Speaking notes for The Honourable Jason Kenney, P.C., M.P. Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism

At a news conference to announce the resettlement of more Iraqi refugees
Etobicoke, Ontario, October 23, 2010

As delivered

Today I’m here to make an important announcement that will ultimately mean good news for thousands of Iraqi refugees who are waiting for a new beginning, a life of security and a life of peace in a country such as Canada. Canada is proud to have a long humanitarian tradition of being a place of refuge and protection for victims of violence, persecution and conflict. This is deeply rooted in our history, in fact much of Canada, including Upper Canada, where we are now in Ontario, was largely founded by refugees from the American Revolutionary War, the United Empire Loyalists who had to flee their homes because of political persecution and warfare. The black loyalists came with them and helped defend part of Nova Scotia, victims of slavery who saw freedom in Canada as did those who followed the North Star, through the Underground Railroad to seek protection here in then-British North America.

This is a tradition that we have proudly maintained ever since Canada received millions of de-facto refugees from Central and Eastern Europe and other countries. For example, through the periods of high immigration in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, and during the period of communist oppression and terror behind the iron curtain and the bamboo curtain, Canada received hundreds of thousands of refugees from communist and totalitarian oppression, such as in 1956 some 40,000 Hungarians who fled the Soviet invasions of their country and found a new home and a safe new beginning in Canada, such as thousands who fled the Soviet invasion of Prague in 1968. The Prime Minister’s own principal secretary is the child of those refugees, an example of how remarkably well refugees have done through the equality of opportunity that Canada affords them, most notably, in 1979 when millions of Indochinese boat people had to flee the communist oppression in their country of origin. They went through the United Nations. They obtained refugee status and Canada selected some 65,000 to come to Canada and that was largely through the generosity of Canadian faith groups, including churches and parishes and other faith groups, that opened the doors of resettlement through what is now know as the privately sponsored refugee program beginning in 1979. And this is a tradition that we have continued ever since.

Since the Second World War Canada, has welcomed some one million refugees to this country. According to the United Nations, there are some twelve million identified refugees throughout the world hoping for a resettlement opportunity. Canada receives more of those refugees than any other country in the world as a percentage of our population, more than any other country in the world in absolute terms in any country except the United States.

But we believe that we can and should do more to help the victims of persecution, of ethnic cleansing, and that is why our government announced, in March of this year, that we will increase our resettlement target for refugees coming to Canada by 20%. Traditionally we have been receiving up to 11,500 resettled refugees, about three-quarters of whom have come through the government assisted refugee program and about one-quarter of whom have come through these privately sponsored programs. But we announced this spring that in the context of our refugee reforms that Canada will enhance by 20% the number of refugees that we receive, thereby going from 11,500 to 14,000 refugees that Canada will resettle every year going forward.

We also announced a 20% increase in the integration support and the settlement support that we offer refugees. And so we’ve increased the refugee assistance program for government assisted refugees by $9 million, or some 20%, beginning in 2011.

Now we are here today to talk about one very important dimension of our refugee resettlement program, and that relates to Canada’s special effort to help the victims of violence and religious and political persecution in Iraq. We know that for the past several years that various confessional and ethnic communities in Iraq have faced terrible, targeted persecution. We know, for example, that the Christians of Iraq have seen their churches destroyed, have seen priests tortured, have seen a Bishop executed, have seen their daughters violated, have seen unthinkable violence inflicted upon their community, an ancient community which traces its roots to Mesopotamia for well into early history. And that is why a group of Canadian NGOs approached me very early on in my tenure as Minister of Immigration asking that Canada open its doors in a special way to those victims fleeing persecution in Iraq, of all confessions. And we work very hard to do just that, and so in March of 2009 I was proud to announce that the Government of Canada was increasing our resettlement targets and that from 2009 through 2011, Canada would receive some 12,000 refugees from Iraq to give them a new and safe beginning here in Canada.

That means over the course of these three years that we are receiving some 12,000 refugees from Iraq. We know that there are hundreds of thousands who would dream of another opportunity for resettlement. And we also know that Canada, notwithstanding the fact that we resettled more than one out of every 10 resettled refugees in the world, even though we have the largest refugee resettlement program in the world, we cannot practically accept everyone, and so we call on other developed countries to do their part to follow our lead, to follow the Canadian example in opening their doors to those who have had to flee their homes.

