A community comes together to help refugee claimants and asylum seekers in Toronto.
“I thought, ‘oh lord pls no. do not be coming here’,” Lam, a well-known Toronto affordable housing and anti-poverty advocate who has been helping support the city’s unhoused refugees and asylum seekers in recent weeks, wrote in a July 10 Twitter thread as she watched the young African family lug their suitcases over to the pavement where she was sitting.The kids, 9 and 13, plopped themselves down on the ground in front of Lam.
“We started seeing people gathering at 129 Peter…and it’s not over yet,” she said, adding it’s “ludicrous” that the government is not doing its part to help these vulnerable people. The coalition is primarily helping support Downsview’s Revivaltime Tabernacle and Dominion Church International , which have both opened their doors to temporarily shelter more than 300 people.
“It’s been quite the challenge, but we want these folks to have a better life,” she said, adding BCHAT felt it had no choice but to “do what the government should have been doing all along.”Walker went on to say that Canada is known for being a kind and generous country, and it’s important that unhoused refugee claimants and asylum seekers know and see that.
Further, Toronto’s housing and shelter crisis has been exacerbated by the recent amendment of the Safe Third Country Agreement, which since late March has prevented people in Canada and the United States from crossing the border and making a refugee claim. This agreement came into effect in December 2004 with the goal of better managing the flow of refugee claimants at the shared land border, but was modified this spring following a significant number of migrants at Quebec’s Roxton Road bridge.
At that time, Toronto also started reviewing refugee claimants/asylum seekers already in its shelter system to determine who is eligible for Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s services followed by referrals to federally run hotels. “Work will continue this week to review space options to reach council’s decision to make 250 shelter spaces temporarily available,” the city said in a release.
France Dernières Nouvelles, France Actualités
Similar News:Vous pouvez également lire des articles d'actualité similaires à celui-ci que nous avons collectés auprès d'autres sources d'information.
How people came together to help refugee claimants and asylum seekers sleeping outside Toronto’s shelter referral centreLong-time outreach worker Lorraine Lam feared the worst when a taxi from Pearson Airport carrying three refugee claimants – a mother and her two children – pulled up outside Toronto’s Central Intake site at 129 Peter St. one recent evening Monday evening.
Lire la suite »
Toronto man accused of killing police dog Bingo charged in fatal shooting of 24-year-oldPolice say the suspect faces a charge of second\u002Ddegree murder in connection to the shooting of a 24\u002Dyear\u002Dold Toronto man.
Lire la suite »
Groups of tenants across Toronto are withholding rent paymentsIn the east Toronto neighbourhood of Thorncliffe Park, residents in three buildings have withheld rent since May, after their landlord proposed a five per cent increase for next year — and they're not alone.
Lire la suite »
'It is not right’: Toronto tenants go on rent strike to protest increasesTenants at several buildings in Toronto have gone on a rent strike to protest unfair treatment by their landlords. Find out more.
Lire la suite »
This Toronto neighbourhood skyline is about to become the city's tallestA transformative building boom sweeping Toronto since the 2000s has reached what feels like a climactic stage of competing megaprojects vying for t...
Lire la suite »
Toronto-based company behind immersive van Gogh exhibit goes bankruptLighthouse Immersive, which displayed the interactive Vincent van Gogh exhibition across North America, has filed for bankruptcy. Read more
Lire la suite »