At the Intersection of Syria and Canada

Abstract

It was my daughter’s idea. She had seen the heartbreaking images of Alan Kurdi, the little boy who had drowned trying to escape the war in Syria, his lifeless body washed up on a Turkish beach. Dressed in shorts and a t-shirt, he was still wearing his sneakers.A few weeks later Justin Trudeau announced that Canada would accept 25,000 Syrian refugees by the end of February 2016, a number that has since grown to 40,000. When the local CBC reported that several hundred refugees would be coming to Fredericton in less than a month and that the Multicultural Association was desperate for volunteers, we also learned that we were not social workers or care providers, as First Fredericton Friends we were to be just that: friends.