NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan said the temporary immigration measure was “woefully inadequate” and “continues to neglect Lebanese Canadian family members who are still in grave danger and desperate to get to safety.”
“Canadian citizens and their spouses and children in Lebanon are desperate to get to safety and it’s unconscionable that Canadian family members must consider leaving their spouse or children behind,” she said in an e-mailed statement.
For over a year, Ottawa has been urging Canadians to leave Lebanon for their own safety. But for some, with Lebanese husbands and wives, the decision comes with an impossible choice: Do they leave the war-torn country for security in Canada, or stay so their loved ones are not left behind?
Among the Canadians who feel they have no option but to stay is James Kairouz, a financial adviser whose pregnant Lebanese wife, Mia, is unable to accompany him to Canada.
Mr. Kairouz, whose parents are also Canadian, used to live in Montreal, where his brother and cousins reside. For years, he and his wife have been talking about moving there. Their three-year-old daughter, Emily Rose, is a Canadian citizen and Mia’s application for permanent residence has been in the pipeline for almost that long.
Then, in October of last year, when Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollahbegan firing rockets into Israel, drawing retaliation, the situation became more urgent. Not long afterward, Ms. Kairouz applied for a temporary resident visa to Canada. Her application was rejected.
Mr. Kairouz wants his wife, who’s 21 weeks into a high-risk pregnancy, to have the choice to accompany him and their daughter to Montreal, saying there’s no way he will leave without her.
In 2006, after Israel invaded Lebanon to take on Hezbollah, Mr. Kairouz’s brother was evacuated by the Canadian government by boat.
The government launched no such evacuation scheme after Israeli ground forces invaded southern Lebanon at the beginning of October this year to take on Hezbollah. More than 3,500 people have been killed in the conflict, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.
“The situation in Lebanon is out of control,” Ms. Kairouz said in an e-mail. “Where we live now is considered a safe area, we do not have any direct bombardments, however safety and security isn’t guaranteed and numerous times we hear the bombardments or feel the vibrations resulting from Israel’s missiles and targets on neighbourhoods close to us in Beirut.”
The couple tell their three-year-old daughter that the strikes and sounds of sonic booms from Israeli planes are fireworks.
“I just do not want my kids to grow up in conflict and war areas and to develop any traumas,” Ms. Kairouz added. “Like any woman, I want my children to grow up in a healthy safe environment, and at the same time to have a successful stable career and the opportunity to grow and achieve my dreams,”
Ms. Kairouz is fluent in three languages and has two degrees: one in public health and development sciences, another in nutrition. She used to work in a Beirut hospital. She feels she can contribute much to Canada, and yet her application for permanent residency has been beset by years of delays.
Mr. Kairouz wants his wife, who’s 21 weeks into a high-risk pregnancy, to have the choice to accompany him and their daughter to Montreal, saying there’s no way he will leave without her.COURTESY OF FAMILY
She does not qualify to come to Canada through a temporary program Ottawa introduced last month to help Lebanese Canadians and their immediate family because it applied only to those who had already made it to Canada.
NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan said the temporary immigration measure was “woefully inadequate” and “continues to neglect Lebanese Canadian family members who are still in grave danger and desperate to get to safety.”
“Canadian citizens and their spouses and children in Lebanon are desperate to get to safety and it’s unconscionable that Canadian family members must consider leaving their spouse or children behind,” she said in an e-mailed statement.
Immigration Minister Marc Miller indicated in an interview that there are no plans to extend the program, saying helping the tens of thousands of Canadian citizens and permanent residents in Beirut get to Canada has to be the government’s focus.
“The priority has to be, and will continue to remain, on Canadian citizens of Lebanese descent and the permanent residents. We have such a great volume of people that are there, the focus has to remain on them,” he said.
Immigration lawyers say the program is far more restrictive than other programs that help people fleeing war-torn countries such as Ukraine.
Mariam Jammal, a Lebanese-Canadian immigration lawyer, said the government is putting people who are faced with a choice between coming to Canada and leaving families behind in an “impossible position.”
