[Sundaycommunity] Private Refugee Sponsorship

Fri Dec 13 10:32:56 PST 2024

Just to put more flesh on the bones of Canadian sponsorship programs, from
a Church community in St Catharines, at the height of the initial Syrian
crisis, we collected funds from private donors and through the joint
private/government program, brought a 19 year old to St.  Catharines.
About 18 months later, our daughter in Montreal, with a group of friends
brought a young trans woman to Montreal.  The former male is still
struggling in Toronto to make a life.  The trans fellow is a remarkable
positive person and community organizer.  He is identifying with the
Palestinians and experiences much grief.  In both cases, the private
sponsorship program did, I believe, save two lives and benefit Canada.

Rosemary Gray-Snelgrove (now residing in Montreal)

On Tue, Dec 10, 2024, 4:11 PM Mario Calla via Sundaycommunity <
sundaycommunity at lists.integralshift.ca> wrote:

> 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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