Refugees Citizenship Canada Manicom and David Manicom

Tunis: Tunis disputed reports that single men would be excluded, citing a technical briefing from David Manicom, the assistant deputy minister with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, according to Hamilton Spectator. Manicom, she said, directed that families, women, children and sexual minorities at risk take precedence. "Those are where priorities are but we haven't said that we're not taking any single men, it just that those other cases are going to the top of the list," Tunis told The Canadian Press in an interview. "Single males will be coming as part of this population." Tunis, a longtime employee with the federal government, came out of retirement to become the government special co-ordinator on Syrian refugees. Related Stories Ottawa gives UN $100 million for... Doctors gearing up to provide... Prejudice against refugees can... Hamilton groups preparing to... Some premiers raise refugee funding... Instead, the government has made its priority helping the most vulnerable Syrians and its primary aim is to help complete families make the move, Deborah Tunis said. It was an opportunity to participate in an important national project, make a contribution, and make a difference in people lives, Tunis said. "Our assistant deputy ministers this week said this is the most exciting, exhilarating thing they've worked on," she said. "For many people in the department, they've been wanting to work on this kind of a project for a long, long time — it why people come to work." Indeed, that kind of excitement was evident as Tunis and hundreds of other people devoted to helping refugees gathered for the start of a national three-day conference. The logistics, however, of welcoming them is a daunting challenge — even for organizations that have spent years helping refugees. In the following days and weeks, the first wave of 10,000 Syrian refugees will begin arriving in Canada — the government has said by the end of the year — dominating discussions at the fall consultation of the Canadian Council for Refugees. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.