IMSS Set to Welcome 10 Government Sponsored Refugee Families
Prince George, B.C. – The Immigrant and Muliticultural Services Society (IMSS) is getting ready to roll out the welcome mat.
Executive director Baljit Sethi says 10 government assisted Syrian refugee families could be arriving in Prince George as early as today.
“We are expecting about 10 families, maybe today, so we are looking for apartments, we are looking for volunteers and we are taking care of everything but until they are here we won’t know what kind of needs there will be.”
The arrivals are part of the 25,000 Syrian refugees the federal government promised to bring to Canada during the federal election last fall.
In all her years on the job she can’t recall welcoming so many refugees at once but says her organization is ready to help.
“It is not stressful. It is a lot of tasks at one time but our staff are excited and very professional.”
Anyone interested in making a donation can call IMSS at 250-562-2900 for more information.
Comments
I find it really hard to believe that there is zero information sent ahead of time by the government, since they are the sponsors. At least some of the refugees needs should have been brought to light during their screening process upon entry to Canada.
It makes me wonder what kind of screening processes, planning processes, and monitoring processes the government has in place for this whole deal.
Always seems to be unknowns, nobody knows when they’re gonna show, how many people there are, or what they’re gonna do with them.
Nothing against it, I just thought that our government would keep a better thumb on 25000 welcomed strangers in our country.
They seem to be able to provide more info to the private sponsors than to those looking after the govt assisted refugees.
Just drove by PG’s own refugees outside the soup kitchen this morning. Boy did they get a raw deal, they were born in Canada and aren’t eligible for all the goodies that the immigrants are getting.
PG’s own refugees?!! Um, have they been bombed out of their homes, lost family members to warfare, and mass destruction to a country? I think not! Put yourself in the shoes of these immigrants.
Most Canadian families have immigrants in their heritage. This is a hand up-not a hand out.
Here’s a tip, most of the refugees coming to Canada aren’t from Syria.. they are from Turkey and safe nations. But keep reading the news, it’s just such a great source of fiction, lol.
To LRJ …. quote your reliable source and provide some understanding and knowledge about where the conflicts are and where the potential of conflicts are.
Syria is directly involved, as is the Kurdish part of Turkey and Iraq. That is where the majority are from. In the process they have typically gone through several countries base on the European Union’ asylum seeker policy which provides the freedom of movement of people in a similar fashion as there is a freedom of movement between provinces and states in Canada and the USA.
The authorities in those countries are trying as best as they can to determine the actual need of people based on what has happened to them.
So, again, what to you mean when you say they are not from Syria or other areas of actual conflicts in the adjacent areas?
LRJ is correct in the sense that the great majority of displaced Syrians are people who have already reached safety in a country of first refuge, primarily Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon. For the majority, although life in a refugee camp is not wonderful, they are no longer at risk of warfare or persecution. Syrians who are living in refugee camps outside of Syria are not looking to come to Canada or move to northern Europe because they are at risk of life and limb. In this sense, they are not comparable to refugees who are trying to leave the places in which they are vulnerable to violence or persecution, as were, for example, the Jews trying to leave Germany in the 1930s.
It is therefore legitimate to regard the presentation of such refugees as people desperate to save their lives as false, and inappropriate to criticise countries that do not open the floodgates to would-be immigrants who are not in fact seeking life-saving refuge.
That is not to say that we should not be sympathetic to these people and should not take in some of them. Life in a refugee camp is not a bed of roses. Immigration to Canada will allow these people to get their lives back on track.
There are also some Syrian refugees who are at risk even in the refugee camps, or who for one reason or another are not in them, or whose prospects for returning to Syria when the war is over are poor. These are the people subject to persecution by the majority, e.g. Christians, Yezidis, Kurd, Alawis, and gay people. These should receive priority for asylum.
Reaching safety is one thing. Living in humanitarian conditions and picking up life is another thing.
Germany has taken in over a million such individuals and families. 25,000 is peanuts.
The difference is, that most of the ones in Germany are there on a temporary basis. Germany is set up for those situations. I am not sure if there are any tent encampments. However, they are still there in youth hostel type accommodation until they can find a permanent location. By “they” I mean the government and private help organizations. The asylum seekers have a tough enough time getting used to the fact that they had to relocated.
To think that the majority are happy to relocate is false. Not saying some are not among the group who are taking advantage of the opportunity. Those always exist.
I speak German and have the advantage of being able to view and understand videos, civilized debate about the difficult questions at this time, and the understanding that this hit everyone like a brick wall.
We are very protected in this country, especially from work events outside of Canada other than the USA.
