Delays, inequities, and limits are major concerns FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Ottawa, ON: April 10, 2017 — Refugees and refugee sponsors in Canada face significant policy challenges, according to a new report by Citizens for Public Justice (CPJ). The survey of Sponsorship Agreement Holders (SAHs) reveals that barriers to refugee sponsorship in Canada remain, including long wait…
Canadians can be proud that our country facilitated the entry of so many Syrian refugees in 2015-2016. Yet, there is no reason to assume that the system is perfect or perfectly fair. An engaged society and culture can continue to improve our capacity to assist vulnerable asylum-seekers. Given the massive human need we are invited to confront,…
This report examines the main policy challenges Sponsorship Agreement Holders (SAHs) face today. Drawing on the responses SAH representatives provided through interviews and a survey, this report highlights four main areas of concern: long wait times, wait times for non-Syrian applications, allocation limits, and travel loans.
By Martha Wiebe on March 23, 2017
From the Catalyst, Spring 2017
For nearly 40 years, Ottawa Mennonite Church has sponsored refugees from around the world. The experience has been overwhelmingly positive. They have not only contributed to the life of our congregation but also to our community and our country.
Our world is taking uncertain turns. Countries are becoming more insular and inhospitable to refugees and those fleeing terror. The United States has suspended all refugee admissions from Syria indefinitely. This is disheartening, because the Syrian crisis keeps producing many refugees who need safety. This leaves Christians with a greater responsibility to welcome refugees.
Newcomers to Canada, including refugees, experience poverty at a troubling rate.
While the level of poverty among refugees remains unclear, our 2016 report on poverty in Canada reveals that 34 per cent of new immigrants and refugees live in poverty. Â
February 2017
Read the Letter
Canada signed the Safe Third Country Agreement at a time when the United States government stood firm on its humanitarian obligations to those in flight from terror and persecution. Our government had confidence that the United States would treat all refugees fairly. Today, we cannot rely on the United States to provide a fair hearing to refugee claimants before they arrive in Canada.Â
I’ll always remember the first time I spent the Christmas “holidays” in a refugee camp. It was the early days of 1982, on the Honduran border. Close enough to spit into El Salvador, we could sometimes hear bombardments. Families had next to nothing: they had fled the army’s “scorched earth” campaigns by swimming across the…
We cannot claim to celebrate Christ this Christmas without caring for refugees.
This Christmas, Christians across the globe will, once again, celebrate the life of a special gift—Jesus Christ—whose work and ministry revolutionized the quality and purpose of human life.
From the Catalyst, Winter 2016
Alan Kurdi, a two-year-old Kurdish-Syrian boy, drowned alongside his family members in the Mediterranean on September 2, 2015. The world vowed to do more. Many developed a greater compassion for refugees, but more is required.