# Yazidis to Canada (split fm SYR Refugees to Canada)



## The Bread Guy (18 Jul 2016)

Interesting ...


> As the Conservatives push for more help for Yazidis fleeing persecution at the hands of Islamic militants, new information suggests their efforts to do so while in government were minimal.
> 
> Data from a controversial audit of Syrian refugee cases ordered by former prime minister Stephen Harper late last spring reveals of 546 people reviewed, three identified as Yazidi, a Kurdish minority group which practices an ancient faith.
> 
> ...


This, from about a month ago ...


> ... the Conservatives are urging the government to create a special resettlement program for about 400 internally displaced Yazidi women and girls who have been victims of sexual slavery, Kenney said. Several hundred of these women live in camps for internally displaced people in the Kurdish region of Iraq, near Irbil, he said ...


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## The Bread Guy (2 Aug 2016)

A BBC story about an NGO, partly funded by Canada, tracking down folks doing bad things to the Yazidis - highlights mine ...


> Two years ago this week, an atrocity helped launch the international campaign to turn back the advance of so-called Islamic State (IS). Thousands of terrified villagers fled for their lives near Mount Sinjar in northern Iraq, as heavily armed IS fighters attacked their ancestral homeland.
> 
> The victims were Yazidis, an ancient community considered heretical or even sub-human by IS jihadists. Hundreds fled up the mountainside where many died in the scorching heat.
> 
> ...


*** - According to this mini bio, _"William Wiley is the Founder and Director of the Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA). William formerly worked in the Office of the Prosecutor at both the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia as well as the International Criminal Court, was an infantry officer in the Canadian military and worked on war crimes investigations in the Department of Justice."_


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## The Bread Guy (26 Oct 2016)

Not JUST from SYR, but this thread seemed the closest fit ...

*“House of Commons votes 313 to 0 to provide Yazidis refuge in Canada”* (The Canadian Press (CP))
*“Who are the Yazidis and why is Canada bringing them in?”* (CP)
*“Canada to Take in Yezidi Refugees”* (basnews.com, Kurdish media)
*“Canada parliament votes to take in Kurdish Yazidi refugees”* (ekurd.net, Kurdish media)
*“… “The Government of Canada is committed to offering protection to the Yazidi population at risk. We support the terms of the motion to bring Yazidis to Canada within 120 days …”* (Immigration Canada info-machine)


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## Colin Parkinson (26 Oct 2016)

While the Yazidi sure got the short end of the stick and are true refugees, their culture is very old and conservative, not sure how well it will fit here.


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## Lightguns (26 Oct 2016)

Colin P said:
			
		

> While the Yazidi sure got the short end of the stick and are true refugees, their culture is very old and conservative, not sure how well it will fit here.



Ack that, no marriage outside the group on pain of death, no marriage outside your own caste within the group also on pain of death.  It's wonder they can keep their gene diverse with only about 600,000 of them in all the world before ISIL.  Only the leadership caste can have more than one wife.  No service in the host nation's government or public service, no voluntary paying of taxes to host nation and no charity outside the group.


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## The Bread Guy (26 Oct 2016)

Lightguns said:
			
		

> Ack that, no marriage outside the group on pain of death, no marriage outside your own caste within the group also on pain of death.  It's wonder they can keep their gene diverse with only about 600,000 of them in all the world before ISIL.  Only the leadership caste can have more than one wife.  No service in the host nation's government or public service, no voluntary paying of taxes to host nation and no charity outside the group.


That IS pretty strict - and it will be interesting to see how they settle in here.


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## George Wallace (26 Oct 2016)

milnews.ca said:
			
		

> That IS pretty strict - and it will be interesting to see how they settle in here.



Well....We have the Amish, Doukhobors, Mennonites and other sects that follow similar societal rules; although not to the extent of having a "Death Sentence" for noncompliance.  If we continue to strictly enforce our Laws reference to murder, should we expect to see a rise in "Honour Killings" if we accept them?   :-\  :dunno:


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## Colin Parkinson (26 Oct 2016)

ISIS might have broken the thread that held them together and the survivors might be more amenable to newer concepts.


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## The Bread Guy (26 Oct 2016)

Colin P said:
			
		

> ISIS might have broken the thread that held them together and the survivors might be more amenable to newer concepts.


