Immigration Minister Jason Kenney: Syrian President Bashar Assad

Syrian President Bashar Assad: The announcement on Wednesday came a month after the Syrian Canadian community made a public appeal urging the federal government to establish a special program for displaced refugees caught up in the two-year-old civil war between Syrian President Bashar Assad and the opposition, according to The Star. Our focus . . . is finding a long-term political solution to the crisis there, Kenney told a news conference in Edmonton. Our country is making an important effort to ensure the most vulnerable Syrian refugees are provided protection and Ottawa will resettle 1,300 Syrian refugees to Canada from Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey over two years to address the deepening humanitarian crisis there, says Immigration Minister Jason Kenney. The latest United Nations data shows more than 4.25 million Syrians are internally displaced and more than 1.6 million have fled to neighbouring countries. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.