Two Gatineau churches build model for privately-sponsoring Syrian refugees

A church group in Gatineau hopes to be a model for others in Quebec when it comes to initiating the private sponsorship of Syrian refugees.

Eight weeks ago, the parishes of Saint-Paul and Saint-Médard in Gatineau's Aylmer sector jointly launched an ambitious campaign to help a Syrian family – never having done it before.

Raymond Sabourin, a retired engineer, said he was attending a Sunday service when his priest mentioned the importance of helping the orphans of war. He said he decided, right then and there, he needed to do something.

The next thing Sabourin knew, he was in charge of the parishes' campaign.

"We don't know exactly when the family is going to come to Canada, but we're preparing ourselves that they'll come as early as January," said Sabourin.

Kassar family fled Syria for Lebanon

His group is sponsoring the Kassar family, a young couple and their two children: a boy, 6 and a girl, 2. They're Christian — one of the reasons they had to flee their home in Syria.

"The family lives in Lebanon. Their house was hit by a missile, and the kindergarten was hit by a missile. We know also the father was kidnapped for about 10 days and tortured and the family had to give a ransom to free him," said Sabourin.

Saint-Paul's parish was introduced to the Kassar family by Ottawa-area priest Fadi Atallah, who is also originally from Syria.

Atallah travelled to Lebanon in October to collect documentation from the family and several other Syrians he is trying to match with sponsors.

Finding family was easy part

Finding a family was actually the easy part, said Sabourin, but navigating all the paper work has been daunting. A committee representing the diocese hopes to develop a model for other private sponsors to follow in the future, he said.

"They're waiting for us to finalize the agreement so other parishes in Gatineau and other private groups can use that agreement," said Sabourin.

Sabourin is working with Accueil-Parrainage Outaouais or APO, a non-profit organization that helps settle between 550 and 600 refugees from around the world every year.

APO is one of 10 non-profit organizations recommended by the Quebec government to help with private sponsorship.

Over the past 18 months, Quebec has been able to bring in more Syrian refugees than any other province. Quebec's immigration minister says about 1,100 people, or 60 per cent of Canada's privately sponsored Syrian refugees, have arrived in the province.

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Some settlement volunteers say that Quebec's more streamlined immigration system is a big reason why numbers there are higher. Others say Quebec has been able to bring in more Syrians in the past year because the former Conservative government was dragging its heels.

Bato Redzovic, Director General of Accueil-Parrainage Outaouais, said right now his organization has the approval to help bring in 105 privately sponsored Syrian refugees.

Unlike the federal government rules, the Quebec system does not require refugees to have a refugee status document from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, or UNHCR.

According to rules set by the former Conservative government, Syrian refugees typically require a UNHCR designation as it's seen as another level of security clearance. Many refugee advocacy groups, however, have been calling for the federal government to waive the requirement as the province of Quebec does.

The fact the Kassar family doesn't need any UNHCR documents doesn't worry Sabourin, who said that when it comes to security clearance, the federal government will be involved.

"The Canadian Embassy in Beirut will call them and have an interview with the family and they will have to do all the security verification as well as the health verification," said Sabourin. "All of that is the government's responsibility."

Unclear when family will arrive

It's unclear how soon the Kassar family could arrive in Gatineau. For the next few weeks, attention will focus on the massive transport of federal government sponsored refugees out of camps in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.

Sabourin said in the meantime his group will continue to talk to the family and gather the furnishings they will need.

The group has already raised $28,000, which is double the amount the APO actually requires to bring in one family. Sabourin said now that he understands the process, they'll considering finding another Syrian family to help.