TORONTO – As the international community watches Syria’s infighting, Syrians in Canada are appealing to Ottawa, handing the federal government a list of recommendations on how it can help.
The Syrian National Council (SNC) and the Syrian Canadian Council (SCC) met with Foreign Minister John Baird in Ottawa Wednesday, hand-delivering the organizations’ proposals for humanitarian aid.
On the groups’ agenda are their suggestions for political, economic, logistic and humanitarian measures that Canada can take to help the Syrian people’s uprising against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
The meeting is taking place behind closed doors, but the groups involved will meet with the media on Parliament Hill Wednesday afternoon.
“While helping Syrians, Canada will reaffirm its reputation as a leading country in human rights and will reassert its role in international politics and humanitarian aid,” the organizations wrote in the proposal.
Canada and the UN Security Council
Among the recommendations, the SNC and SCC are calling on Canada to be part of any coalition (bypassing the United Nations’ Security Council), to protect Syrian civilians.
“The only serious attempt by the international community to stop the bloodshed in Syria is Kofi Annan’s six-points plan,” the document presented to Baird reads.
Still, the UN Security Council’s resolutions have been vetoed three times so far by the regime’s allies, Russia and China.
Canada closed its embassy months ago in March, along with European and U.S. powers.
The document says that “given Canada’s experience in leading peacekeeping missions,” the country should spearhead a coalition that bypasses the Russian-Chinese veto.
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Funding proposals to help Syrians
Canada should increase funding to humanitarian efforts in Syria to $25 million, which would match the United States’ donations. This money will help establish field hospitals and medical warehouses. Our nation should also consider financing projects to build mobile hospitals for wounded refugees trying to flee to neighbouring countries, the proposal suggests.
“The regime’s ongoing crackdown has created a steady influx of refugees into Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon and Iraq,” the organizations write, noting that refugees in Jordan and Lebanon are struggling to find accommodations, clean water and basic necessities.
They say that 50 per cent of the refugees are children under 18 years old.
Medical workers have been arrested and even assassinated by Assad’s regime, limiting the number of qualified physicians treating the severely wounded, the organizations allege.
So far, Canada has allocated $7.5 million in humanitarian assistance to Syrian civilians, along with another $1 million for pro-democracy programs.
Take in refugees
Admit a “limited number” of political refugees who face danger in Syria because of their activism, the organizations say.
They’re also calling on Canada to expedite the immigration, refugee and sponsorship process for Syrian applicants and to freeze any deportations of Syrians who are living in Canada until the situation in the troubled nation calms down.
Other recommendations presented to Ottawa
• Create scholarships to help Syrian students who were forced to leave their univerisites, or have been “targeted” for taking part in demonstrations. The SCC and SNC also allege that the regime’s security forces have attacked campuses and dormitories, firing tear gas and bullets.
• Help secure communications networks and the purchase of communication equipment for Syrian activists because there is no free media communication available in the country right now. Specific details of networks have been withheld for security reasons.
Canada’s intentions
Christian Leuprecht, a foreign policy and defence expert at Queen’s University and the Royal Military College of Canada, says that Canada intends to help with Syria, otherwise an official meeting wouldn’t have been scheduled.
“It will be unlikely the minister will grant them a meeting if the minister was not prepared to do anything of what they’re suggesting,” Leuprecht said.
“The fact that he’s meeting with them suggests the Canadian government is interested in constructive positions.”
Leuprecht is skeptical, however, that Canadian would spearhead any action that violates the UN Security Council.
“Even if the Europeans and Americans would take that step, which I can’t see because of current election dynamics in the U.S., even then I think Canada would be hesitant to join in,” he said.
Offering $25 million in funding is a “reasonable” measure the government can meet though, he says, while setting up field hospitals in Turkey (a NATO member) is an easy suggestion to accommodate. Sending help to the Syrian neighbour hinges on an official request for help from Turkey, which the country has not asked for yet, Leuprecht notes.
Finally, Canadian courts would not send any deportees back to Syria while in its dangerous state, Leuprecht says, but allowing refugees into the Canada will be tricky.
“It’s going to be very difficult to define who constitutes a political refugee in this particular conflict . . . the Canadian government is going to be very leery of making sure they don’t bring anybody into this country that has blood on their hands, either by the government or the rebels,” he said.
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