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Victoria rally backs Syrian refugees

About 200 people gathered in front of Victoria’s Tourism Information Centre on Saturday, then marched to Centennial Square in support of opening Canada’s borders to Syrian refugees.
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Migrants from Syria sleep at a park in Belgrade, Serbia, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2015. Over 10,000 migrants, including many women with babies and small children, have crossed into Serbia over the past few days and headed toward Hungary and the EU Schengen Area, a zone with no internal border checks between member countries. (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic)

About 200 people gathered in front of Victoria’s Tourism Information Centre on Saturday, then marched to Centennial Square in support of opening Canada’s borders to Syrian refugees.

The rally was one of several events across the country after a picture of a lifeless three-year-old boy on a Turkish beach attracted global attention and sparked debate about the refugees’ plight.

The boy, Alan Kurdi, his brother and mother — all from Syria — drowned after falling off a small boat headed to Greece from Turkey.

Refugee and human rights advocates are pressuring the federal government to ease paperwork barriers and boost resources to help Syrian refugees settle in Canada.

Rally organizer Sofija Lazovic, 26, told the crowd that Canada is actively bombing with the U.S.-led force on Syria, increasing the number of refugees fleeing the country. “We all have blood on our hands,” she said. “We have to wash it off, and this is the first step.”

Many in attendance called on the federal government to immediately allow as many Syrian refugees as possible into Canada.

They also criticized the government’s refugee policy.

“Do I think the Conservative government is going to change its position?” asked James Coccola, 28. “No. But I’m hoping that we’re at a point where there is some possibility for change, and if people care about this issue and care about trying to ease the suffering of people who are in need, that they’ll take it into consideration.”

Josh Christopher, 36, said that as an industrialized country with the means to help, Canada has a responsibility to do so. He said Canada should be taking tens of thousands of refugees.

“I feel that bombs are not an adequate response,” Christopher said. “We should be adhering to the UN’s request to take a large number of people.”

Immigration Minister Chris Alexander has said Canada will accept 10,000 Syrian refugees over the next three years in response to the UN refugee agency’s global appeal to resettle 100,000 refugees worldwide.

Millions have fled war-ravaged Syria since 2011, but fewer than 2,400 Syrians have been resettled in Canada during the past two years.

Pro-refugee marches and demonstrations were planned in more than a dozen Canadian cities through the Labour Day weekend, including events in Montreal and Toronto.

In Montreal, several hundred people marched downtown Saturday, brandishing signs reading “refugees welcome,” or bearing the now-famous photo of the drowned Syrian toddler with the caption “our child.”

Victoria organizer Shane Calder, 41, said the aim of the rally was to encourage dialogue on Canada’s foreign policy toward refugees and how they’re treated.

“We were involved in the displacement of many of these people. We are bombing Syria. We are bombing Libya. The largest refugee group in the world are the Palestinians, who largely are displaced because of Israel — a big, staunch ally of Canada,” Calder said. “So Canada is involved in the displacement of folks. I don’t think people really know that. So we need to have that conversation.”

Rev. Bruce Bryant-Scott urged members of the crowd to attend an information session on the private sponsorship of refugees planned for Wednesday at 8 p.m. at St. Matthias Anglican Church.

bcleverley@timescolonist.com

— With a file from The Canadian Press