Give members of each group a decent paying job where they have to show up on time each and every day scheduled. Come back in a year and see who is back in the soup line bet ya the group that was born here is the majority
PG’s own refugees come to this situation , some due to there own lifestyle desicion while others are truly needing the help. How to distinguish between the two can be difficult to decide and to isolate without offending someone. It’s best to help all of them and let God deal with the users. For the Syrian refugees, most will be more thankful for the help then the local refugees.
Getting 25000 refugee’s into Canada over the time frame of 3 months was probably not a good idea. In any event they are here, scattered across the Country and we are now faced with the logistical problem of getting them located, housed, fed, and eventually jobs. I’m sure most of them are much happier here, than where they were a few months ago, however we still have a responsibility to make things right as soon as we can.
Can you imagine the problems we would have faced if the Liberals had actually brought in 25000 by the end of December?? This Government (If you want to call it a Government) leaves a lot to be desired, when it comes to making decisions.
Neither you nor I know on what basis they made such a statement at the time of a general election.
All I know is that during their normal two years of time that they have spent between where they used to live and where they are before they come here, they have been to a number of countries after entering though countries such as Greece. Various local organizations do their filtering, not as immigrants, but as asylum seekers. The EU has a policy to allow that. The UN is involved as well.
Since neither the US, Canada, Brazil and god knows whatever countries are far removed from those types of situations, it is highly likely that given the dysfunctional CIC that we have in Canada, know one really knew ho much is known about the refugees. Advisor to Trudeau, which were likely people in government administration in the first place, probably relied very heavily on the UN and maybe other refugee associations.
Those were not normal times at a changeover in government.
It is still not normal times anywhere in the world with the number of refugees involved with this crisis which began when despots such as Hussein were removed from office without having a backup plan. You can kay the blame primarily on the shoulders of those in charge of the US at that time.
So here we are. from the point of view of the refugees, petty stuff, I am sure.
BTW, the word seems to be getting around that the million or so in Germany are not too happy because some thought the streets were paved with gold. Sort of like immigrants coming to Canada and the US from Ireland and finding the same thing.
Wonderful news, hats off to Baljit Sethi and the Prince George Immigrant and Multicultural Services Society for taking the local lead on this much needed humanitarian initiative. I hope Prince George has a huge formal welcome planned at the airport, and somewhere in the city, for these Syrian refugee families. Let’s all show them a big Prince George welcome everyone. (40 second video):
www. youtube.com/watch?v=95Vc7ga869E
Those who put thumbs down on this video should be ashamed of themselves.
I have yet to watch the video, but voting up or down is freedom of choice, and does not require the shaming police. If you don’t like the thumbs down, move on.
It also could also have been done by accident by big fingers on a small smartphone screen. This site is not very mobile friendly.
I am making a fair comment of my personal opinion, the same as you are about the freedom of choice.
Call me the shaming police if you wish. My comment is in no way worse than your attempt to stop people from making such comments.
If we are not free to make such comments about other’s behaviour, our society is going down hill very, very fast.
So, I will continue to express my opinion about people’s points of view. Remember, the thumbs symbol is clicked anonymously. I am sure that many are actually not for the comment, but for the person who makes the comment. After people have posted for a while, they are really no longer anonymous. There is an identifiable trend and that can sway the opinion about the content of the message.
So, who knows why people click on thumbs …. maybe we need positive thumbs only such as facebook and most comment sections on newspapers across Canada and the USA.
With the number of votes on one side, your conjecture that it was because people’s fingers are too fat for the input devices they use makes no sense whatsoever.
By the laws of probability, unless the layout favours an error in clicking one way rather than another, there should be a similar number of errors both ways.
My comment was made at the time of day when there was only one negative rating. The same data number you chose to jump on the shaming wagon. Strange that you chose to ignore that part.
Can’t link to that video!
Copy and paste the link to your browser address bar, then delete the space between the www. and the youtube.
If we put the unadjusted address link, without a space, the link will automatically go to this site’s spam folder.
If one posts an actual clickable link on here, the editorial staff has to first view it to see whether it meets the guidelines set by the site. That can take a few hours since they have other things to do. That is why links are posted the way they are.
The downside is that some people do not realize that and is thus another deterrent to actually posting links.
I generally post them to provide people with the source of the data I use.
Dude’s going to be buzzed on caffeine! :)
We need to take them to a Cougars game!
Right now 7000 Migrants are lined up on the Mazedonien Greek Border, breaking down the Fence and being held back by the Police. Watch the Video on “SPIEGEL.de”.
“We demand free Access ” This all will not end well.
SPIEGEL.de also has a English Version.
gopg2015. We know exactly what the basis was for making that kind of a statement during an election. Its called one-upmanship. The Harper Government said they would bring in 10,000 Syrian refugee’s by Sept 2016, and Trudeau one upped them by saying he would bring in 25,000 by the end of December 2015.
