Twenty months after arriving in Canada, a Syrian refugee family is being forced to start over yet again, after losing nearly everything they owned in a house fire.
Investigators, are looking into whether the blaze early Saturday morning in Mississauga, Ontario, about 30-minute drive from Toronto Downtown, is connected to threats allegedly made toward the family hours earlier.
This is the first time we hear of an incident of this nature involving a Syrian refugee family in and around Toronto.
While no one was injured, at least nine families in the complex are now displaced because of the fire centred around the Syrian family’s townhouse. Damage is estimated at $2 million and the Red Cross is assisting families.
Khaled Al Awad, who moved to Canada with his family from Syria in 2015, told CTV television in Toronto that everything was destroyed in the blaze. “All my documents … all clothes, all everything,” he said. Police responded to a disturbance at his unit hours before the fire.
His children’s school supplies are gone. So are their Halloween costumes. They had planned on celebrating the tradition for the first time.
Al Awad says between 1:30 a.m. and 2 a.m., he saw a light flickering by his window. He opened it and found a fire burning in his backyard. According to Al Awad, earlier a male stranger had banged on his door, accusing them of stealing a bicycle. He says he was involved in an altercation early Friday evening, with a man he had never seen before. The stranger accused him of stealing a bicycle. “He knocked the door hard,” he explained. “He said, ‘This is my bike… I lost it six days ago.’” The bike, which was in front of the house, belongs to Al Awad’s son. He says the family has had it for six months.
My kids yesterday tell me if we cannot live here, we should go back to Syria, says Al Awad’s Canadian-born wife Judy
Their exchange became heated. He went inside his home, but says the man pounded on the door to the point of damaging it. “When I [saw] him running to me, I [became] scared and I entered my apartment with my family,” he said. “We don’t feel safe, me and my family. I cannot send my children to the school and I cannot go outside.”
A resident says she overheard the exchange. “When the gentleman in the burnt house would not open the door, then he stormed off and said, ‘I will come back to kill your family,’” she recalled.
Peel Regional Police are not linking the incidents. One witness said she saw a man kick Al Awad’s door repeatedly threatening him and his family.
One of Al Awad’s daughters said she was frightened. “I was scared for my dad,” she said. “What if something happened to him?” A crowdfunding page has been set up to help the family rebuild their lives once more. Al Awad and his family have tenants’ insurance, but neighbours say not everyone did.
What sparked the devastating fire has yet to be determined. While the Al Awad family is grateful to be alive, their sense of hopefulness has been marred by their loss. “My kids tell me if we cannot live here, we should go back to Syria,” said Al Awad’s Canadian-born wife, Judy. The family will likely stay with friends over the next few days. Beyond that, they do not know.
A media report this year said that Immigration Department evaluations of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s effort to welcome 26,000 refugees from war-torn Syria reveal high rates of unemployment, costly barriers to rental housing and difficulties shifting from Arabic to French or English.
Although many refugee families are doing relatively well after their first 12 months in Canada, when they’re supported mostly by the federal government, others are facing a range of trials as they transfer in to provincial welfare and other programs.
Just over half of the adults among the 9,000 Syrian refugees who have been privately sponsored in Canada, largely by churches and other religious organizations, have jobs, Immigration official Chantal Goyette said in a talk delivered at the March Metropolis conference in Montreal.
Syrian families with four or more children – which make up the majority of Syrian families that have come to Canada – can get about $50,000 a year in various taxpayer-funded social-service benefits.
In addition to receiving $7,000 to $11,000 a year per adult under provincial welfare programs, the Canada Child Benefit credit provides $6,400 for each child under six and $5,400 a year for each child between six and 17. The families are also eligible for GST and other tax rebates. (CTV/media reports)
