Ottawa urged to double Syrian refugee intake
Former immigration minister says accepting more migrants would shame U.S. to do same
As Canada braces for the arrival of 25,000 Syrian refugees, the man who served as immigration minister during the Vietnamese boat people crisis says Ottawa should be doing much more.
Ron Atkey believes the 25,000 Syrians Ottawa is promising to resettle initially is a “noble objective” but he wants Canada to up the ante.
“If Canada can do another 25,000 — that would make a significant contribution in line with Canada’s contribution with the Vietnamese boat people in 1979 to 1980. It will demonstrate to the Americans that they have to do more. We’ll shame them into it, similarly the Australians,” says Atkey, who was immigration minister in the Joe Clark government in 1979 when 50,000 Vietnamese refugees were granted asylum in Canada. By the end of 1980, that number had risen to 60,000.
“For us to take a dramatic position on the world stage is important. We won a medal from the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights. We gained a lot of prestige as a humanitarian country. I think that’s consistent with Canadian tradition.”
Atkey, who is also a lawyer, professor and national security expert, is chair of Humanity Wins, a group of prominent Canadians who came together earlier this year to advocate for re-settlement of Syrian refugees to Canada.
Like many, he has been appalled by what has been described as the worst humanitarian crisis since the Second World War — with more than four million Syrians fleeing violence in their homeland and seeking refuge in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey. Another seven million Syrians have been displaced internally.
“The humanitarian need to do more is stronger now than it was last week,” says Atkey.
“I want to be part of an organized group that is apolitical, but has been involved in various human rights issues to urge the government to achieve its objectives and not be sidetracked by situations such as over concern about security,” Atkey says of Humanity Wins, an offshoot of the Mosaic Institute, a Toronto nonprofit that engages youth from different cultures in dialogue and peace initiatives.
“We were trying to turn consciousness around, away from a pure security discussion to a humanitarian discussion,” explains Vahan Kololian, a Toronto businessman and founder of the Mosaic Institute and Humanity Wins. “It was to advocate on one hand, to share compassionate views on another and to get the narrative changed, which I think we did.”
During the federal election, Canada’s role in helping Syrian refugees became a political football with the Liberals and the New Democrats promising massive resettlement efforts. The Conservative government for its part had announced a resettlement plan that paled in comparison.
With the Liberal government’s win, the landscape totally changed. Initially, Justin Trudeau’s Liberals said they would fulfil their pledge to resettle 25,000 Syrian refugees by the end of the year.
But last week the government announced it would be extending that deadline to the end of February. Some suggested the government had broken its promise; others said it was being prudent given concerns after the recent terror attacks in Paris.
But the delay doesn’t concern Atkey or other Humanity Wins members. Nor does it dissuade Atkey from his vision that Canada should bring in even more Syrian refugees over the next couple of years. What’s more, Humanity Wins is also hoping to take on a bigger role — looking at ways to help with integration and resettlement issues, build dialogue and fight xenophobia and racism.
He is joined on the committee by such notables as former RCMP commissioner Norman Inkster, former NDP leader Ed Broadbent and Louise Arbour, former UN High Com- missioner for Human Rights and former justice of the Supreme Court of Canada. Other members include: Hind Kabawat, a Syrian immigrant to Canada who is a human rights lawyer and head of an interfaith, peace and conflict resolution program at Virginia’s George Mason University; Mosaic Institute’s Kololian and executive director Bernie Farber; former Liberal MP Sarkis Assadourian; filmmaker Atom Egoyan; business consultant Pamela Divinsky; philanthropist Don Morrison; as well as staff from the Mosaic Institute. Inkster agrees with Atkey that more needs to be done.
“We’re not trying to tell the government how to do its job,” says Inkster. “We think we, as a country, are openminded and have open hearts. We all came from somewhere else. Those of us of my vintage remember the 60,000 Vietnamese boat people who came. Then the scourge was communism. It wasn’t ISIS or ISIL. We got by that and now celebrate all the contributions they make. We really believe this is an important initiative.” Kabawat, too, shares Atkey’s vision. “As a Syrian and a woman I know how much people are suffering,” she says. But it’s not enough to resettle the refugees, she says, Canada must get involved in negotiating a peace settlement in Syria.
“We can do things to stop the war,” she says. “This is what Canada is about. It’s about peace. It’s why I immigrated here. We need to find a solution to this.”