NEW After hearing thousands of last words, this hospital chaplain has advice for the living
Hospital chaplain J.S. Park opens up about death, grief and hearing thousands of last words, and shares his advice for the living.
As COVID-19 takes its toll around the world, it's only made life harder for the record number of refugees.
On Friday, a report from the United Nations refugee agency revealed that in 2020, there were 82.4 million people globally who were forcibly displaced from their homes. That's one out of every 95 people around the world.
This figure is up four per cent from 2019, when the refugee population was at 79.5 million, and has been increasing for the last nine consecutive years.
Filippo Grandi, the UN's High Commissioner for Refugees, sat down with CTV's Chief News Anchor and Senior Editor Lisa LaFlamme to discuss the worsening refugee crisis and how it's been affected by the pandemic ahead of World Refugee Day this Sunday.
Below is a transcript of the interview, edited for length and clarity:
Lisa LaFlamme: The global refugee crisis is just getting worse and worse. What are your projections going forward if something does not change?
Filippo Grandi: We'll have to continue to work, unfortunately, to address the humanitarian consequences of constantly rising displacement. This year, statistics are showing the for the ninth consecutive year an increase of several million. But we must restore the ability of the international community to deal with the root causes of these movement
LaFlamme: So, is there the political will to reverse this?
Grandi: I think there is a sense of interest. Forced migration has become such a global phenomenon. Unfortunately, the problem is that the "my country first" approach prevails look it's what's happening with the vaccines.
LaFlamme: World leaders, including Canada, have really been focused on protecting their own populations, as you say. Have they then just turned a blind eye to this growing refugee crisis?
Grandi: Canada has actually been one of the most coherent and consistent governments in trying to address every aspect of the human mobility crisis. Canada is also one of our largest donors.
LaFlamme: 160 countries closed their borders at the peak of this pandemic. So, what countries in your opinion did emerge as a sort of a model to follow on how to still ensure access to people seeking protection?
Grandi: Governments had to protect their communities, their population. But in that, I think that the countries that stood out, if I may say, are the countries that kept borders open in spite of that, or rather, that allowed asylum seekers refugees, pressing at their borders to come in. And this is essentially poor countries.
LaFlamme: The theme of this year's World Refugee Day is about the power of inclusion.
Grandi: I always say inclusion is the new protection for refugees. And this includes inclusion in vaccinations, for example. If you look at the COVID response, who was on the frontlines? Migrants and refugees were, with their knowledge, with their expertise, with their availability, when health staff was short everywhere. That's proof of how they can contribute.
LaFlamme: Inclusion is the new protection. Okay, much work could be done. Filippo Grandi, we thank you so much for your time tonight.
Grandi: Thank you very much.
Hospital chaplain J.S. Park opens up about death, grief and hearing thousands of last words, and shares his advice for the living.
French police cordoned off the Iranian consulate in Paris on Friday, where a man was threatening to blow himself up, Europe 1 radio and BFM TV.
More money will land in the pockets of some Canadian families on Friday for the latest Canada Child Benefit installment.
An apparent Israeli drone attack on Iran saw troops fire air defences at a major air base and a nuclear site early Friday morning near the central city of Isfahan, an assault coming in retaliation for Tehran's unprecedented drone-and-missile assault on the country.
American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer, one of two men charged in the killings of a Canadian couple in Dominica, has been denied bail.
Canadian banks that refuse to identify the carbon rebate by name when doing direct deposits are forcing the government to change the law to make them do it, says Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault.
A woman who recently moved to Canada from India was searching for a job when she got caught in an online job scam and lost $15,000.
The World Health Organization and around 500 experts have agreed for the first time on what it means for a disease to spread through the air, in a bid to avoid the confusion early in the COVID-19 pandemic that some scientists have said cost lives.
Prince Harry, the son of King Charles III and fifth in line to the British throne, has formally confirmed he is now a U.S. resident.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.
Molly Knight, a grade four student in Nova Scotia, noticed her school library did not have many books on female athletes, so she started her own book drive in hopes of changing that.
Almost 7,000 bars of pure gold were stolen from Pearson International Airport exactly one year ago during an elaborate heist, but so far only a tiny fraction of that stolen loot has been found.
When Les Robertson was walking home from the gym in North Vancouver's Lower Lonsdale neighbourhood three weeks ago, he did a double take. Standing near a burrow it had dug in a vacant lot near East 1st Street and St. Georges Avenue was a yellow-bellied marmot.
A moulting seal who was relocated after drawing daily crowds of onlookers in Greater Victoria has made a surprise return, after what officials described as an 'astonishing' six-day journey.
Just steps from Parliament Hill is a barber shop that for the last 100 years has catered to everyone from prime ministers to tourists.
A high score on a Foo Fighters pinball machine has Edmonton player Dave Formenti on a high.
A compound used to treat sour gas that's been linked to fertility issues in cattle has been found throughout groundwater in the Prairies, according to a new study.
While many people choose to keep their medical appointments private, four longtime friends decided to undergo vasectomies as a group in B.C.'s Lower Mainland.