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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Century Schoolbook",serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US">We need to counter the heartless Canadian bureaucracy that runs our immigration system.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Century Schoolbook",serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Century Schoolbook",serif">David
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Century Schoolbook",serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-US">From:</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> TASC <tasc-bounces@list.web.net>
<b>On Behalf Of </b>TASC<br>
<b>Sent:</b> June 9, 2021 7:44 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> TASC@list.web.net<br>
<b>Subject:</b> Please Sign to Reunite In-Canada Palestinian Refugees With their Gaza Loved Ones<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<h3><span style="font-size:14.5pt;font-weight:normal">Friends,</span><span style="font-size:14.5pt"><o:p></o:p></span></h3>
<h3><span style="font-size:14.5pt;font-weight:normal">With your help, Ottawa Palestinian refugee Jihan Qunoo successfully challenged the rigidity and heartlessness of the Canadian immigration bureaucracy and yesterday received long-sought temporary resident
permits for her husband and war-traumatized kids in Gaza. They all hope to reunite in Canada by the end of this month.</span><span style="font-size:14.5pt"><o:p></o:p></span></h3>
<h3><span style="font-size:14.5pt;font-weight:normal">There are at least a dozen other Palestinian refugees in Canada whose circumstances match Jihan’s: painfully separated from their kids and spouses for over two years, permanent resident applications that
could take another 3.5 years to open and process, emotionally devastated by distance, and riven with the fear that within the decimated conditions of Gaza – from the war-ravaged streets to the ongoing pandemic – their loved ones could be the next casualties
should armed hostilities resume.</span><span style="font-size:14.5pt"><o:p></o:p></span></h3>
<h3><span style="font-size:14.5pt;font-weight:normal">Please sign and share the petition link below to demand a program to immediately reunite the Gaza families here in Canada. Ottawa has facilitated such reunifications during humanitarian crises. What can
we call Gaza other than a crisis, when even the UN Secretary General declared last month
</span><i><span style="font-size:14.5pt">"If there is a hell on earth, it is the lives of children in Gaza.” </span></i><span style="font-size:14.5pt"><o:p></o:p></span></h3>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://www.change.org/p/reunite-in-canada-palestinian-refugees-with-their-gaza-loved-ones"><span style="font-size:15.0pt">https://www.change.org/p/reunite-in-canada-palestinian-refugees-with-their-gaza-loved-ones</span></a><o:p></o:p></p>
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<h3><span style="font-size:14.5pt;font-weight:normal">Thanks for your support.</span><span style="font-size:14.5pt"><o:p></o:p></span></h3>
<h3><span style="font-size:14.5pt;font-weight:normal">Matthew Behrens</span><span style="font-size:14.5pt"><o:p></o:p></span></h3>
<h3><span style="font-size:14.5pt;font-weight:normal">Rural Refugee Rights Network</span><span style="font-size:14.5pt"><o:p></o:p></span></h3>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eOXmytFOaT8/YMFN2_77XUI/AAAAAAAAA2w/z9AFx0JGd0QMN9g5C8mjiy2q6OFp7clYgCLcBGAsYHQ/s964/Palestine%2Btears.png"><span style="border:solid windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0cm;text-decoration:none"><img border="0" width="640" height="430" style="width:6.6666in;height:4.4791in" id="_x0000_i1025" src="cid:image001.jpg@01D75D68.CD03A8B0" alt="Image removed by sender."></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><br>
Please sign and share this urgent action petition: <a href="https://www.change.org/p/reunite-in-canada-palestinian-refugees-with-their-gaza-loved-ones">
https://www.change.org/p/reunite-in-canada-palestinian-refugees-with-their-gaza-loved-ones</a></span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:15.0pt">At least a dozen convention refugees in Canada have been
<strong><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">separated from their loved ones in war-ravaged Gaza for more than two years.</span></strong> Without an immediate, positive intervention, they face an additional separation of
<strong><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">almost 3.5 years. They are traumatized children yearning for a parent’s comforting hugs or dreaming of a safe playground without bomb craters. They are spouses unable to build lives together. They are families
for whom each moment apart is a cruel punishment. </span></strong><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:15.0pt">We are calling on Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) Minister Marco Mendicino to urgently
<strong><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">enact special immigration measures (including, but not limited to, the blanket issuance of Early Entrance Temporary Resident Permits or Temporary Resident Visas) to immediately reunite these families.</span></strong> The
best interests of affected children and Canada’s commitment to family reunification demand urgent action on these cases. It would be unconscionable to leave them in Gaza for at least another three years after UN Secretary-General António Guterres
<a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/05/1092332" target="_blank">declared</a>,
<strong><i><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">"If there is a hell on earth, it is the lives of children in Gaza.” </span></i></strong><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:15.0pt">Canada has a history of enacting such measures in response to humanitarian crises. Recently, IRCC
