My head is full of fight or flight today.
Fight, as in war. This is the week we remember the thousands who died or lived broken, including many from the North Shore, so we can continue to occupy this paradise.
Canada is the freest country in the world, according to the just-released Legatum Institute’s global prosperity index. It’s just another confirmation, along with all those livability honours (as if we need more), that this is a pretty great place to live.
Sometimes we’re so busy patting ourselves on the back for being smart enough to live here, we forget that our freedom has been paid for in blood.
Which brings me to flight. There is no armistice in many of the hot spots around the world, and millions of people, nearly 60 million of them according to the UN Refugee Agency, are running for their lives.
That’s almost twice as many as a decade ago, and the big driver is Syria. Every day last year, 42,500 people became refugees.
People in Purgatory looking for Paradise.
Here in Paradise, our hearts are in the right place. Ever since the photo of poor little Alan Kurdi was flashed around the world in September, we’ve been extra eager to help. The problem is: just how much help are we being?
Justin Trudeau was elected partially on the promise of bringing 25,000 Syrian refugees to Canada by the end of the year, which sounds commendable, except there are three million Syrian refugees.
Of those 25,000, about 2,700 will come to British Columbia. Most of those 2,700 will end up in Vancouver, Surrey, Coquitlam, Burnaby and New Westminster, and it’s hard to tell how many will arrive in North Vancouver. But the short answer is: not many.
There are basically two kinds of refugee, government-assisted and privately sponsored, usually by sympathetic families through faith-based initiatives. It looks as if few if any of the government-assisted people will turn up on the North Shore, as there is precious little housing available, and the number of privately sponsored refugees is small. After all, it costs an estimated $30,000 to sponsor a refugee family for a year.
All very reasonable.
I listened to a report yesterday from Surrey about how the school district is going to cope with 500 new students – 500!
Meanwhile, there are 1.7 million Syrian refugees in Turkey alone. A friend who lives there sent this eyewitness report a couple of days ago: “We are living right on the route that many take to get from Turkey to Greece. Mothers, babies, seniors are everywhere — sleeping in parks, begging on highways, waiting on the beaches for the flimsy boats they hope will take them safely to Greece. So many have drowned recently. The water of the Aegean is getting cold and rough now as winter approaches. Many of us are helping in ways we can, collecting clothes, diapers, blankets, etc., donating food, money too. But the world must do more.”
How many of those people shivering on the Turkish shore dream of coming to Canada, the land of unmatched personal freedom and prosperity? How many will actually arrive? It’s easier to win the lottery.
OK, so we’re a pretty exclusive club. And you can bet we’re going to stay that way. But during this week, as we remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice, paid our dues in their blood, it’s time to make a sacrifice of our own, if not through sponsorship, then at least money. We’ve got lots of that, according to the prosperity index.
If you’d like to help, get started by checking the North Shore Immigrant Inclusion Partnership at NSIIP.ca for a list of relief agencies and updates on refugee resettlement on the North Shore, or call Alison Dudley, NSIIP Partner Liaison at North Shore Multicultural Society 604-988-2931.
This year, wearing a poppy’s not enough.
Journalist and communications consultant Paul Sullivan has been a North Van resident since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the rise of Madonna. He can be reached via emal at [email protected].
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