The Canadian government has promised to resettle hundreds of Syrian refugees, but the process is going too slowly for some Syrian-Canadians as they struggle to rescue family members from the war-torn country.
Shortly after the uprising began in 2011, Wise, a Syrian Kurd who legally changed his name from Mustafa Arab, realized he had to do everything he could to bring them to Canada while talking on the phone to his mother and sister in Aleppo.
"I heard this big bombarding," Wise told CTV's Canada AM Tuesday about what happened right before the call cut off.
"I had no connection with them after that for a week."
After a few days, Wise was finally able to get in touch with his brother who lived in Aleppo and asked him to check on his mother and sister. Wise's brother found them in a neighbouring house and learned the loud noise on the phone was the building across the street from his mother and sister being bombed. Twenty-seven civilians, including nine children, died in that attack.
"We tried so hard to get them out of the country… we sent so many letters to Mr. John Baird and to the Canadian officials and to the government. Unfortunately we had no response," said Wise.
"I'm a Canadian citizen and I'm entitled to ask my government 'Why are you not helping the Syrians at this moment?'"
Wise, a contractor in the Greater Toronto Area, sold his house to raise funds for his efforts to get his mother and sister out of Syria. At the time, because Cuba still had a functioning embassy in Syria, Wise managed to get his mother and sister Cuban tourist visas at a cost of $12,000.
Upon their arrival in Havana, they turned themselves into the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
Wise was supporting them financially, and lobbying the Canadian government, when Cuba forced the UNHCR to resettle the Syrian refugees. Sweden agreed to grant permanent-residence status to Wise's mother and sister, as well as 45 other Syrians in Havana.
"I was doing very well until this crisis started," Wise, who is one of 11 children in his family, said. "Then I began, little by little, selling whatever assets I have just to protect my own family because the family always comes first."
His sister remains trapped in an area of Syria near the Turkish border, where she is living with her six children. They have no food and no money, Wise said, while they wait for smugglers to transport them into Turkey.
In February, the Office for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees asked countries to accommodate a total of 100,000 Syrian refugees in 2015 and 2016. Immigration groups are urging the Canadian government to take in at least 10,000 over the next two years. Last year the government committed to resettling 1,300 Syrian refugees – 200 will be government sponsored and the other 1,100 will be privately sponsored. Canada has also committed more than $630 million in humanitarian, development, and security assistance.
By contrast, Sweden – a country with a third the population of Canada - has taken in 30,000 Syrian refugees.
Wise still doesn't know if his mother and sister will ever be able to visit him in Canada.
