Mayors working to bring more Syrians to Canada

Big city mayors are working together to bring more Syrian refugees to their cities, amid new poll results that show nearly one in two Canadians want the country to accept more Syrians than previously promised by the federal government.

Efforts from Canadian mayors includes a personal promise from Toronto Mayor John Tory to co-sponsor a refugee family and a motion Tuesday from Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson asking the federal government to increase its commitment to accept refugees.

Monday’s poll by Mainstreet Research suggests that Canadians feel strongly about resettling more Syrian refugees. Forty-eight per cent of the 2,506 respondents indicated the country should accept at least 30,000 Syrian refugees, and 13 per cent said the number should be between 20,000 and 30,000.

Additionally, 48 per cent of respondents felt the Canadian government has not done its fair share to address the crisis, and 58 per cent believe that taking in more refugees is the best way to help.

The action from Canadian mayors comes as Europe and the Middle East face a huge influx of refugees leaving the ongoing civil war in Syria. About 350,000 Syrians have entered Europe this year, the Globe and Mail reported, with 50,000 entering Hungary in August alone.

So far Canada has admitted less than 2,400 Syrian refugees, through both privately sponsored and government-assisted programs. Mayors here want to increase the number of Syrians admitted through both types of program.

Mayor Robertson, who wasn’t immediately available for comment, called for a permanent national baseline of 20,000 government-supported refugees accepted into Canada every year, the Globe reported.

Robertson, who also chairs the Big City Mayors’ Caucus (BCMC), planned to deliver his call for the increased baseline and federal action on refugees to his city council on Tuesday, and a public forum on the matter will be held in Vancouver on Tuesday night.

At the same time, other municipal leaders pledged to work with citizens and community groups working to bring refugees in under private sponsorships.

“I think it’s important for Canada’s big city mayors to really come together and talk about what that looks like, how we can each support community organizations with the sponsorship within our communities.” Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi told reporters on Friday. He mentioned that Toronto’s mayor has been speaking with other mayors for months, along with discussions with faith and community groups.

“This has always been a city of welcome, this has always been a city of sanctuary, and I’d like to see even more of that happening.” Nenshi told reporters. A weekend fundraiser at the Abu Bakr Islamic Centre in Calgary raised $57,000 towards sponsoring Syrian refugees, the Calgary Herald reported.

Mayor Tory spoke with his counterparts across the country — from Edmonton, Ottawa, Calgary and Vancouver — and discussed working with Lifeline Syria, which connects citizens interested in sponsoring refugees. Tory, who wasn’t available for comment, has pledged to co-sponsor a refugee family through the organization, which is working to resettle 1,000 Syrian refugees in the Greater Toronto Area over the next two years.

Tory also asked that the issue of refugee sponsorship and resettlement be on the agenda for the next meeting between the mayors of Canada’s largest cities.

“I support Mayor Tory’s initiative to go to BCMC and support the Government of Canada to aid refugees and newcomers to settle in our cities,” Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman said in a statement to Yahoo Canada News. “Winnipeg has a diverse community, and I’m proud that the City supports resources in our community that are doing important work to assist refugees and newcomers settling in Winnipeg.”

Halifax Mayor Mike Savage’s motion before the regional council was unanimously approved on Tuesday, asking for support for him to contact the federal citizenship and immigration minister and the provincial counterpart to express the city’s willingness to accept refugees.

Nova Scotia’s provincial government committed to a donation of $50,000 towards the United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees’ emergency relief for Syrian refugees. And Quebec’s provincial government announced Monday that the province will triple the number of Syrian refugees it can admit this year, to 3,650.

But Canada’s municipal and provincial leaders are limited in their abilities to directly bring refugees to the country. Any decision to increase the number of refugees admitted, speed up or simplify the admission process, or undertake emergency measures, such as airlifting refugees into Canada, lies with the federal government.

“Every single province, every single city across the county has expressed the willingness to help,” Jose Rivera, executive director of the Refugee and Immigrant Advisory Council in St. John’s, told Yahoo Canada News.

Nova Scotia’s financial commitment is an example of what can be done regionally, he said, but immediate action from the federal government to get refugees out of Syria and to Canada is needed.

“When you’re a refugee it’s pretty much like when your house is on fire,” said Rivera, who himself came to Canada as a refugee from Colombia. “You can’t wait until the fire department puts out the fire. You have to move.”

The three federal party leaders, Stephen Harper, Tom Mulcair and Justin Trudeau, should work together to bring thousands of Syrian refugees to the country by the end of the year, retired Canadian Gen. Rick Hillier posted on Facebook on Tuesday.

“Have Harper, Mulcair and Trudeau agree that we’ll focus on this now. Agree to bring 50,000 of those frightened men, women and children to Canada,” Hillier wrote in a post on his public Facebook page.

Conservative Leader Harper has reiterated earlier promises to bring 10,000 Syrian refugees to Canada in the next three years. Liberal Leader Trudeau promised to bring in 25,000 refugees by next year, while Mulcair said an NDP government would admit 46,000 government-sponsored refugees over four years.