Hamza Ali and Federal Politicians

Canadian cabinet ministers: By Stephanie Levitz The Canadian Press Mon., June 20, 2016 OTTAWA—Federal politicians meet a lot of people, but Syrian children don't meet a lot of federal politicians — let alone the same one twice, in two different countries, each a world apart from the other, according to Toronto Star. Hamza Ali, 13, remembers clearly the day last November when a trio of Canadian cabinet ministers trooped into an ad-hoc art gallery set up in the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan. Hamza did the painting after he met McCallum at a refugee camp in Jordan last year. Ali, one of the artists, shook the ministers' hands and explained the concept behind his gripping paintings of women and men struggling with life and the war in Syria. Women do all the heavy lifting, McCallum remarked. Immigration Minister John McCallum told Ali he was struck by the symbolism of a painting showing a woman carrying a map of Syria on her back up a flight of stairs, a heavy red sky in the background. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.