Canada First Immigration Reform Committee

Countering the Pro-Illegal Emotionalism

After Alan Kurdi’s Drowning

Dear Brittany:

Illegal parent who put his family into unseaworthy boat to sneak into Europe;

Dear Paul,

Today we cancelled our plans.

We had planned to send you an email asking for donations for the Vote Together election campaign – but then we saw the photo.

A young boy, lifeless and face-down on a beach. Horrible. Heartbreaking.

This morning, millions of people across Canada woke up and faced a profound moral question. What do we do?

Sometimes a single image can make the whole world pay attention to a tragedy that it has ignored for too long. We know the refugee crisis is growing everyday, and we know the statistics are brutal.

But refugees are not statistics. When great tragedy strikes, when millions of our fellow human beings become victimized –  first by ravages of war and then by the callousness of policy – we sometimes get lost in those horrific numbers and forget that every one is a person — with a name, a family and a story.¹

So this evening, we’re asking you to start by sharing their names:  Alan Kurdi, Ghalib Kurdi, and their mother Rehanna​ Kurdi – to remember them and their humanity, in a world that sometimes feels like it’s lost it all.

If you click the image you’ll be able to share it on Facebook with a link to the different #RefugeesWelcome gatherings and rallies that are being organized across the country this weekend. We encourage everyone in the Leadnow community to participate if you can.

You can find a direct link to the events here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1703064886579884/

We also want to make sure you saw a new website: NeverHome.ca. NeverHome.ca is the best place you can go to learn more about the changes that have been made to Canada’s refugee and immigration policies over the past ten years, including the changes that contributed to these tragic deaths.

Click here to learn more about how Canada’s refugee policy has changed: http://www.neverhome.ca/refugees/

This is one of those days to ask: what kind of country is Canada becoming, and what kind of country we want it to be? There are millions of people asking that question, let’s help them remember these names, and know our history.

Please share the above image, and visit http://www.neverhome.ca/refugees/ for more information on how Canada has changed.

Thank you.

With hope and respect,

Brittany, on behalf of the Leadnow.ca team

[1] Little Alan Kurdi, washed ashore, suddenly refocuses Syrian tragedy http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/little-alan-kurdi-washed-ashore-suddenly-refocuses-syrian-tragedy-nahlah-ayed-1.3213893

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