Toronto / October 2024 - It was the beeping sound of text messages coming through my phone that woke me up this morning. I quickly shook off sleep and reached for my phone wondering why my youngest, away at school, would be blowing up my phone this early in the morning. It wasn’t her.
As sleep left my eyes and the words came into focus, I realized it was from a longtime friend. A Jamaican-Lebanese Canadian, she was worried about her family in Lebanon amidst the news of new bombings including the death of Canadians. But that wasn’t her main reason for texting me at five-thirty in the morning. She explained in her long text, that she was up most of the night chatting with a younger man from Sudan that was sponsored some years ago by a group of five of which she was a member. He left his extended family behind when he fled Sudan including his parents, grandmother and siblings and their families.
He’s been trying to sponsor family since he received his permanent resident’s status. He felt the urgency when the civil war broke out, fearful that his brother would be forced to join one side or the other of the conflict. He thought they had to stay in Sudan to be able to be sponsored by him. As the conflict worsened the family had no choice but to flee. They made it into Libya. The grandmother died on the second day of their flight to a less than safe country. We have all heard the stories of enslavement of migrants in transit through Libya, especially women who are kidnapped and trafficked. He is at a loss as to what his next move should be. He believes he made the deadline to file applications through the special initiative to relocate permanently to Canada, relatives of Sudanese Canadian citizens and permanent residents. He isn’t sure, because he and his family have heard nothing from Immigration Canada.
The frantic texts to me were to see if I knew of a Sponsorship Agreement Holder who may be able to support. I couldn’t give them false hope. SAHs are inundated with requests. I don’t know any who are looking to take on more work.
As I was having tea and browsing through the news later this morning, I came across a story in the Hill Times on Sudan. The columnist was writing about Sudan and the special initiative mentioned above. The story confirmed that since the initiative was announced in February of this year, no application has been processed. No one from Sudan has made it to Canada through this program, seven months later.
The writer interviewed two Sudanese Canadians who had sponsored families. Their fear for the safety of their relatives was palpable. One man interviewed talked about his younger sister dying from an asthma attack because the health systems have collapsed. For seven months now his family have been waiting. Most have fled to Egypt. It is an expensive place for non-citizens as one of the interviewees in the article reminds us. This person has a sister and other relatives who also fled to Egypt. This sister is a doctor. She’s unable to practice her profession in Egypt. She had to pull her children out of the private school they were attending as it becomes clearer that the move to Canada isn’t happening anytime soon.
The article raised some concerning issues. It talked about MPs trying to get information for their Sudanese Canadian constituents being told that the processing of Sudanese applicants may take from over 45-51 months. This is unacceptable. As one of the interviewees reminded us, delays in processing means possible death for those waiting. Both interviewees rightfully pointed out the difference in responses by the Canadian government to what is happening in Sudan (and Gaza) to how they responded to the Ukraine situation. In the latter, Canada was able to process three quarter of a million applications for the CUAET visa within sixteen months with 298,128 Ukrainians arriving in Canada between March 17, 2022 and April 1, 2024.
Immigration Canada when presented with the optics of hundreds of thousands of European displaced people being expedited through a process within a year and half, while African displaced people are being told that the just over three thousand that will be allowed into Canada through this special initiative will take upwards of three plus years, responded by saying that the programs are substantially different. That’s factually correct. Ukrainians are coming as temporary residents while Sudanese are coming as permanent residents. This explains the more complex vetting process the latter will have to go through- but a difference of more than two years to process less than half of one percent of the numbers processed from the former? Hmmm!
The Sudanese (or Lebanese or Gazans/Palestinians) Canadian community do not have the same social and political capital as their Ukrainian neighbours and must depend on Canadians of good conscience to hold our government to account (There is a new report on the disparities in humanitarian response to people in Gaza). Especially in this political climate of growing anti-immigration sentiment, allies are necessary more than ever. Organizations like OCASI and our counterparts in other human services are raising their voices and demanding that the government respond urgently to fulfil their humanitarian obligations, with compassion for all – Black, brown and white. We need to hear the voices of leadership in our churches, temples, synagogues and mosques; labour unions and corporate Canada to also call on our governments to act. To be fair in their responses to geopolitical crises and to demonstrate that all lives are deemed important by Canada regardless of continent, Faith or skin colour.
We are watching the developing situation in Lebanon closely. As I’m writing this, I’m listening to our Minister of Global Affairs. She is reminding Canadians (citizens and permanent residents) to come home using commercial flights that are still operating. There are no plans to evacuate. She says she is working closely with Canada’s Western allies on coordination. She says that the government is working on contingency plans but has not promised proactive supports.
We must remind our government of the lessons we’ve learned from other world crises. We need to be proactive. Our sector must be prepared to receive a mass movement of displaced people if it should come to this. Most importantly we need our government to demonstrate that it respects the dignity and the humanity of all.
In Solidarity