TRANSCRIPT
and, so, seeing that image of the boy
lying face down on the beach of the
same age was heartbreaking for everyone who saw it.
There are four and a half million Syrians
that are outside of Syria right now,
and we haven't seen that kind of displacement in 60 years.
Canada's taken in about 2,300.
Of late, we're talking about 25% of that
being sponsored by the federal
government and the rest private.
So, in terms of private sponsors,
the Group of five, it's one where
basically five Canadians or permanent residents
sponsor a refugee from abroad or a family.
And then there's also, of course,
sponsorship agreement holders, so those would be
churches and charities and that kind of thing.
You know, what's been controversial
is that in 2012, the government under Jason Kenney
implemented a rule basically saying
that the UNHCR or foreign government
had to vet the refugee and confirm
that they were, in fact, recognized refugees.
So that's led to a lot of delays.
I mean, there's a couple months in Winnipeg
where the immigration department looks at the application
and then, you know, it goes to a Visa post abroad
so it can be Lebanon taking about 11 months,
it can be Amman, Jordan, taking about 19
or it could be Ankara, Turkey taking about 45 months.
So it's a lengthy process.
While you're waiting, you could do certain things.
You could take a refugee sponsorship training program class
sponsored by the federal government, in part.
That would help you to figure out how to provide shelter
and how to help the refugees find jobs, that kind of thing.
Also custom, familiarizing the refugees
with Canadian customs and language here.
You could do that.
I would also have to keep becoming observant activists.
I would say that they should drop the
UNHCR Foreign Government Recognition Requirement.
They should hire more officers for speedier processing,
get temporary residents permits for, in particular, those
whose family members here can recognize them.
Go to them as opposed to letting them come to us,
and increase the targets fairly dramatically.
We took in 60,000 Vietnamese, you may recall,
in the late 70s, 35,000 Hungarians,
and about a year they were processed.
So, in terms of how you can help
immediately also in terms of providing money to charities.
There's War Child, OxFam, Médecins Sans Frontières.
There's the UNHCR of course, and
Lifeline Syria and others.
Thank you.
