<div dir="ltr">Hi Helena,<div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><br></div><div>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. </div><div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><br></div><div>I hope this helps provide context.</div><div><br></div><div>Mario</div><div><br></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Tue, Dec 10, 2024 at 10:05 AM H. Burns via Sundaycommunity <<a href="mailto:sundaycommunity@lists.integralshift.ca">sundaycommunity@lists.integralshift.ca</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
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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.<br id="m_3233143168496619555lineBreakAtBeginningOfSignature">
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<blockquote type="cite">On Dec 10, 2024, at 09:53, Paul M <<a href="mailto:ckedobw@gmail.com" target="_blank">ckedobw@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
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<div dir="auto">Hi Helena </div>
<div dir="auto">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. <br clear="all">
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<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Tue, Dec 10, 2024 at 9:33 AM H. Burns via Sundaycommunity <<a href="mailto:sundaycommunity@lists.integralshift.ca" target="_blank">sundaycommunity@lists.integralshift.ca</a>> wrote:<br>
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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.
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Some believe the ‘pause’ may be a misnomer, and it may result in the end of the programme.<br>
Mario, perhaps this is a good time to update us on ‘our’ family. <br>
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Helena<br>
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Sent from my iPhone<br>
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