[Sundaycommunity] Private Refugee Sponsorship

[Mario Calla]

Hi Helena,

It is disturbing that they have put the program on "pause." While the pause
excludes, as Paul notes, those sponsored through a SAH such as the Catholic
Archdiocese, the reality is that this is an inexpensive program for the
government as the community of sponsors takes all the financial and
settlement responsibility. The government says they are backed up in
processing applications. They should add resources to process
applications rather than put it on hold.  Up until the Syrian crisis eight
years ago, this was the only private sponsorship program in the world. At
that time, the world took notice as we were openly inviting Syrians while
other countries were trying to keep them out.  Since then a number of
countries have copied our private model. It has branded Canada as a
compassionate and humanitarian country.

Our Sunday Community took advantage of the private sponsorship program in
1980, only two years after it was established.  We sponsored our first
family in response to the Vietnamese "Boat People" crisis. The Le family
arrived with a toddler and a baby. They are all doing well.  They own their
own house, their grown up children have good jobs and they have
grandchildren. Since then we sponsored families from El Salvador, Honduras
and Syria. The Syrian family, the Sabbaghs, is our most recent
sponsorship.  They are doing very well.  They bought their own home this
year in Oshawa. Ola, the mother, is working as a support worker in a
Community Living home and Fuad, her husband, has a small construction
company.  The children are thriving in school.  Grace is in third year
Health Sciences at Queens. Juad is in second year Architecture at Western
and Lily, the youngest, is in her first year of high school. Right now they
are anxiously watching events unfold in Syria as they are concerned
whether the new government will respect minority rights, as the Sabbaghs
are Christian.  They still have close family living in Damascus.

I think they are a good example of why our government should continue to
vigorously support the private sponsorship program. To put it in
perspective, of the 472,000 immigrants that Canada gave permanent status to
last year, only 27,660 were privately sponsored.

I hope this helps provide context.

Mario


On Tue, Dec 10, 2024 at 10:05 AM H. Burns via Sundaycommunity <
sundaycommunity at lists.integralshift.ca> wrote:

> Thanks for the clarification, Paul.  I was referring to groups.  I
> listened to a discussion this morning with Matt Galloway on CBC news this
> morning which will be available later and well worth hearing.
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Dec 10, 2024, at 09:53, Paul M <ckedobw at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> 
> Hi Helena
> Just a clarification. With regards to the pause on refugee sponsorship, it
> specifically affects two types of privately sponsored refugees - Those
> sponsored by “A group of 5” And those sponsored by a community. The pause
> or stoppage does not affect privately sponsored refugees, who are sponsored
> by a family member and assisted by a group like us Spiritains as
> Sponsorship Agreement Holders (SAH). However, the government has, of
> course, even cut back on the number of applications we will be allowed to
> submit. We are still going ahead submitting applications this year and will
> do so next year, but with fewer cases that we will be able to deal with.
>
> Sent from Gmail Mobile
>
>
> On Tue, Dec 10, 2024 at 9:33 AM H. Burns via Sundaycommunity <
> sundaycommunity at lists.integralshift.ca> wrote:
>
>>  It is unbelievable that Canada has suddenly ‘paused’ its private refugee
>> sponsorship programme.  I had not realized that our programme was unique in
>> the world.
>> Some believe the ‘pause’ may be a misnomer, and it may result in the end
>> of the programme.
>> Mario, perhaps this is a good time to update us on ‘our’ family.
>>
>> Helena
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
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