Hasan Sheblack, a Syrian refugee, and Guss Ash, a Jordanian immigrant, met while working construction at the Fairmont Hotel in Vancouver. A few years later, the two are not only business partners, they consider each other “brothers.”
Ola Al Abbas, a 19-year-old student, came to B.C. with her six sisters, two brothers and her parents. At first, she hated school and had difficulty understanding classes and making friends.
Canada should take in more refugees, says Tima Kurdi, the aunt of three-year-old Syrian refugee Alan Kurdi who died with his brother and mother while fleeing to Greece in 2015.
Raghda Hassan, with her hair tucked into an immaculate white scarf, is preparing to make Knafeh, a Arabic cheese-based dessert enveloped with a crunchy vermicelli style dough and pistachio nuts on top.
On Wednesday night, about forty refugees got the cultural experience of a lifetime as they climbed over the visitors’ bench to take the ice at Rogers Arena.
In a soft-focus dream sequence, the refugee meets his long-missing brother, dressed in a military uniform and sitting stoically in the boat. He breaks down in sobs, but is greeted with icy disdain. "Where do you think you're going?" his brother asks, slapping away his hand.
The Liberal government is struggling to track the impact of its historic effort to resettle upwards of 40,000 Syrian refugees, the federal auditor general concluded on Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2017, in his fall report.
Reema lost three children in one night during the war in Syria. Her husband lost use of his legs. But with Canadian supporters, they're starting, very slowly, to heal.
"It drives me crazy because I would have loved to have them in my own house," says one Boston resident, who has raised money and found Canadians to sponsor a Syrian refugee.