WEDNESDAY November
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Local News . Local Matters
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Agencies ready support for newcomers Gov’t move to extend deadline for bringing in refugees welcomed JANE SEYD jseyd@nsnews.com
The North Shore is eager to help bring Syrian refugees to Canada and it’ll likely be local agencies supporting private sponsors that will have the biggest role to play.
“People really want to help,” said Elizabeth Jones, executive director of the North Shore Multicultural Society, following a meeting about the Syrian refugee crisis attended by about 300 people Monday night. “One man just said to me, ‘Just tell me what I can do.’ ”
SYRIAN REFUGEE CRISIS Many of those in the crowd at the West Vancouver United Church Monday were there to
hear how they could either sponsor refugee families or help once those people arrive in Canada, said Alison Dudley with the North Shore Immigrant Inclusion Partnership. The presentation on the North Shore took place a day before the Liberal government announced more details of its plan to bring Syrian refugees to Canada. The government conceded Tuesday it
will not be able to bring 25,000 governmentsponsored refugees to Canada by the end of December, as promised by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during the election campaign. Instead, the government now aims to bring 10,000 Syrian refugees to Canada – including both government-sponsored and privately sponsored
refugees – by Dec. 31, with another 15,000 arriving by the end of February 2016. Immigration and Refugees Minister John McCallum said in a press conference Tuesday the decision to extend the deadline was to allow health and security screening to happen overseas and to ensure See 700 page 9
Seycove first for genderneutral washroom BRENT RICHTER brichter@nsnews.com
In a first for North Vancouver schools, Seycove secondary has opened a gender-neutral washroom. The move is a step in the right direction and recognition that not every student feels welcome in the binary male- or female-designated washrooms, according to Brian Wilson, president of Seycove’s Queer Straight Alliance Club, which lobbied the school administration for the washroom. High school is already a stressful time for kids who are coming to grips with their identity, Wilson said, and what should be a place of relief is often a source of undue stress – for some more than See Sign page 5
Members of Seycove secondary’s Queer Straight Alliance Club gather with teacher Andrea Yeo to mark the opening of the North Vancouver school district’s first gender-neutral washroom. PHOTO MIKE WAKEFIELD
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