Welcoming refugees: Humanitarian responsibility or economic opportunity?
Partners such as TalentLift, Talent Beyond Boundaries and Jumpstart match these candidates with jobs, while Windmill Microlending provides low-interest loans to cover essential arrival costs, easing the financial transition as they await their first paycheque. Through targeted pathways such as the Pathways Pilot, these individuals can secure full-time, permanent roles before landing in Canada.
Article content
The benefits are clear. Refugees who arrive with jobs are less reliant on government assistance and contribute immediately. They settle faster, integrate more smoothly and often bring their families — strengthening social cohesion and long-term demographic health.
Article content
At a time when our country is in dire need of health-care workers, skilled refugees are stepping in to fill these gaps. From coast to coast, trained professionals are revitalizing care systems and addressing labour shortages — from Alberta to Nova Scotia and beyond.
Article content
Article content
This isn't a trade-off between compassion and practicality. It's about bolstering both — by connecting refugee talent to communities that need them most.
Article content
Our history shows us that each wave of newcomers — from the Irish in the 19th century to Syrians in the past decade — has strengthened Canada. By aligning refugee policy with labour priorities and fast-tracking qualified individuals through programs such as the EMPP, we can meet economic needs while staying true to our values.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Toronto Star
a day ago
- Toronto Star
EnWave Sells Two Additional 10kW Radiant Energy Vacuum Machines to Dairy Concepts Irl for Expanded Dairy Snack Production in Europe
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — EnWave Corporation (TSX-V:ENW | FSE:E4U) ('EnWave', or the 'Company') announced today that it has sold two additional 10kW Radiant Energy Vacuum ('REV™') dehydration machines to Dairy Concepts Irl ('DCI'), the fifth and sixth units acquired by the Ireland-based dairy snack innovator. DCI continues to hold an exclusive license to use EnWave's proprietary drying technology to produce certain dairy snacks in the United Kingdom. DCI takes the best of Irish cheese and gently dries it to create a crunchy puffed ambient snack which is high in protein and high in calcium. Their CheeseOs™ range is made from mild cheddar which is then seasoned to create a range of familiar flavours including salt and vinegar, cheese and onion, among others whilst the Moorepark™ range is a more premium offering made using speciality cheeses such as chilli cheddar, black pepper cheddar, etc.
Winnipeg Free Press
2 days ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
First group of Syrian refugees returns home from Lebanon under new UN plan
JDEIDET YABOUS, Syria (AP) — The first group of Syrian refugees returned home from Lebanon on Tuesday under a new plan the United Nations developed with the Lebanese government following the downfall of Bashar Assad's rule in December. Syria's uprising-turned-conflict displaced half of the country's pre-war population of 23 million over the last 14 years. Lebanon hosted an estimated 1.5 million refugees, at one point making up roughly a quarter of its six million people, with many having been smuggled across the border and unregistered with the UN. The new plan has the UN refugee agency offering $100 in cash to each repatriated Syrian refugee and the Lebanese authorities waiving any fees or fines they owe. The UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration will provide them with buses for their return journey. The UNHCR also says it will help returning Syrians with 'cash grants, legal assistance for civil documents, psychosocial support, livelihood opportunities, and other protection services.' The strain on Lebanon as poverty spreads Lebanese authorities have repeatedly requested the repatriation of Syrian refugees over the years, a call that grew louder with the widespread poverty in the Mediterranean country and shrinking funding for aid agencies. But Syria under Assad was not yet safe for their return, according to major rights organizations. Many Syrians had also previously said the war, forced conscription under Syria's former government, and unpaid residency fines in Lebanon have held them back from returning. But Syria now has a new government under President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who led the surprise offensive that ousted Assad, and the Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam's government hopes Syrians will sign up for the joint repatriation plan. The UNHCR estimates that over 205,000 Syrians have crossed back into the country from Lebanon since December, of which at least 126,000 were confirmed to be full returns, said Abou Khaled. Thousands of Syrian refugees are ready to return home UNHCR Lebanon spokesperson Lisa Abou Khaled says about 17,000 Syrian refugees in Lebanon have already signed up to go back to their home country, though the vast majority have opted not to take the buses. Tuesday's repatriation was a 'test run,' she said, with only 72 people, mostly going to Syria's third-largest city of Homs and rural Damascus. Syrian border authorities greeted the returning refugees with roses and water bottles, as they filled out forms after exiting the bus. Some took pictures in front of Syria's new green flag. Among them was Rasha, who told The Associated Press she was elated to return for the first time in 14 years. 'We're going home with nothing, but it's easier than having to keep paying rent,' she said, using only her first name. She and her husband are heading to Homs. Before, she wouldn't leave because her sons were at the age of conscription, which she described as 'sending your son to his death.' They also couldn't afford to pay all the fines for overstaying in Lebanon for 14 years. Raghad fled to Lebanon when she was 10 years old after her father was killed in Homs, and is returning for the first time to her family home with her siblings and their children. 'We're hoping to fix it so we can live there for a bit,' she said. 'I can't imagine myself living there without Dad.' A humanitarian crisis still exists in Syria Despite Washington lifting decades-long sanctions, Syria is still reeling from an economic crisis that has pulled the vast majority of its population into poverty. It's still also trying to rebuild hundreds of billions of dollars in battered infrastructure after the conflict. Abou Khaled, the UNHCR Lebanon spokesperson, warns that this might hinder long-term returns if not resolved soon. 'We must acknowledge that there is a real humanitarian crisis in Syria that remains very significant,' she explained. 'Millions of people will need urgent help to be able to return in a sustainable way.' — Chehayeb reported from Beirut.
