Parties want Canadians to band together
Kristin Reimer joined hundreds at a downtown rally to sound the alarm on what organizers said were regressive refugee policies that now stand in a global spotlight as a humanitarian crisis continues in Syria.
“It’s an issue that has long been important to me here in Canada, but it was brought home absolutely with the image that everyone saw and with my own little boy, who looks so much like the little boy who was washed up on the beach, and there but for the grace of God go he,” Reimer said as her son crawled on the patch of grass around her. “We are them. They are us.”
After the images of Alan Kurdi’s lifeless body were captured, showing the three-year-old Syrian boy washed up on the shores of Turkey, Reimer said, she was disheartened by the “complete lack of approach that the (Canadian) government has shown toward this crisis.
“There could be and should be immediate action.”
Canadian political parties agreed, calling for an end to partisanship and for Canadians to band together.
Ottawa Centre NDP candidate Paul Dewar began Saturday by laying out his party’s five-point plan to help Syrian refugees in the short and medium term. The party, if elected, aims to bring 10,000 government-sponsored refugees to Canada by the end of this year, then commit to resettling 9,000 annually from 2016 to 2019.
The New Democrats want a Syrian refugee coordinator appointed to oversee these efforts, something the Conservatives can agree to before the election, Dewar said.
The NDP plan also aims to speed the arrival of refugees in Canada by increasing immigration officials abroad and developing partnerships with provincial and municipal governments.
The NDP vows to work with Turkey and other countries where displaced Syrians have gathered to streamline their exit requirements and end Canada’s policy of discrimination based on religion. In addition to increasing humanitarian aid by matching the donations made by Canadians, Dewar said the party will give more money to the United Nations High Commission on Refugees.
The party also committed to fasttracking private sponsorships, removing caps on them and giving out temporary resident permits for Syrians who want to stay in Canada temporarily with family.
Dewar said Bashar Assad’s brutal assault on the Syrian people coupled with the destabilizing effect of ISIL, who continue to seize control of parts of the country and are forcing anti-Assad rebels to retreat, has created the worst humanitarian crisis since the Second World War.