It’s 5:30 a.m. at Dominion Church International, and volunteers have arrived to awaken the guests. Seventy-nine people slept here tonight: 37 men and 42 women. They’re asylum seekers that came from all across Africa, and they are waiting for the Canadian government to process their claims for refugee status.
“We learned that it is possible for the government to watch these people freeze outside,” said Dominion Pastor Eddie Jjumba. “That is how it became our problem — not because we had the resources to do it. No, far from it.”
This Pentecostal church on the outskirts of Toronto exhausted its savings by hosting the asylum seekers since June. This church is not the only one shouldering the burden. Several churches across the Greater Toronto Area and one mosque have opened their doors to about 1,370 asylum claimants, according to a letter signed by 175 GTA faith leaders.
Pastors say they expected to provide a stop-gap to a problem the government would eventually solve. But nearly six months later, people are still sleeping between the pews.
“Our faith communities continue to decline and have less resources. If the city and government aren’t going to take care of vulnerable people, who is, if we can’t?” said Reverend Bri-anne Swan, a pastor at East End United that hosts 30 asylum seekers.
Canada’s asylum system enables people who claim a well-founded fear of persecution, torture or death to live in Canada while they wait for their claim to refugee status to be decided. If a claim is rejected, asylum claimants are expected to leave Canada or they will be removed, the government’s website says.
Crisis mode
At 6:05 a.m. the lights are turned on at Dominion. Some get up right away to begin packing and moving their mattresses and belongings to a nearby room. The guests are making room for Dominion’s Sunday service. They will be allowed back into the room at 4 p.m.
Dominion used to host services on Wednesdays and Fridays, but they no longer do so to avoid inflicting such frequent disruptions on their guests.
“I was aggrieved when one of the church members lost her dad, and she told me the reason she didn’t request to have a funeral service is because of the disruption it would cause,” Jjumba said. “This is the sacrifice the church members are making.”
The church’s guests have arrived from countries such as Uganda, Nigeria and Kenya, Jjumba says. Unlike previous asylum seekers from Ukraine, Syria or Afghanistan, these people are not fleeing distinct conflicts.
Jjumba says there are limits on his ability to offer comfort. “We don’t have the luxury of getting into the details of why these people are running away. As a pastor, sometimes you wish you can sit with people and provide them with spiritual or psychological support. But we are in crisis mode every day.”
John Arthur Kamale arrived in Canada from Uganda in June and has been staying at Dominion for most of that time. He says he was in danger back home and had no choice but to flee. But he doesn’t want to elaborate.
“Life at first was good in Uganda. I used to move around freely, until, at a certain level, I didn’t feel free [to do so]. I wouldn’t like to discuss this. I spent a lot of time trying to solve the issue, but I failed,” he said.
“Back home I was a journalist just like yourself. I hope, even here, that I can get a job. I do not mind if it’s a writing job or an editing job. I can do it all.”
Erenyananyo Amakiri arrived in Canada from Nigeria a mere two weeks ago.
“Back in Nigeria, I worked as a spy policeman. I love fairness, equity and justice. While I was in the police, I stepped on toes because of my kind of mindset, and people came after me,” he said.
He recently met with a lawyer that took down his story. Amakiri says he hopes this lawyer files his asylum paperwork soon, but doesn’t have a timeline. The federal and provincial governments share responsibility for providing legal aid to disadvantaged people, including asylum seekers, through the Legal Aid Program.
“I like Canada because you are free-minded. You are hospitable. You are caring. I don’t see segregation here to mingle between black and white. So I just love Canada,” Amakiri said.
Amakiri has a masters degree in finance, but he isn’t confident that will help him get ahead in Canada’s job market.
“People who come here must know that [officials] might not accept the certificate.”
Christopher Dirisu is another recent arrival from Nigeria. He fled to avoid persecution for his sexuality.
“Someone was chasing me… to kill me. I was dating my friend. [Someone] caught us. [My friend] was having problems in his marriage, and his wife reported him to the police. My wife then told me to escape, to run away before they arrested me,” he said.
“This is not accepted in Nigeria, but in Canada, everything is free.”
Unsustainable system
On November 2, 175 faith leaders in the GTA and surrounding regions penned a letter urgently requesting a meeting with Chrystia Freeland, deputy prime minister and minister of finance, and Marc Miller, federal minister of immigration, refugees and citizenship.
The City of Toronto has admitted thousands of refugees into its overflowing shelter system and provided thousands more in humanitarian aid, they write. But the federal government has abdicated its responsibility.
“The current system is unsustainable, and the City of Toronto has repeatedly communicated to us that it lacks the resources to adequately respond to this humanitarian and immigration crisis.”
The letter asked the government to open Toronto’s armouries as places of shelter and to increase the number of spaces in hotels and other shelter programs.
The group also asked for a reception centre near the Toronto airport for newly arrived asylum seekers, similar to what was provided for the refugees fleeing war in Ukraine. Last week, the government gave $7 million to Peel Region for such a centre, after Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown spoke out about a Nigerian man who died of carbon monoxide poisoning in a tent.
Brown said Peel Region’s shelter capacity was at 321 per cent; they have space for 500 people, and are currently sheltering more than 1,500.
“Disappointingly, we have received no response or support for this urgent priority,” Brown told reporters. “Hundreds more will die when the winter weather arrives, and no action is being taken.”
On November 22, Miller offered Toronto $5 million to shelter asylum seekers in a building at Exhibition Place. But Mayor Olivia Chow has not yet accepted the offer, saying the amount was merely a “drop in the bucket” of what is needed. She is requesting “100 plus million.”
“The offer [of $5 million] remains on the table,” a spokesperson for the department of immigration told Canadian Affairs in an email.
The federal government has provided some relief, Jjumba acknowledges. The department occasionally relocates some of the guests at Dominion church to other locations in southern Ontario such as Cornwall and Niagara, where the government has rented hotel rooms for them, he says.
As of November 20, the department has more than 3,700 hotel rooms in six provinces providing temporary housing to asylum seekers, the department said in the email.
These relocations are welcome help, but it’s still a band aid solution, Jjumba says.
“The government continues to look on as these people are humiliated,” he said. “If there were 100 little puppies stuck outside of that shelter, I don’t think they would spend a night there before someone comes to take them.”
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