Memorial and rallies scheduled for two drowned Syrian boys
Posted Sep 5, 2015 04:00:03 AM.
Last Updated Sep 5, 2015 06:37:11 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Rallies and marches are taking place in several Ontario cities today as migrant and refugee groups demand changes to Canada’s immigration policies.
Advocates say the federal government must take special measures to cut red tape and speed up processing for refugees in the face of a staggering crisis in Syria.
The call to do more comes amid global shock over the drowning deaths of two young Syrian boys and their mother, who apparently had wanted to join family in British Columbia.
Events are planned in Ajax, Hamilton, London, Ottawa, St. Catharines and Toronto.
A memorial service is also planned in Vancouver today for two little Syrian boys who drowned in Turkey in a tragedy that has attracted worldwide attention.
Tima Kurdi of Coquitlam, B-C, says her nephew, his five-year-old brother Ghalib, and their mother, Rehanna, were buried in Syria by her brother, Abdullah, on Thursday.
She says the family was fleeing Syria, where Islamic State militants had beheaded one of her sister-in-law’s relatives.
Kurdi says the trip was the “only option” left for the family to have a better life in a European country, possibly Germany or Sweden.
She says Abdullah embarked on the risky journey with his family after a bid by another brother to seek refugees status in Canada failed.
Kurdi says she sent Abdullah five-thousand dollars to pay smugglers to take them on a boat.
Family friends have set up an online fundraising campaign to help the Kurdi family.