both. I think I won't use my entire seven minutes and will speak more briefly, because I noticed in the previous session that there were questions asked. I think I can el

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I will send that electronically to the clerk afterwards as well. Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Shahen Mirakian. For today's purposes, I have been designated—or, more properly, I've designated myself—as the government relations coordinator for the Armenian Community Centr