Or maybe helped them ... priorize the more critical "must keeps" of their religion/culture?  


			
				George Wallace said:
			
		

> Well....We have the Amish, Doukhobors, Mennonites and other sects that follow similar societal rules; although not to the extent of having a "Death Sentence" for noncompliance.  If we continue to strictly enforce our Laws reference to murder, should we expect to see a rise in "Honour Killings" if we accept them?   :-\  :dunno:


Good point on the orange - cause for hope/optimism - but I'll leave it to those with WAY more knowledge than me on the yellow.


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## Jarnhamar (26 Oct 2016)

Helping the Yazidi truly seems honorable and a better use of resources than force-fitting Syrians in Canada for image and political gain.


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## Lightguns (26 Oct 2016)

I found three honour killings amongst their diaspora reported in the news. 1 in Germany, 1 in Georgia (Republic) and 1 in Iraq.  I am sure there but one was a 

 man wanting to be part of the wide material society, the other two women who fell in love outside the tribe.  The more interesting question is how will they treat returning members as ISIL is rolled up and their abducted women and children return.  They have been subjected to this ethnic violence on average every 70 years since Islam displaced the other religions in the ME, certainly they must have a robust re-intergration culture.

Personally, I would have been prepared to help them all over there.  Even if it meant Canada opening and running it's own refugee camp exclusive of the UN and local money grabbers.


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## Colin Parkinson (26 Oct 2016)

I want to help them, but I think it will need to made painfully clear that they are subject to our rules, not theirs and with the current government, I can't see them being that straight talking. It might be better to fund a camp either in the Kurdish region or Turkey were they will fit in better.


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## The Bread Guy (18 Nov 2016)

Colin P said:
			
		

> ... It might be better to fund a camp either in the Kurdish region or Turkey were they will fit in better.


Funny you should mention that -- the Peshmerga Canada's supporting seem to agree with you:


> The Kurdish regional government in northern Iraq opposes the Canadian plan to bring what could be thousands of Yazidi refugees to Canada in the next four months.
> 
> The office of Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani issued a strongly worded statement Thursday, the same day Canadian MPs convened on Parliament Hill to hear testimony from German officials who organized that country's efforts to rescue Yazidi survivors of the genocide taking place in north Iraq.
> 
> ...


I'm sensing another one of these here  :worms:

And for those worrying about polygamist refugees & benefits, this, from the Kurdish media:
_*"Yezidi with 3 wives, 34 kids was ready to marry again but ISIS ruined plans"*_


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## Journeyman (18 Nov 2016)

milnews.ca said:
			
		

> The Kurdish regional government in northern Iraq opposes the Canadian plan to bring what could be thousands of Yazidi refugees to Canada in the next four months.
> 
> .....part of the ministry of endowment and religious affairs in the semi-autonomous region.


There's got to be circumcision joke in there somewhere.....


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## armyvern (18 Nov 2016)

34 kids amongst only 3 wives.  Ouch.


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## The Bread Guy (18 Nov 2016)

More from Kurdish media:


> The Kurdish regional government in northern Iraq opposes the Canadian plan to bring what could be thousands of Kurdish Yazidi refugees to Canada in the next four months.
> 
> The office of Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani issued a strongly worded statement Thursday, the same day Canadian MPs convened on Parliament Hill to hear testimony from German officials who organized that country’s efforts to rescue Yazidi survivors of the genocide taking place in north Iraq.
> 
> ...


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## The Bread Guy (21 Nov 2016)

More from Kurdish media, shared under the Fair Dealing provisions of the _Copyright Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42)_ ...:


> Kurdish Yezidis from Sinjar district are calling for international community's support for the reconstruction of their areas, and the mayor of the district stated that Canada needs to help reconstruct the Yezidi areas instead of taking in the Yezidi IDPs.
> 
> Mahma Khalil, the mayor of Sinjar, told BasNews on Monday, November 21, that none of the countries has yet offered to contribute to the reconstruction of Sinjar town.
> 
> ...


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## Cdn Blackshirt (21 Nov 2016)

I read the Kurdish leader's argument yesterday, and candidly it makes a lot of sense.

With good intentions, Canada could be ethnically cleansing an area of the Yazidi culture.....hope Justin & crew reconsider.


