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Refugees welcomed in Windsor · Kvetch & Release

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  Hey, folks, good morning. If you're just tuning in, John Lydkey
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  here filling in for Dan McDonald. It's ten thirty three. I've got a
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  rule of thumb about when Windsor makes national news or international news. I always
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  sort of just hold my breath and cringe because there have been a number of
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  stories over the past number of years where we haven't been presented in the best
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  of light. This is not one of those conversations that we're having. I'm
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  so heartened when I to have come across this article yesterday in the Globe and
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  Mail. They're continuing their focus on Windsor with a piece that was put out
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  by their Demographics reporter titled as immigration debate heats up, Windsor's refugees find warm
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  welcome. Now we know that in the city we have a number of refugees
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  right now who are staying here asylum seekers, more than eight hundred at a
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  couple of hotels. That number will be shrinking. This story featured some incredible
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  stories of people fleeing violence and now making it here, being able to find
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  a job, enroll in college, supporting their families, finding a better life,
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  making it to you know, the promised Land, if you will joining
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  me right now to discuss this is someone who knows this file very well.
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  The executive director of the Multicultural Council of Windsor, Essex, but also Ward
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  One City Councilor, Fred Francis, is joining me in studio just after their
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  big MCC gala which was held last night. Fred, it must have been
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  pretty great for you to have this story drop and then go to a gallo
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  with hundreds of people. Yeah, we had about six hundred and fifty people
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  there. Thank you, John. Good morning everyone, and great timing.
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  You know, I did this interview with Ann Hoy and I hope I'm pronouncing
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  the reporter's name correctly. There several weeks ago, and I don't know when
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  it was going to be published. No one was going to be published,
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  and it just so happened to be published on the same day as the MCC
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  Awards gala, where we, you know, celebrated members of our community Jim
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  Kriche endors Lapico and an Inspire Award winner, the Kathleen Thomas Inspired Award winner
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  to Janna Pempkina, who's a refugee from Ukraine. And you know, it's
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  all about the stories and those stories last night mirrored the stories in the article.
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  And you know, Tatiana's especially, you know, fleeing you know,
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  war in Ukraine to come here and her husband's still there, but she's here
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  with her son, and she's seeing her son doing so well and he's happy
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  and he's safe in Windsor and in Canada. She was so thankful and she
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  was so appreciative. She felt I think she was a little bit of embarrass
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  because we're saying you're inspiring us. But she literally told the crowd of about
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  six hundred and fifty people, you inspire me, Canada's inspired me, and
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  you know, I'm very, very thankful. And at the MCC we heard
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  stories about that every single day, similar to the stories that you see in
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  the Globe article. You know, this article talks about when the first bus
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  load of asylum seekers arrived. School boards had already set up tables inside hotels
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  to register children. Translators and settlement workers had already identified themselves wearing bright blue
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  shirts so people could find out who they were. School officials were there to
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  help. I mean, it's really a story about how this community didn't reluctantly
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  accept these asylum speakers in our community, but rather stepped up and celebrated the
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  fact that they've made it here. Yeah, it was a complete team effort.
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  I mean we have about, you know, seven or so newcomer settlement
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  agencies, not just the MCC, but you have the y MCA, you
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  have West five W's on New canean center of excellence. You know, off
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  the top of my head, I don't want to forget any of the Francophone
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  agencies as well. And you know, we all you know, work well
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  with the City of Windsor, we all work with our funder I r c
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  C at the federal level and even our provincial partners as well. So it
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  was all hints on decks. We had the resources we needed. You know,
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  there's certainly there was a challenge, there was a gap, but we
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  all got together. Well, we all said, okay, what can we
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  do, what can we marshal, what resources can we share to get this
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  done together. That's when you break down the silos. You know, it
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  doesn't at the end of the day, when you're dealing with a situation like
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  this, it doesn't really matter what the name of the building says. We're
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  all doing the same job. We're all doing the same work and we're all
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  trying to achieve the same objective. So once you're able to do that,
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  you're marshaling so many more resources to help people. And again I said this
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  at the awards gala last night, is you know so lucky to have so
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  many settlement workers and workers and Windsor not only at the MCC but the other
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  agencies as well, that they wake up every morning and believe me, they're
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  not coming to the office for the money. You know, this is a
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  nonprofit sector. It's not essentially the best paid sector in the war in the
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  country. But their main objective is to wake up every morning and go to
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  work to help people. That's it. They want to help other people.
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  And the other people we help are oftentimes people fleeing war, famine, persecution,
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  disease. You know, for the most part, these are people that
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  are coming here from really, really horrible situations and they're coming to Canada.
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  They're coming to Windsor and they're saying, this is where I'm going to build
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  my new life. And that one gentleman in the article who it was funny
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  though, because I read it and he said, you know, I knew
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  I was coming to Canada. So I did my homework on Canada, so
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  I read about the Prairies Saskatchewan, and I read about the Prairies, and
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  I knew about Niagara Falls, the wedding capital of the world. Right,
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  And he's like, and I ended up in Windsor, and no one told
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  me about Windsor. That wasn't on the list of my study, right,
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  because I didn't know Windsor existed, And none of the people told me that
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  this was a possibility for me. But now he's here, and he's like,
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  I love the city. It's great, it's fantastic. And I think
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  he's volunteering with Habitat for Humanity because he wants to give back to his new
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  community. And he's like, you know, I want to get a job,
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  I want to make myself better and I want to contribute. And you
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  know, having worked at the MCC for several years, meeting thousands and thousands
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  of people from all different walks of life, all different countries, all different
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  religions, languages, everything, experiences, the three things that transcend all of
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  that, people come here. What I've seen through my experience talking about years
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  of at the MCC, people come here because they want to live in peace,
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  They want to build a better future for their children, and they want
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  to make a positive contribution to this community. That those are the three things
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  that transcend everything else, and in my opinion, when we're talking about immigration,
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  that's what we should focus on. So many Windsor Rights have the same
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  feeling of a story with myself. My great grandfather escaped programs in Russia back
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  in like nineteen seventeen, somehow made it across Europe onto a boat across the
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  ocean, ended up in Saskatchewan, metal woman, and ended up in Windsor,
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  opened up a grocery store, and one hundred and ten years later,
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  here we are. Now. So many people have these stories about fleeing.