Globe and Mail
6 days ago
- Globe and Mail
French court to decide if Assad can be stripped of immunity, tried for Syrian chemical attacks
France's highest court is ruling Friday on whether it can strip the head of state immunity of Bashar Assad, the former leader of Syria now in exile in Russia, because of the brutality of the evidence in accusations against him collected by Syrian activists and European prosecutors. If the judges at the Cour de Cassation lift Assad's immunity, it could pave the way for his trial in absentia over the use of chemical weapons in Ghouta in 2013 and Douma in 2018, and set a precedent to allow the prosecution of other government leaders linked to atrocities, human rights activists and lawyers say. Assad has retained no lawyers for these charges and has denied he was behind the chemical attacks. Ruling could open door for prosecutions in other countries A ruling against Assad would be 'a huge victory for the victims,' said Mazen Darwish, president of the Syrian Center for Media which collected evidence of war crimes. 'It's not only about Syrians, this will open the door for the victims from any country and this will be the first time that a domestic investigative judge has the right to issue an arrest warrant for a president during his rule.' He said the ruling could enable his group to legally go after regime members, like launching a money laundering case against former Syrian Central Bank governor and Minister of Economy Adib Mayaleh, whose lawyers have argued he had immunity under international law. For over 50 years, Syria was ruled by Hafez Assad and then his son Bashar. During the Arab Spring, rebellion broke out against their tyrannical rule in 2011 across the country of 23 million, igniting a brutal 13-year civil war that killed more than half a million people, according to the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights. Millions more fled to Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Europe. The Assad dynasty manipulated sectarian tensions to stay in power, a legacy driving renewed violence in Syria against minority groups despite promises that the country's new leaders will carve out a political future for Syria that includes and represents all its communities. The ruling stripping Assad's immunity could set a 'significant precedent' that 'could really set the stage for potentially for other cases in national jurisdictions that strike down immunities,' said Mariana Pena, a human rights lawyer at the Open Society Justice Initiative, which helped bring the case to court. As the International Criminal Court has issued arrests warrants for leaders accused of atrocities – like Vladimir Putin in Ukraine, Benjamin Netanyahu in Gaza, and Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines – the French judges' ruling could empower the legal framework to prosecute not just deposed and exiled leaders but those currently in power. Syria's ruined cities are crime scenes. For some survivors of civil war, justice comes first, rebuilding later The Syrian government denied in 2013 that it was behind the Ghouta attack, an accusation the opposition rejected as Assad's forces were the only side in the brutal civil war to possess sarin. The United States subsequently threatened military retaliation, but Washington settled for a deal with Moscow for Assad to give up his chemical weapons' stockpile. Assad survived more than a decade longer, aided militarily by Russia and Iranian-backed proxies. Activists and human rights group accuse him of using barrel bombs, torture, and massacres to crush opponents. But then in late 2024, a surprise assault by rebels swept into Aleppo and then Damascus, driving the dictator to flee for his ally Russia on Dec. 8, 2024. While Darwish and others plan to press Interpol and Russia to extradite him, they know it is unlikely. But an arrest warrant issued by France could lay the groundwork for the former dictator's trial in absentia or potential arrest if he travels outside Russia. Any trial of Assad, whether in absentia or if he leaves Russia, would mean this evidence could then 'be brought to light,' Pena said, including an enormous trove of classified and secret evidence amassed by the judges during their investigations. Syrians often took great personal risk to gather evidence of war crimes. Darwish said that in the aftermath of a chlorine gas attack in Douma, for example, teams collected eyewitness testimonies, images of devastation, and soil samples. Others then tracked down and interviewed defectors to build a 'chain of command' for the regime's chemical weapons production and use. 'We link it directly to the president himself, Bashar al-Assad,' he said. Syrian mass graves expose 'machinery of death' under Assad, war crimes prosecutor says Assad was relatively safe under international law. Heads of state could not be prosecuted for actions taken during their rule, a rule designed long ago to ease dialogue when leaders needed to travel the world to meet, said Jeanne Sulzer, a French lawyer who co-led the case against Assad for the 2013 chemical attack. She said that kind of immunity is 'almost a taboo' regardless of the weight of the charges. 'You have to wait until the person is not a sitting in office to be able to prosecute,' she said. But that protection has been whittled away over the years by courts ruling that the brutality of Augusto Pinochet in Chile, Charles Taylor in Liberia, and Slobodan Milošević in Yugoslavia, to name just a few, merited a restructuring of the world's legal foundations, said James Goldston, executive director of the Open Society Justice Initiative. Syria today remains beholden to many awful legacies of the Assad dynasty. Poverty, sectarianism, destruction, and violence still haunt the Syrian Arab Republic. Damascus' new rulers are investigating nearly 300 people for crimes during several days of fighting on Syria's coast earlier this year. The interim authorities in Damascus have pledged to work with the United Nations on investigating further war crimes of the Assad regime and the civil war. The global chemical weapons watchdog has called on the new government of interim president Ahmad al-Sharaa to protect and dismantle Assad's stockpiles. Darwish is working on 29 cases against Assad and other regime figures who have fled to Russia, the Gulf, Lebanon and Europe. He said many Syrians hope Assad sits for a fair trial in Syria. 'It should be done in Damascus, but we need also a lot of guarantees that we will have a fair trial even for this suspect,' he said. His organization has already received requests to bring to court war crimes accusations against those involved in recent bloodshed in southern Syria. 'So anyone, whatever his name, or the regime, or their authority, we will keep fighting this type of crime,' Darwish said.