<a href="https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/minister-mendicino-announces-new-permanent-residence-pathway-for-families-of-canadian-victims-of-recent-air-disasters-843466807.html" target="_blank">
announced</a> a temporary residence public policy for in-Canada families of the victims of the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 and Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 tragedies. Last September, similar assistance was
<a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/news/notices/immigration-and-consular-assistance-beirut-2020.html" target="_blank">
extended</a> to those with loved ones affected by the horrific Beirut explosion. Following the December, 2004
<a href="https://www.cicnews.com/2005/06/update-canadas-tsunami-disaster-response-06180.html#gs.2waqqz" target="_blank">
tsunami</a> in Indonesia, Canada waived fees and granted priority processing to hundreds of affected permanent resident applicants. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:15.0pt">The current conditions in
<strong><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Gaza constitute a humanitarian crisis</span></strong> that <a href="https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/UNICEF%20State%20of%20Palestine%20Humanitarian%20Situation%20Report%20No.%203%20%28Gaza%20Escalation%29%20-%2024%20May%202021.pdf" target="_blank">UNICEF</a>
concludes “adds to existing vulnerabilities and [is] likely to increase poverty, vulnerability and loss of livelihoods exacerbating an already dire situation.” Shortages of food, fuel, clean water, and medicine, compounded by extensive infrastructure damage,
and <strong><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">a trauma that is particularly devastating for
<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/health-wellness/2021/05/18/israeli-palestinian-conflict-mental-health-impact-traumatized-kids/5144155001/" target="_blank">
children</a> and young couples</span></strong>, are just part of the daily life endured by separated family members who could
<strong><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">begin the path to health and healing once reunited in Canada</span></strong> as they await processing of their permanent residency applications.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:15.0pt">Coupled with these poor conditions is the fragile security situation in Gaza which, the Government of Canada acknowledges, “could deteriorate with
little or no notice.” On May 28, 2021, Global Affairs Canada<a href="https://travel.gc.ca/destinations/israel-the-west-bank-and-the-gaza-strip#assistance" target="_blank"> listed</a> the Gaza Strip as a place to which one should “avoid all travel” due to
<strong><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">“the possible resumption of armed hostilities.”</span></strong><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:15.0pt">In early June, 2021, Canada granted
<strong><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Early Entrance Temporary Resident Permits</span></strong> to the Gaza-based husband and children of Ottawa Palestinian refugee
<a href="https://ca.movies.yahoo.com/ottawa-woman-reunited-family-stuck-203236349.html" target="_blank">
Jihan Qunoo</a>, who fled Gaza in 2019. <strong><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">The conditions faced by Qunoo’s family are no different than those impacting this group of refugees from Gaza.</span></strong><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:15.0pt">We call on the Minister to
<strong><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">immediately enact whatever measures are necessary to issue early entrance temporary resident permits or temporary resident visas</span></strong> to allow similar family reunification in the cases of in-Canada
Palestinian refugees who have been found to be persons in need of protection and who have submitted permanent residence applications. Such a policy must be flexible enough to also include those in-Canada Palestinian refugee claimants who, following successful
hearings, submit permanent resident applications during the remainder of 2021.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:15.0pt">While the numbers of those who would benefit from such measures are modest, the positive difference it will make in all of their lives is huge.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:15.0pt">On October 5, 2020, Minister Mendicino
<a href="https://twitter.com/marcomendicino/status/1313183571004227585?lang=en" target="_blank">
tweeted</a>: <em><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">"Our government strongly believes in the importance of keeping families together—particularly during difficult times. Now, more than ever, family reunification is an important component of Canada’s
immigration system.” </span></em><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:15.0pt">Answering this call to reunite in-Canada Palestinian refugee families with children and spouses facing such difficult times while stuck in Gaza will
help give true life to that commitment.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:15.0pt">(Image by the then 16-year-old Hamza Shaheen for an art exhibit featuring the work of Palestinian youth, created in art therapy classes for young
Palestinians experiencing death and displacement, produced in 2015. <em><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">“Everyone is gone and I stayed alone to make the world witness the injustice done to me.”</span></em>)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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