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## George Wallace (21 Nov 2016)

Cdn Blackshirt said:
			
		

> I read the Kurdish leader's argument yesterday, and candidly it makes a lot of sense.
> 
> With good intentions, Canada could be ethnically cleansing an area of the Yazidi culture.....hope Justin & crew reconsider.



Is this not turning into a "Damned if you do. Damned if you don't" situation?


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## GAP (21 Nov 2016)

Has anyone asked what the 10,000 Yazidi's want?


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## Brad Sallows (21 Nov 2016)

The point of refugee policy is (or at least customarily was) to ultimately return refugees to their homes, not to turn them into displaced persons requiring resettlement.


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## Flavus101 (21 Nov 2016)

Brad Sallows said:
			
		

> The point of refugee policy is (or at least customarily was) to ultimately return refugees to their homes, not to turn them into displaced persons requiring resettlement.



And that is what a lot of people do not realize nowadays.

The view now is that if someone is fleeing from an area, that area is cursed forever and we must resettle them somewhere else.


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## The Bread Guy (21 Nov 2016)

GAP said:
			
		

> Has anyone asked what the 10,000 Yazidi's want?


That right there.  

Problem, though, is if the Yazidis want out, and the Kurds we're supporting (the ones whose flag is on CF uniforms in theatre to show support) say, "they're not going", which is it, then?



			
				Cdn Blackshirt said:
			
		

> ... Canada could be ethnically cleansing an area of the Yazidi culture.....hope Justin & crew reconsider.


Funny how the situation has changed in the 109 days since the Conservatives asked for this:


> ... The Liberal government must immediately act to bring Yazidi victims of genocide to Canada, and that means using political will to overcome the inertia presented by bureaucrats ...


I'm sure the Opposition, now that new facts have come to light, will suggest this may not be the best option - or suggest a way to circle the square of contradictory requests.  After all, it's not like they don't have experience on the file, right?  And like the New Vets Charter, they wouldn't want to be dinged for a bad idea implemented by another party, would they?


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## The Bread Guy (24 Nov 2016)

milnews.ca said:
			
		

> I'm sure the Opposition, now that new facts have come to light, will suggest this may not be the best option - or suggest a way to circle the square of contradictory requests ...


The latest:  Tories say Liberals aren't trying hard enough ...


> With a three-month deadline looming, the Liberal government is under mounting pressure to reveal its target and timeline to help Yazidi survivors of ISIS genocide.
> 
> Today (23 Nov), interim Conservative Leader Rona Ambrose suggested last month's unanimous vote in Parliament to help women and girls fleeing sexual slavery and torture within 120 days could prove to be a shallow victory.
> 
> ...


So, as Team Blue opposes for the sake of opposing on this one, and Team Red reflexively flinches in response to any suggestion that may look like it's helping, nobody seems to be (publicly, anyway) asking the question:  what's the best option to help these folks?


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## Lightguns (24 Nov 2016)

Flavus101 said:
			
		

> And that is what a lot of people do not realize nowadays.
> 
> The view now is that if someone is fleeing from an area, that area is cursed forever and we must resettle them somewhere else.



As long as the Saudis are exporting their brand of Islam and have more than two shekels to rub together, the area is forever cursed.


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## George Wallace (24 Nov 2016)

Lightguns said:
			
		

> As long as the Saudis are exporting their brand of Islam and have more than two shekels to rub together, the area is forever cursed.



Cultural Genocide by another name.


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## The Bread Guy (4 Dec 2016)

More on Canada's Kurdish allies (allegedly, at least) making it hard for Yazidis to leave - including to Canada ...


> The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq has placed disproportionate restrictions on the movement of goods into and out of the district of Sinjar, the center for Iraq’s Yezidi religious minority.
> 
> KRG officials say that the KRG is concerned about the activities of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an armed Kurdish militant organization that has forces in Sinjar, mostly made up of Yezidi fighters, and has de facto free movement across the border into Syria. But, just two years after the people of the district were subjected to violent attacks and abuses by the Islamic State (also known as ISIS), blanket KRG restrictions disproportionate to any possible security considerations are causing unnecessary harm to people’s access to food, water, livelihoods, and other fundamental rights.
> 
> “After the devastating ISIS attacks on the area and slaughter of the Yezidi population two years ago, the KRG’s restrictions are another serious blow,” said Lama Fakih, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “The KRG should be working to facilitate access to Sinjar for the hundreds of Yezidi civilians wishing to return to their homes, not adding more barriers to their recovery.” ...