“They keep refusing visitor visas and imposing impossible standards,” she said.
She said it is “cruel” for Global Affairs to urge Canadians to leave Lebanon, while Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada refuses to admit their family members.
Warda Shazadi Meighen, a partner at Landings LLP, said the situation was “very difficult for people” and the government should expedite visa applications from Lebanese spouses of Canadians in Lebanon.
Before the fighting escalated this year, there were an estimated 40,000 to 75,000 Canadians living in Lebanon.
Ottawa has drawn up contingency plans for an evacuation of Canadians, but not exercised the option so far, instead block-booking seats on commercial flights to help them. During the Israel-Hezbollah war of 2006, Canada hired ships and chartered aircraft to ferry about 15,000 of the estimated 50,000 Canadians living in Lebanon to safety.
Corporations can use personal data such as location, device type, browsing history, purchase behavior, login status, and loyalty cards/programs to profile consumers and determine what different people are charged for the same goods and services.
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Join MP Jenny Kwan, Patrick Johnson - President of UFCW 1518, Jim Stanford - Economist and Director of Centre for Future Work, and other experts, for a public forum and community conversation about what surveillance pricing means for consumers and workers, how technology and personal data are changing the way prices are set, and what everyday people can do to fight back.
Less than nine months after Parliament allowed those with Canadian ancestors to be recognized as Canadian citizens, the backlog of applications has soared to a new high.
More than 136,000 applications for citizenship certificates are now waiting for a decision — many of them from Americans. Those who apply today face an estimated wait of 33 months, according to figures posted on Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC)'s website.
That is a 32 per cent jump in wait time and an 11 per cent rise in the number of applications since the previous update on Aug. 10.
NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan said Prime Minister Mark Carney's government needs to ensure that IRCC has the resources to address the "growing crisis," pointing out that the government's last budget called for 3,300 positions to be cut by 2028-29.
"It is completely unacceptable that people who have a legitimate claim to Canadian citizenship, passed in legislation by Parliament, are being left in limbo," she said in a statement.
"Families [are] facing enormous disruption to their ability to travel, work, study, access services and plan their lives."
In the morning of August 31, Egyptian journalist Hossam el-Hamalawy received an email from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), informing him that it had made a “u-turn” and reversed its decision to deny him entry to Canada.
The reversal came in response to a coordinated solidarity campaign that successfully pressured IRCC, Canada’s department of immigration, to change course.
Almost two weeks earlier, on August 18, IRCC rejected el-Hamalawy’s application for an Electronic Travel Authorization (eTA), which is required for German citizens to visit Canada. An Egyptian exile and refugee, el-Hamalawy resides in Berlin and has German citizenship. His eTA application was to attend two public speaking engagements in September at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada.
IRCC initially rejected el-Hamalawy’s eTA application after requesting three times that he provide official documents from the Egyptian government that corroborate his experience of detention and torture under the regime.
In Toronto, the Executive Director of REDWORD.ca, Mostafa Al-A’sar, prepared an open letter to Minister Diab signed by prominent labour leaders, journalists, and human rights activists, including Mostafa Fouad, Executive Director of HuMENA for Human Rights; Ehab Lotayef, founding member of Egyptian Canadian Coalition for Democracy; Judy Rebick, feminist and journalist; and Sid Ryan, former President of the Ontario Federation of Labour.
Other activists launched an email campaign, which encouraged supporters to send letters to Minister Diab and her Parliamentary Secretary, Liberal Member of Parliament Peter Fragiskatos (London Centre), as well as their own Members of Parliament. Letters were sent from across Canada, including Halifax, Nova Scotia (Diab’s home riding) and London, Ontario (Fragiskatos’s home riding). Activists in the United States, Britain, and Europe also shared the email appeal.
In addition to the appeal, activists organized two emergency phone actions, which delivered over 200 voicemail messages to Diab, Fragiskatos, and dozens of Members of Parliament.
Finally, on August 31, Jenny Kwan shared her own open letter to the Minister, which echoed all the demands of the solidarity campaign.