Laval man hopes Syrian parents' refugee bid will reunite family

A Laval man desperately trying to reunite his family, torn apart by the violence in Syria, is hoping a private, church-sponsored refugee claim may finally be enough to bring his elderly parents to Canada.

Bassam Katbe's parents fled Hasakah, in northeast Syria, for Saudi Arabia with only two suitcases in 2013 after the situation in their home country deteriorated and their Canadian immigration application was denied.

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They're now in Lebanon waiting as their children try and find a way to get them to safety.

"The only thing that's sustaining them in life is the hope that they're going to be able to see us, see the kids, their grandchildren," Katbe said.

Katbe and his siblings left Syria nearly two decades ago, but their parents stayed because they were settled there and, at the time, the situation was relatively stable.

However the intensifying conflict left them with little choice but to flee. In 2013, they had no electricity, no heat and no phone line. Katbe said five months passed when he had little contact with them.

He tried to get them into Canada on a visitor's visa, but was told they weren't accepting applications because of a backlog. In 2013, he tried to sponsor his parents' immigration, but that too failed.

Collective sponsorship

As of earlier this month, fewer than 2,500had been resettled in Canada since the government first began accepting refugees from Syria in 2013.

Earlier this month, Quebec ImmigrationMinister Kathleen Weil said the province will accept 3,650 Syrian refugees triple the number of the initial objective for 2015. The majority of those would be through collective sponsorship, rather than government-sponsored.

Katbeis now trying to secure sponsorship for his parents' refugee claim through theVirgin Mary Coptic Orthodox Church in Montreal. He filed that application at the beginning of September.

He said he's concerned that his parents' agethey're both in their 80scould be used as grounds to refuse their claim.

"We're trying to shelter them, tell them, 'It's a question of time, just survive it and you'll be here eventually,'" Katbe said.

Claims fast-tracked

Federal Immigration Minister Chris Alexander recently announced the government would fast track the process for Syrian refugees.

Alexander said the new measures mean the 10,000 Syrians the government previously promised to resettle in the next three years would instead be brought to Canada by September 2016.

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However, it's still unclear to Katbe how that could affect his parents' refugee claim. The provincial and federal immigration ministries could not be reached for comment on the weekend, though they rarely speak about individual cases.

Katbe said the family is trying to stay positive and reassure his mother and father that they will be reunited eventually.

"I promised her when she comes here, we'll go to Niagara Falls. She always had dreamt about going to Niagara Falls."