Now some people would say, you know, I went to the Middle East, I went to Damascus, last May, specifically so I could see the humanitarian tragedy with my own eyes, and I met with many of the Iraqi refugees in one of the most emotionally-grueling days of my life. I’ll never forget sitting at a desk at the UN office as people came in literally out of the desert having fled violence in Baghdad, arrived in Damascus and were sitting lined up to tell their story of persecution. There was a father there with two beautiful children and his wife, and he had lost his leg, and he said that he was a Christian in Baghdad and militias had come and threatened him that if he did not pay protection money, they would, because he was an infidel, execute him and his family. He ran out of money to pay for protection and they planted a bomb and blew up his business and he lost his leg in the process. And as I listened to his story, I saw his two beautiful children looking up hopeless and forlorn, and his wife who was weeping, and I thought to myself that we, we in Canada, can help that family. We can help that family and thousands of others to have a new beginning.

And so I’m very pleased to announce today that we will be extending our Iraqi resettlement program for two years, into the years 2012 and 2013, meaning that we will accept an additional 8,000 refugees from Iraq. This is an important expression of our best values as Canadians, and it is very important, however, that Canadian civil society, local community organizations and traditionally faith-based groups participate with the government through the privately sponsored refugee program to ensure that we do offer those opportunities for resettlement.

Because some two-thirds of the refugees that we are resettling from Iraq are coming through the privately sponsored refugee programs, I would like to thank and commend the sponsorship agreement holders, the community organizations who are represented here, and who are across the country, who have sponsored these and other refugees, for their participation.

Ladies and gentlemen, in the spring when I announced our increase of resettlement targets, I did so primarily through the privately sponsored refugee program because it is my vision to revitalize that program. I want us as Canadians, not as taxpayers through the remote agency of the state, but as human beings, as Canadian citizens, I want us to rekindle a sense of social responsibility and social justice to help, to reach out, to raise the funds to do the practical work necessary to resettle these individuals. And so through this announcement, I also issue a plea to the sponsorship agreement holders and to other community groups particularly in the faith communities to get engaged.

I’ve been on a summer tour meeting with the community and faith group leaders asking them to consider becoming sponsorship agreement holders, or if they are sponsorship agreement holders in our private sponsorship programs to do more, to raise more funds and sponsor more refugees. Because the initial problem we had with our Iraqi program was that not enough people were sponsoring on the Canadian side. Now, we’ve since seen that improve somewhat, but we could do so much more.

And I think this is also important to underscore that, you know we talk about compassion, well Mother Theresa used to say compassion is to suffer with. You can’t do that by contracting out the work of compassion to the government. Canadians have to be involved personally, and we are so blessed to enjoy such prosperity and such wealth in this country, I think we can do more to open the door of opportunity to families like the ones that I met who are likely today sitting in a little apartment in Damascus where they cannot work, where they are living probably in poverty and without the full rights of citizens, waiting desperately for a chance to resettle.

Now, I’ve met people who have said, we don’t want to bring those people out, they should go back to their country of origin, and I agree with the United Nations that the preferred option is that people do resettle back to where they came from. But for many of these families that is no longer an option. Their home has been destroyed, family members have been killed, threats are outstanding. They cannot return. And so those are the ones in need of a durable resettlement option. Those are the people we are seeking to help through today’s announcement.

So, in concluding, as a result of today’s announcement – Canada is already committed to resettling some 12,000 Iraqi refugees – as a result of today’s announcement we are going up from 12,000 to 20,000 Iraqi refugees through this program.

And, in closing, I want to thank our Prime Minister, The Right Honourable Steven Harper, for his support. Most other developed countries are cutting the numbers of refugees that they are resettling. Most other developed countries are doing little or nothing to help the Iraqi refugees. Prime Minister Harper and his government have led by allocating resources, by making this our top refugee resettlement priority, and by increasing the number of newcomers received and the support that they get in difficult fiscal and economic times. Those are not easy choices to make, but they are the right choices to have made.

So again thank you for participating in today’s exciting announcement, and we look forward to your active participation as we move forward through the expansion of the program announced today to accept an additional 8,000 Iraqi refugees so that they will have remarkable beginnings here. Let me just finish by saying that when we think about the future, you know, often we talk about refugees, we focus on their past. We focus on the violence, the persecution, the tragedies that they have lived. It’s important that as Canadians that we also focus on their future. And their future is, they come here burdened by trauma, burdened by the terrible memories and the experiences, but they come here and when I see the children in particular, I realize what amazing things can happen.

Earlier this year I was honoured to attend the installation of the new auxiliary Bishop of Toronto, Bishop Win. Bishop Win came to Canada as a Vietnamese refugee in 1979. His family had lost everything. They were driven out. The UN referred them, we brought them to Canada through the privately sponsored program, and now he is a leader in the largest Catholic Diocese in Canada. And that’s just one of so many hundreds of examples of what can happen to those who we will welcome through these programs. So who knows, maybe one of the children of one of these Iraqi refugees we’re accepting will go on to become Prime Minister someday. Anything is possible in this country thanks to our traditions of compassion and protection. Thank you very much.