Rally shows support for sprung shelters while others protest

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There have been two rallies in Ottawa on Sunday, one in favour of town’s proposed newcomer reception centres for refugees and asylum seekers, and one other one in opposition to.

Chelby Daigle was at each.

Daigle, a Black Muslim girl, mentioned she felt it was essential to talk to Nepean residents who had been rallying early Sunday afternoon in opposition to a reception centre town plans to place close to the Nepean Sportsplex. Daigle even caught a experience to the rally with MPP Lisa MacLeod, who has loudly opposed the Sportplex website.

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“We have to bridge this hole,” defined Daigle, who defended town’s plan on the Sportspex rally. However she agreed with complaints town’s rollout wasn’t clear sufficient.

“My concern is that the errors town’s made goes to have an effect on asylum seekers,” she mentioned. “That terrifies me. And from what we’ve seen in america and within the U.Okay., the shelters can turn into targets of hate. If we don’t bridge that hole now, it may get even worse.”

Having made her pitch to the anti-reception centre crowd, Daigle made her solution to Centrepointe for a second rally, an hour later, this one in help. That rally was organized by Refugee 613 and attracted a number of hundred folks, together with Mayor Mark Sutcliffe and most members of council. Refugee 613 govt director Louisa Taylor mentioned she wished to counter some misinformation concerning the reception centres, misinformation that she mentioned was making a few of their future neighbours fearful.

“We had been watching the rhetoric across the reception centres getting increasingly damaging till it appeared prefer it was not about individuals who had authentic questions on course of or transparency and it was turning into extra about whether or not we should always even have refugees in Canada,” Taylor mentioned.

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“It’s pitting refugees in opposition to neighbourhood wants. That was actually disappointing to us. We actually really feel Ottawa is extra welcoming than that.”

The town is proposing two reception centres, one at 1645 Woodroffe Ave., on the federally owned Nepean Sportsplex property, and a secondary website at 40 Hearst Method, on a part of the Eagleson Park and Trip. The centres may have a mixed capability of as much as 300 residents, who will have the ability to keep for as much as 90 days earlier than transferring into transitional or everlasting housing. The town is working with outdoors companies like Refugee 613 to supply helps find employment, navigating federal forms and coping with trauma.

“It’s not typical for neighborhood organizations to be cheering for town,” Taylor mentioned. “However on this case, town is definitely making a considerate, revolutionary, courageous selection to essentially stand by our welcoming values and spend money on a system the place there’s none.

“Is the plan good? No. It’s nonetheless being developed. However they’ve made it clear that they’re genuinely desirous about a collaboration to co-design companies. That’s new in Ottawa. And it’s uncommon to see wherever in Canada.”

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A type of to talk on the Refugee 613 rally was Thomas Ndayiragije.

“Should you’re questioning who’s a refugee and who’s an asylum seeker, you will have one earlier than you,” he mentioned. “I hope I’m not intimidating. I reply to smiles. I reply to like.”

Ndayiragije arrived in Canada in 2018 from Burundi and his first lodging was on the Shepherds of Good Hope, for which he mentioned he was deeply grateful.

“I obtained a heat mattress and a winter jacket, however one thing was missing. The shelter will not be meant for folks like me fleeing persecution. There was no service associated to my wants. They’re stretched past their capability and so they’re having to supply their companies to different folks they don’t seem to be skilled to assist.”

Ndayiragije obtained a job two months after his arrival and stays a taxpayer who contributes to the neighborhood, he mentioned.

Sutcliffe harkened again to how Ottawa welcomed Vietnam’s Boat Individuals within the early Nineteen Eighties and, extra just lately, waves of arrivals from Syria and Afghanistan.

“That’s what we’ve all the time executed and that’s what we’re going to proceed to do. In Ottawa, you may rely on the kindness of strangers,” Sutcliffe mentioned.

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“Everybody who’s been concerned in constructing our neighborhood are both Indigenous, an immigrant or a descendant to immigrants,” he mentioned. “That’s it. That’s all of us.”

Ottawa resident Jane O’Regan got here to the rally to point out her help after being alarmed by the protest in opposition to them after town introduced the Kanata and Nepean websites on Nov. 8.

“What introduced me right here is how unkind everybody who’s protesting in opposition to it has been,” O’Regan mentioned. “What upset me is that neighborhood members — my neighborhood members — who had been so unable to be empathetic and compassionate after they knew folks had been coming to Canada wanted help. I feel it’s essential to make folks perceive that while you arrive right here there are folks keen to assist, who present empathy and are compassionate.”

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