Thanks to your support, 2 more Palestinian refugees from Gaza have won permits to reunite their families in Canada after more than 2 years of devastating separation! One is London’s Ola Dahman. Her baby Layan will soon meet her father and 2 older brothers for the first time in her life. This brings the total number of families we have reunited to 4 out of 12. So we still have work to do for the remaining 8 families.
Ola took her plea to the airwaves this week in powerful interviews on CBC (https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/london-gaza-mom-family-1.6118670) and CTV (https://london.ctvnews.ca/london-ont-woman-pleads-with-federal-government-to-help-reunite-her-family-1.5528240).
Public pressure, the chain fast for family reunification, the petition (over 15,600 people have signed and youo can share it at https://www.change.org/p/allow-war-traumatized-kids-from-gaza-to-live-with-parents-in-canada), letter writing, phone calls, and a wave of profound community love are pushing things forward in the face of so many institutional obstacles. We hope to be able to share more good news in the days to come.
In the meantime, please keep up the pressure, speak with your MP, urge them to tell the Minister of Immigration to issue the Early Entrance Temporary Resident Permits to the remaining 8 families NOW! No more waiting.
You can also support the ongoing work of the Rural Refugee Rights Network, which has led this campaign, with an etransfer to tasc@web.ca (or send a cheque to Homes not Bombs, 2583 Carling Ave., Unit M052, Ottawa, ON K2B 7H7).
Thank you again!
Matthew Behrens
Rural Refugee Rights Network
