The Catholic Church in Montreal has deposited 800 files to privately sponsor Syrian refugees with the Quebec government. Despite having the funding and volunteers to take them all in, only 30 refugees can arrive, says Sister Alessandra Sandopadre, the envoy of the Archbishop of Montreal.

When the Syrian war erupted, the Archbishop of Montreal opened a bank account with $145,000 to bring over vulnerable families currently living in refugee camps in neighbouring countries.

Facing what the government called a bureaucratic backlog, Quebec suspended private refugee sponsorship at the beginning of 2017. In September, they re-opened private sponsorship — but only for a total of 750 files.

Those spots were filled in a matter of hours.

“Refugees sometimes wait for four years under bombs in Damascus before being allowed to come to Canada,” Sandopadre says.

Quebec is ‘popular,’ says immigration ministry

The Quebec immigration ministry says, for its part, the refugee processing timelines could be as fast as just three months.

“Added to this is the treatment of the application for permanent residence by the federal government. Deadlines vary according to the Canadian visa office,” says Chantal Bouchard, spokesperson for the Quebec ministry of immigration, diversity and inclusion.

Bouchard said this delay is comparable to that of other provinces.

Quebec’s intake target for 2018 is 4,400 sponsored refugees, Bouchard said. However, Quebec’s refugee sponsorships program is very “popular” and thus oversubscribed.
“Several organizations and residents of Quebec wanted to help these people by submitting sponsorships applications as part of the group sponsorships program,” says Bouchard.

While private refugee sponsorship in the rest of Canada is handled by the federal government, in Quebec the files are handed to the provincial immigration ministry.
Delays could extend for several years, with Bouchard saying that refugee files currently being processed may not be completed until 2021.

This slow bureaucracy also extends to the educational qualifications of newly landed refugees in Canada.

“Sadly, some Syrian refugees arrive in Canada as doctors but their certificates are not recognized. We must not transform a doctor to become a taxi driver, not because driving taxi is bad — a doctor trained in Syria must still be a doctor in Canada.”

It can also take months for a refugee to be enrolled in language classes so that they can integrate into life in Quebec.

Church sees hurdles in helping US border crossers

Quebec, and Montreal in particular, has also received thousands of asylum seekers walking across the border into Canada via upstate New York in recent years.
But given the time span and Canada’s resources, Sandopadre doesn’t think the situation is a crisis or out of control.

“We don’t have a refugee crisis in Canada. Sorry, I’m Italian, I know what crisis is. I don’t like that word,” Sandopadre says, alluding to the tens of thousands of refugees landing on Italy’s shores in dingy boats.

Is the United States, which some asylum seekers pass through before reaching Canada, still a safe country for refugees?

Sandopadre says that question has been made more complicated by the Trump administration.

“Detaining children, separating families is always a bad choice. The public asks the Church to speak a little, but sometimes when we speak they shrug us off — ‘Oh Church, this is not your business.’”