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## The Bread Guy (8 Dec 2016)

Kurdish gov't in Iraq rejects human rights group claims of restricting Yazidi movement ...


> Kurdistan Regional Government High Committee to Evaluate and Respond to International Reports released a statement to respond to the Human Rights Watch Publication titled “Iraq: KRG Restrictions Harm Yezidi Recovery”.
> 
> On the 4th of December 2016, Human Rights Watch released a publication regarding the alleged “restrictions on the movement of goods into and out of the district of Sinjar” through the several Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) security checkpoints.
> 
> ...


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## The Bread Guy (19 Dec 2016)

Canada (as of last week, anyway):  we're working on it (but can't say anything right now) ...


> John McCallum, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship confirmed that the federal government developed a plan to save Yazidi women and girls in Iraq and Lebanon and resettle them Canada. However, he was reluctant to reveal the details of this plan because on security reasons.
> 
> The following are excerpts from the debate in Parliament on Tuesday, December 13, 2016:
> 
> ...


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## The Bread Guy (8 Jan 2017)

Another bump in the road ...


> The Immigration Department says Canada remains committed to resettle Yazidi survivors by its Feb. 22 deadline despite a new complication: the closure of a key humanitarian group working to identify and screen women and girls in greatest need of protection.
> 
> Yazda, a non-governmental organization working in Iraq and other regions to help Yazidi survivors of sexual slavery, abuse and torture by ISIS, was shut down by the Kurdistan Regional Government *** on Jan. 2.
> 
> ...


*** - That's the group of Kurds Canada is backing.

From the Kurd government's perspective ...


> The reason behind banning the Yezidi so called Yazda Nongovernmental Organization (NGO) in the Kurdistan Region was its involvement in political activities while it was allowed only to offer humanitarian services, said a Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) official on Friday.
> 
> Human Rights Watch (HRW) recently released a report stating that the KRG has closed down “a prominent nongovernmental organization supporting the Yezidi religious minority.” It also stated that shutting down the NGO “for unspecified reasons and at a time of growing humanitarian need has quickly sent a shudder through Iraq’s humanitarian community.”
> 
> ...


... and from at least one other Kurd within the system:


> The closure of Yazda, a Yezidi-focused rights organization by the local government in Duhok was illegal, a senior Kurdish official has told Rudaw English, while defending an earlier claim that the organization had been involved in “political activities” which violated regulations on NGO work.
> 
> Akram Jamo, director of the Kurdish Department of NGOs, said on Thursday that it is not up to the provincial government to close the offices of an NGO, explaining that his office was the sole authority to take such action based on court orders.
> 
> ...



Finally, this from the organization itself earlier this week:


> Yazda, a global organisation representing the Yazidi community in the Middle East, has called for immediate talks with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq, following the withdrawal by the KRG of its license to operate programmes in support of internally displaced persons.
> 
> Over the past two years, Yazda has provided support to Yazidi victims of genocide in the aftermath of August 3, 2014 attack by ISIS on the Sinjar region, which displaced hundreds of thousands of people. The license was renewed only last November, and includes a pyscho-social programme supporting Yazidi woman who escaped captivity, a social care programme supporting more than 600 women and children, two medical clinics serving over 250 patients a day, a documentation programme and an outreach programme to support returnees to Sinjar.
> 
> ...


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## The Bread Guy (17 Jan 2017)

New immigration minister says they'll be coming soon ...


> Canada will meet its commitment to bring an unspecified number of persecuted Yazidis to Canada by late February, according to the federal government's new immigration minister.
> 
> In an interview with CBC News Network's Power & Politics, newly minted Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Ahmed Hussen said his government would soon provide a detailed update on its Yazidi efforts.
> 
> ...


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## The Bread Guy (19 Feb 2017)

The latest as the clock ticks ...


