Ottawa faces uphill battle to get support for asylum seeker centre
Communication issues threaten to derail plans to support migrants
As the director of Refugee 613, Louisa Taylor knows better than most what people seeking refuge in Canada are facing.
Federal policies have contributed to a surge in asylum seekers in the nation's big cities, including in Ottawa, where they make up 60 per cent of people in emergency shelters.
"There are more than 330 people sleeping on mats and cots in community centres, in hockey arenas. The majority of those are newcomers, and many of those newcomers are refugee claimants," Taylor said.
"There's no question that the city has to do something and it has to do something soon, because that is not a dignified way for it to shelter someone."
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The city has heavily relied on community centres for extra space, a strategy that deprives neighbourhoods of recreational services.
Rooms are packed with dozens of bunkbeds, and newcomers share a handful of showers. When beds are full, they lie down on bleachers or on the floors of arenas. Some take refuge in downtown emergency shelters already so overcrowded that the only available place to sleep is in chairs set up in the lobby.
"There's no question the need is huge," Taylor said.
But she and others say they also worry about the damage already wrought by misinformation — and stoked by fear.
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New kind of shelter
The city has been talking about opening a welcoming centre for asylum seekers for well over a year, though information has come in dribs and drabs.
When a large, tent-like structure was first discussed, it was described as emergency shelter space. Some politicians have since used the choice of construction materials as a way to argue against the plan while also supporting the idea of welcoming migrants.
Two Barrhaven councillors tried but failed to make the city consider a more permanent, mass timber construction — one which staff argue could cost more, take longer and introduce complicated logistical issues.
One of them, Barrhaven West Coun. David Hill. drew on his personal experiences living in a similar military structure to argue refugees deserve better.
This is not simply the city purchasing two tents to emulate a refugee camp.- Alta Vista Coun. Marty Carr
"There's a lot of misinformation that's been circulating regarding the proposal that's presented," said Alta Vista Coun. Marty Carr in an interview with Radio-Canada.
"This is not simply the city purchasing two tents to emulate a refugee camp," said Carr, who raised no concerns when staff looked at a site for the centres in her ward.
Taylor, likewise, called that debate a "red herring."
Behind the scenes, the city has been working on an impressive plan for a first-of-its-kind facility, she said — one that will provide both comfort and the kind of specialized support that the federal government has failed to provide.
"If you arrive as a refugee claimant, there's no system that says, 'OK, here's [the] first place you go, and then you go here, and then you go here, and you get help with your claims, et cetera,'" she said.
"There's nothing. There are many agencies who are helping them, but it's a fractured system."
The cavernous structure will have a customized interior, with walls to provide both living space and room for all of the 24-hour supports that city staff are planning — everything from providing meals and trauma services to offering assistance in finding a job or permanent home.
Somewhere along the line, Barrhaven was floated as a possible location.
City staff, though, never publicly confirmed it was looking there. That lack of response contributed to calls for consultation and accountability that echo today, along with a political maelstrom that's touched every level of government.
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Culture of fear
In the end, city staff did not choose the south Ottawa suburb.
A grassy area near the Nepean Sportsplex will instead house a structure about half the size of a football field before next winter. It will take in 150 people in need, provided Ottawa can secure the funding it needs from the federal government first.
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City staff confirmed to CBC the decision on where to put the centre was strictly based on logistical considerations and not political backlash. But Taylor said the protests did have a significant — and perhaps unintended — effect.
"It's creating a harmful dynamic even now for the people who are here. There are refugees living in Barrhaven already," she said.
"There are refugees living in every corner of the city. And now they hear that politicians and community members are saying, 'Keep them out.' They fear. They fear for their status. They fear for their personal safety because of the rhetoric that's being generated."
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Mayor Mark Sutcliffe struck out on Friday against those who've fought to keep a shelter out of their community, saying a citywide solution needs citywide support.
Staff made the decision on council's authority, he emphasized, and no politician has the power to change it.
"This is not, nor should it be, a process where city councillors get around the table and decide, 'OK, where are we going to put a welcoming centre? Do you want it in your ward? Do you want it in your ward? Well, no, there's a bunch of people in my ward who don't want it here. So, it should go in your ward,'" he said.
"The whole reason we take the politics out of it is to avoid exactly that."
Sutcliffe said this won't please everyone. But, he said, a perfect solution does not exist.
Residents say they've been left in dark
As that discussion was happening, people in Kanata South were planning their own protest.
The community is second on the list for a welcoming centre, though there are no plans to build it until the city can get more funding and establish that there is still a need for renewed support.
Chief among their complaints is how the plan has been communicated.
Hundreds of people gathered Saturday morning at the parking lot that could eventually house the centre, where they waved posters emblazoned with messages like "Say no to hidden agendas" and "Kanata deserves transparency."
Jinhui Liu immigrated to Canada from China 25 years ago and said while she sympathized with migrants, she also feels forgotten and disrespected.
That's quickly bred another emotion, she said.
"When people are angry, what happens? Anger. Hatred. It will spread in this neighbourhood and we will fight," said Liu, adding that she understands people will label them as racist.
Concerns with sharing services
Liu and several others noted their own personal struggles to access health services, worrying that more people competing for those scant resources will make a bad situation worse.
Longtime Kanata resident David Downing said he worries about "undocumented foreigners" arriving in Canada without background checks.
"Unknowns are uncertainty, and uncertainty potentially leads to issues with safety and security," he said.
It's something Taylor has heard before.
But she challenges the idea that asylum seekers are dangerous, saying that most are professionals simply working to create a better life.
Not a political decision
But it's easy to understand how residents felt caught off-guard by the staff decision, which was made public in the release of a 20-page, densely technical memo to councillors.
The city did provide a pared-down fact sheet with commonly asked questions, but it took a day.
Kale Brown, the acting director of housing and homelessness services, explained to CBC that what residents saw as opaqueness was actually a symptom of the city's efforts to be transparent.
Staff chose the top sites based solely on the results of a consultant's report, Brown said, and wanted to provide as much technical detail as possible to proactively reassure residents. They'd also committed to disseminating the information within the tight timeframe of 24 hours — hence the late evening release.
The public consultation that many are demanding will come, he said, though the location of the sites won't be up for debate.
When CBC asked Sutcliffe how the city might have improved its communication, he backed up the staff's strategy.
"There's been opposition that has been mounting to something that wasn't even happening," he said, referring to the Barrhaven protests.
"I don't know what the scenario is where — if we had published a list of 100 different sites we were looking at — where everybody would just patiently wait to see the end of that process."
Still, Sutcliffe admitted that the absence of information led some to fill the void with falsehoods.
Using the past to empower the future
Once that sentiment takes hold, it's hard to know how to shake it off.
But politicians have made a similar call: look to Ottawa's past in order to make sense of the future.
They've spoken of their own families and friends, some of whom came to Canada under difficult circumstances and found both safety and understanding.
From Project 4000 — an undertaking where then-mayor Marion Dewar welcomed 4,000 Vietnamese boat people into the city in the 1970s — to more recent efforts to resettle Syrians and Ukrainians, they've argued that Ottawa has a proven track record.
"We can do this. Yes, the numbers are more than we've had in past history, but we can do this as a community and our city will be stronger for it," said Coun. Laura Dudas, co-chair of the city's emergency shelter taskforce.
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To do that, Sutcliffe said the focus needs to be on the newcomers themselves — and not seeing them as scapegoats.
"They are coming here seeking asylum, seeking refuge and they need our support and they should not be politicized in this process, they should not be demonized in this process. They should be welcomed with open arms."
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With files from Celeste Decaire, Isabel Harder, Félix Pilon and Claudine Richard