The Refugees in our Midst

                                                                 Refugee icon by Kelly Latimer

 Now when Jesus saw great crowds around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side. A scribe then approached and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” 

                                                     Matthew 8: 18-20 NRSVue

 Canada gained a reputation for welcoming refugees after bringing more than 25,000 displaced Syrians, many of them living in camps in Lebanon and Turkey to our shores. Some of us were involved in sponsorship and one of the most pressing issues was suitable housing. In Trenton a group ended up purchasing a home for a large family through the generosity of several donors for a down payment. 

That reputation has been tarnished by the bleak reality for hundreds, if not thousands of recent arrivals who have discovered that housing just doesn't exist for them. In Toronto a large number of shelter beds are occupied by refugees and in the past few days we've heard that scores of newcomers are sleeping in makeshift shelters on the street in the downtown. Different levels of government have been buck-passing while these people seeking a better life attempt to survive outside. How can this happen in a wealthy country which finds billions to subsidize the oil and gas industry and support a distant war? 

                                                       Peter St. Refugee Encampment, Toronto 

I was impressed to see that Mohamad Fakih of Paramount Fine Foods has personal  pledged to donate at least $20,000 to house these refugees and to raise more funds on their behalf: Those people are exactly like [me when] I came here and a lot of us came here, and we need to step up for them and show them that we can do better.” 

I see that a church in North York which has a long history of Black presence in the region has also stepped up, according to the CBC: 

Some 200 refugees and asylum seekers who had been living on the street outside a downtown Toronto shelter intake office are now staying at a church in North York, according to a pastor.

Pastor Judith James said Tuesday that buses began bringing the people from Peter Street to Revivaltime Tabernacle on Dufferin Street at around 7:30 p.m. Monday.

Men are currently housed in the facility's gymnasium, while women — including some who are pregnant — were put into two large rooms. All of the refugees and asylum seekers were given an opportunity to shower, James said, and provided with a dinner of pizza and chicken wings. The Jamaican Canadian Association is set to provide breakfast this morning, James said, and nurses will be on site to provide medical care to anyone who needs it.

James stressed that the church and a small number of non-profits currently paying to house the refugees and asylum seekers cannot do so for long without more help. "We are going to try to do it for as long as we can, but this is a very temporary solution for a very big problem," James told CBC Toronto. "We are in need of great help. We need community leaders to step up, we need the [federal] government to step up, we need the province to step up. This is a national crisis."

These efforts are impressive, but we need to hear that municipal, provincial, and federal governments are willing to accept their responsibility for the needs of these refugees, and to act now. Later yesterday the feds promised millions to address this crisis, so we will see.