> The Liberal government is set to unveil its resettlement plan for Yazidi victims of ISIS, but as a one-week deadline looms, critics are keeping expectations low.
> 
> On Oct. 25, MPs unanimously adopted a Conservative motion to formally declare ISIS persecution of Yazidis a genocide and promised to bring refugees fleeing the violence to Canada within four months.
> 
> ...


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## The Bread Guy (22 Feb 2017)

And here we have it, via the Immigration Canada info-machine:


> Canada plans to welcome approximately 1200 survivors of Daesh this year, including vulnerable Yazidi women and children and their families, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada Minister Ahmed Hussen announced today.
> 
> It is expected that nearly 400 government-assisted refugees will have arrived by February 22, 2017, which is 120 days from the date of the motion passed by the House of Commons last fall.
> 
> ...


More details in the backgrounder, and in initial MSM coverage here.


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## Colin Parkinson (22 Feb 2017)

I wonder how the remaining Yazdi treat the women and children that were sexually assaulted by Daesh? It is a heavily honour based society, but also have had traumatic upheaval. If they can't be accepted there, then yes bring them, but if they can rebuild there and the ones who were assaulted can still be accepted, then support that rebuilding in place. Bringing the most serious traumatized ones here, would only be the beginning of a long hard road requiring a lot of professional and government assistance. At the same time removing them from any existing support network. Not a good recipe generally.


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## GAP (22 Feb 2017)

Shit it is still a stigma in our secular society, what makes you think their society is more forgiving and accepting? In a lot of cases it is probably better to move and start over


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## The Bread Guy (23 Feb 2017)

Really?


> *Yazidi groups say they were left in the dark on Canada's resettlement plan*
> 
> _Tight-knit Yazidi communities are clustered primarily in Winnipeg and London, Ont._
> 
> ...


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## The Bread Guy (27 Feb 2017)

This from The Canadian Press:


> *Yazidi refugee effort proof that government listens and can work: Ambrose*
> 
> Efforts underway to give asylum to 1,200 primarily Yazidi refugees by year end should help bolster people's confidence in government, says Interim Opposition leader Rona Ambrose.
> 
> ...


The partisan "hater's headline" could also be:  *"Conservative Leader Admits Yazidi Refugees "not on radar" for Then-Ruling Tories -- Ambrose Calls Tory Inaction "Oversight" "*  >


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## The Bread Guy (6 Mar 2017)

Some of the latest from one of the arrivals ...


> In a dark hallway of a London, Ont., motel, a young Yazidi woman and her husband's uncle explain how he raised $26,000 to buy her freedom from the ISIS captors who had forced her into sex slavery.
> 
> As she holds her restless son, the woman in her 30s speaks softly, recounting her time in captivity in Syria after being snatched from her home in the Sinjar region of Iraq. For two and a half years, she was passed from one ISIS member to the next — beaten, tortured and used as a sex slave.
> 
> ...


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## The Bread Guy (17 Mar 2017)

Different views on whether Canada's doing enough via the NATO Association of Canada ...


> (...)
> 
> *Phil Rafalko – Program Editor, International Business and Economics*
> 
> ...


More on link


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## a_majoor (9 Apr 2017)

Colin P said:
			
		

> I wonder how the remaining Yazdi treat the women and children that were sexually assaulted by Daesh? It is a heavily honour based society, but also have had traumatic upheaval. If they can't be accepted there, then yes bring them, but if they can rebuild there and the ones who were assaulted can still be accepted, then support that rebuilding in place. Bringing the most serious traumatized ones here, would only be the beginning of a long hard road requiring a lot of professional and government assistance. At the same time removing them from any existing support network. Not a good recipe generally.



Don't forget that at least 500 former sex slaves who escaped formed a battalion known as the "Sun Women", hell bent on revenge. Kurdish women also regularly engage as fighters against ISIS, and in the other battles against the various oppressors in the region (they were fighting against the Hussein regime in Iraq as far back as the 1980s).

Being able and willing to take up arms to defend your rights is probably going to be one of the big drivers of cultural change in the region.


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## The Bread Guy (20 Jul 2017)

One family's story ...


> A Winnipeg mother, a Yazidi refugee, is astonished to discover her 12-year-old son is alive after being rescued from ISIS.
> 
> Nofa Zaghla, from northern Iraq, says her family was separated in August 2014 when they were captured by ISIS.
> 
> ...


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