Citizenship and Immigration committee  Perhaps I can give you a case study of the families that my synagogue is sponsoring through Operation Ezra. We filled the papers in November of last year and they were approved, in terms of their content being correct, in December. We just received notification that the process

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We're at a point now where we're looking at it conceptually, so we haven't drilled down to.... In essence, the concept is that we have volunteers and people who are knowledgeable and experienced in settlement and helping these folks and their families after their arrival. Also, p

Citizenship and Immigration committee  As far as we know, based on the comments and the questions we've had from across the country, we are the only organized group that is focused on privately sponsoring Yazidi families in Canada, maybe in North America.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I would like to qualify that by saying that we would apply for a lot more, and I know that our community would put up more money if we could find quota to bring more families in.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Not as far as we know.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  For just two minutes, if I may, or two seconds. I'm sorry about that.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  A New York minute, then. The on-the-ground issue is important because those people are being segregated, and they're not getting the same attention as the Syrian refugees in the camps. I also want to point out that through our information, there are 25,000 Yazidi refugees in T

Citizenship and Immigration committee  If I could just build on my colleague's comments, I think the problem with the United Nations' definition of a refugee has been a stumbling block. I think we have to look beyond that and get away from definitions and look at the fact that Canada has played, for the last number of

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We have to move very quickly on the ground. We just got notification that our fifth and sixth families had their applications approved by the government. Those applications were made in November. They still have to go through an interview process and other checks. We have to mo

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, most definitely.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you. We are here today to tell you that the private sponsorship of refugees is limited in its effectiveness. Operation Ezra is a Winnipeg-based private sponsorship program launched by the Jewish community of Winnipeg, now involving 20 partners including Christian, multi

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Ms. Naso.