Citizen-led initiative Lifeline Syria working to bring 1,000 Syrian refugees to the GTA

The challenge is on: Canadians need to reach out and help Syrian refugees, say Mayor John Tory (open John Tory’s policard) and Ratna Omidvar, founding executive director of the Global Diversity Exchange at Ryerson University and chairwoman of Lifeline Syria.

Canadians should reach out and help Syrian refugees just as they helped sponsor Vietnamese refugees in the late 1970s, Omidvar says.

In fact those efforts — which resulted in the resettlement of 60,000 refugees from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos — were the inspiration for Lifeline Syria, she says.

At a Wednesday news conference, Omidvar and Tory challenged residents of the GTA and all Canadians to step up and help out.

The Syrian crisis is taking place in a very different time and context than the Vietnam War, she says. But she believes people will step up. “The DNA of Toronto’s empathy remains the same,” she says.

The national call-out to help came after Omidvar and others kicked off a local citizen-led initiative to get groups of residents — individuals and organizations — across the GTA to sponsor 1,000 refugees from the war-torn region over the next two years.

Since the crisis began there five years ago, close to 4 million Syrians have fled to neighbouring countries and at least 7 million have been internally displaced. It has been described as the worst humanitarian crisis since the Second World War.

“Imagine being uprooted from your home, separated from your family, living in constant fear. This is the reality for the 12 million Syrians — half of the population of Syria — who have been displaced during the four years of ongoing crisis in Syria,” says Leen Al Zaibak, a member of the Lifeline Syria steering committee and co-founder of Jusoor, an organization that helps Syrian youth study abroad.

“These refugees are just like you and me. They had hopes. They had dreams. And they had jobs and careers. They were doctors, architects, lawyers, engineers, students and entrepreneurs. Many of these refugees are without food or water, without shelter, without medical care and are cut off from their education.”

Canada has promised to open its doors to 10,000 Syrians over the next three years, and the government is counting on groups of Canadians to come together and sponsor them. That’s where Lifeline Syria comes in.

It promises to help recruit, train and assist sponsor groups to welcome and support refugee families during their first year in the GTA, as well as work with the Syrian community here to ensure they help shape and participate in the initiative.

This is truly a “local to global” initiative, says Omidvar.

“The goal of Lifeline Syria is quite simple: We want to bring 1,000 Syrian refugees as permanent residents to the GTA.” — Ratna Omidvar

“Let Toronto be the first city to take the first main step,” she says. “Others will follow our lead.”

Tory also issued a challenge to other major cities — Ottawa, Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary — to step up and organize similar sponsorship initiatives.

“Let’s show that we can do this again for the Syrian refugees… I would just hope that as the mayor I can lend a helping hand to that, and those other mayors will respond in kind,” Tory said.

The local initiative has broad support that includes Premier Kathleen Wynne and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander.

The Canadian Council for Refugees, however, would like the government to do more, “by at least matching the numbers of refugees privately sponsored,” says Janet Dench, its executive director.

The group wants Ottawa to introduce special measures to allow Syrians with family in Canada to come here on a temporary resident permit, she says. Others would like to see Ottawa open its doors even wider and allow more than 10,000 Syrian refugees to make Canada their home.

“We should ask the government to have not only more Syrian refugees,” but expand the number of refugees admitted overall, Omidvar said. “We’re a very large country.”