During the transition from a Liberal Government in 1956 to a Conservative Government in 1957 Canada brought in 37,000 Hungarian refugee’s in less than a year. This was a planned policy with most if not all of the ground work being done by the Liberal Government of the day.
There is a big difference between reasoned Government policy and off the cuff, self indulgent, statements made in haste, for political gains.
Trudeau is a very good speaker. He’s handsome, articulate and says exactly what his audience wants to hear. There is little substance in his speeches but it’s not substance that people respond to; people like to hear what they want to hear.
Yes he speaks very um well for a ahhh ex teacher
Take out handsome and articulate and you just described Trump.
Describes a whole lot of politicians. And salesmen.
And Harper, the blue-eyed Sheik, was not handsome? Depends on POV again.
So, is the reason why Harper did not speak as much as Trudeau that he did not say exactly what his audience wanted to hear?
Trump is an interesting phenomenon of today’s age. It is almost as if Trump has been watching the blogs, tweets, etc. and is going for the audience that is on the so-called social media sites and making his bets on that.
SO far, is doing quite well at that. The question is, when push comes to shove with the sensibilities of the Republicans, whether he will get any more of 30 to 40% of the vote.
I doubt he will, and for all those Republicans with a social conscience in the USA, I hope that he won’t.
Harper was uncomfortable as a speaker. I got the impression he didn’t like lying to people.
“We know exactly what the basis was for making that kind of a statement during an election. Its called one-upmanship. The Harper Government said they would bring in 10,000 Syrian refugee’s by Sept 2016, and Trudeau one upped them by saying he would bring in 25,000 by the end of December 2015.”
Another soothsayer, are you? Tell me your secret.
If someone did not tell the Libs that the timeline could be met, in fact to suggest to them in the first place that that is a reasonable timeline given knowledge of where they are in the process, years they have been in the process, which country has processed them, etc., then all the Libs would have had to do was say they could bring in twice as many (20,000 is a drop in the bucket) by the summer of 2016.
You do not have the answer to why they used the numbers and timeline they did and neither so I.
You are presenting an opinion without facts to back it up. And I am presenting a contrary opinion without facts to back it up.
Present your facts and you might change my mind. without facts, your opinion is dead in the water, the same as mine.
“There is a big difference between reasoned Government policy and off the cuff, self-indulgent, statements made in haste, for political gains.”
You mean like remarks by Harper that we are not in a recession?
One of many recession denials: “We’ve had a couple of weak months, but the fact of the matter is over the long haul, post the global financial crisis, Canadians know there is no better place to be,” Harper said.
theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/01/stephen-harper-refuses-admit-canada-recession
gopg2015. Its pretty clear that if the Prime Minister of the Country states that he will bring in 25000 refugee’s by the end of December, then one would assume that he knew what the hell he was talking about.
As it turns out they changed the date to the end of January, and then to the end of February.
So as a result of his BS promise chaos reigns supreme. Costs rise, people are shifted all over the Country, charitable organizations are swamped with the arrival of unexpected refugee’s.
If this is symptomatic of the working mind of our present Prime Minister, then we are in for fun times.
The numbers and dates speak for themselves. They are in effect the facts.
I get your point. You make the wrong assumption however. He would have had very sketchy info at the time, at best. This was during election time.
Harper, on the other hand, would have had about the bet info one could get about the state of the economy. He was in charge and he had people he had put in place who he could rely on and had relied on in the past to take the actions his government took.
In spite of that, he basically liked, or was a denier.
Of course you, Palopu are perfect, on the other hand. While your thinking is not of national importance, I suspect you have made some wrong decisions based on wrong information provided by others or even wrong conclusions you reached yourself.
How many promises have people made in local politics saying they would do something and then finding out that it is a bit more difficult one had thought.
Actually, it is the nature of being a leader, especially one at election time.
Look at Trump. Mexicans will pay to build the wall. He’ll build a wall between Canada and the USA. We will bring all work back to the USA.
Trump could give Harper and Trudeau run for their “promises” and understanding how the real world operates. Trump would win hands down.
Actually when it comes to election promises Trump is more like Trudeau than any other politician. He makes all sorts of dumb promises, he knows full well that he is full of s..t, but is counting on the apathy of the voters, to get him through the day.
Trump needs 1237 delegate votes to win the Republican nomination. I think he has abut 81 at this time. He has a long way to go just to get the nomination, after which he would have to beat Clinton.
I think in the not too distant future we will see the Donald drop out of the race.
I agree that he will likely withdraw. He obviously does not like to be defeated. So he will look for an excuse, as he did with his ear piece recently when asked questions about the endorsement of the KKK.
I think he is a classic narcissist.
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