Forty years ago, the Government of Canada gave a man named Mike Molloy the monumental task of resettling 60,000 Vietnamese refugees to Canada and he delivered. Because of his vision with the private sponsorship program, many of us Vietnamese refugees were blessed with the opportunity to become Canadians. This is the model by which we are now helping our fellow Syrian refugees, forty years later. I was honoured to have been invited to Ottawa by the Government of Canada School of Public Servants to meet Mr. Molloy and be a part of an Armchair Discussion — Our Humanitarian Commitment as Canadians: A Story of Generosity, Hope and Survival — and to share my thoughts on the refugee/sponsorship experience. Beside me were also Naomi Alboim, a respected voice in immigration policies and cofounder of Lifeline Syria, and Dawn Edlund, Associate Assistant Deputy Minister at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.
http://cihs-shic.ca/canadas-canadians-humanitarian-tradition/