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  As you said, whatever it may be, persecution, famine, or whatever,
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  this is Windsor's story. This is who we are. We've always been
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  like this for the people, the naysayers and the commentators who go, we
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  can't do this, we don't have the capacity. It's way too much.
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  This is what Windsor has been decade after decade after decade, going back to
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  our founding, Yeah, we certainly punch above our weight, regardless of what
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  it is. Right, Windsor is a very generous community made up of very
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  generous people. We see that in times of national crisis or natural disasters,
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  Windsorights step up and they help other people. They help their neighbors, and
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  they help you know, you know, you know, during nine to eleven
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  we help, you know, clear the skies in the US, you know,
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  during natural disasters. Everywhere else we help out, you know, even
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  locally when there's a you know, the food drive or some kind of charitable
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  drive, you see all record numbers raised, record people come out to help.
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  That's who we are. Windsor Ights are very generous. Windsor's a very
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  generous community. And the fact that we have the Globe and Mail telling our
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  story on a national level saying how great we are in comparison to cities like
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  Toronto and Montreal, that made me proud. That made me a proud and
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  I think Winsoright should be very proud of that, because honestly, I don't
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  think we should take a second seat to anyone in this country, and I
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  don't think Windsor should take a second seat to any city in this country because
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  we are a great city. We definitely are. Now like things are a
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  bit more tough today than they've been traditionally, our housing prices are much more,
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  our rent prices are as well. Food is up. One of the
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  things that Windsor has always been championed of is our affordability. Now that affordability
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  is stretching out, is that making it more difficult for these newcomers to be
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  able to, you know, settle easier fully on their own or absolutely there
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  are challenges. I don't want to I don't want to lead anyone to believe
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  there aren't any challenges. And and certainly there are capacity limits. There's certain
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  thresholds that we can we cannot meet, right but we're just not there yet,
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  right So it's a it's a testament to our community to say, okay,
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  we could do more, we could help more, but obviously there are
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  challenges and we have to make do with that. And some of them are
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  affordability, some of them are housing. But you know, again, instead
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  of just you know, shutting the door and saying no, we can't do
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  anything, go to a different city or this is a negative light, you
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  know, we do what we can. And you know, the Windsor I
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  was raised in the Windsor that my parents came here from Lebanon, as immigrants
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  in the seventies. That's the city I've always known is we do what we
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  can. We don't go to know right away. We'll say, Okay,
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  this is gonna be tough, this is gonna be challenging. Let us roll
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  up our sleeves and we'll do what we can, and we'll let you know
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  when we can't do anymore. But we're gonna try. And I think that's
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  a testament to the work ethic of this community. You know, we're made
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  of tough stock, and people that are made up of tough stock they go
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  to work, you know, they go to work every single day, and
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  when they're faced with the challenge, they roll up their sleeves and say,
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  Okay, let's try to solve their challenge. They don't just give up and
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  walk away. Windsor is tough. We've always been tough, and that's a
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  good thing. It doesn't mean that we're not soft and warm and welcoming people.
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  But we've had our challenges before. We'll have challenges it again, they're
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  nothing that we can't get through. And I just I love this line here
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  from the one asylum seeker who you are referencing, mister Uvald who said,
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  you know, look, I'm spending my mornings doing volunteer work, as you
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  said. In the afternoon and evening, he's learning English because he wants to
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  become a full productive member of Canada. And he goes on to say,
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  I can't sit here like this with the government giving me money and giving me
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  food. I don't like this. I need to work. I am strong
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  as long as I'm getting money, can feed my family, can live my
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  own life. I can do anything. And that's the kicker there for the
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  article as well, the last line. And I think that's such a such
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  a good point because windsor Rights are hard workers, and this gentleman seems like
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  he's going to be an excellent Windsor Right. Yeah, if not already is
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  absolutely he's been here for a short time and he's already nailed the essence of
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  what it is to be a Windsor Right Right. I can do it.
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  I can work hard. I want to provide for my family. I want
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  to provide for my community and help out. That literally is the Windsor way.
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  Well, we're gonna leave it right there. I like leaving things on
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  high notes. This was like, it's nice to be positive, it's so
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  lovely. It's just in a news environment, it's okay to be positive and
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  feel good. It's it's okay, absolutely, and I'm glad that I got
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  to, you know, do that with you as well, because sometimes we
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  often but heads. I'm always positive, John, I don't know about you,
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  and well, I guess maybe I'm the I'm the negative cynic. I'm
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  so glad that the gallo went well. Thank you, Mary, thanks for
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  joining me in studio time pleasure. Fred Francis is the Ward one City Councilor
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  and the Executive Director of the Multicultural Council of Windsor and Essex.