Once again this year, The Salvation Army’s Immigrant & Refugee Services will be joining with many other refugee-serving organizations to celebrate World Refugee Day.

On June 20th they will meet in Dundas Square, in the heart of downtown Toronto, to enjoy entertainment, hear guest speakers and help raise awareness of the amazing accomplishments of refugees in Canada.

Sponsored by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), World Refugee Day is an opportunity to increase the public’s awareness of refugees and the issues that affect them.

If you are in the Toronto area, come down and join the celebration. To find information about World Refugee Day celebrations in your area, click here.

What is Refugee Rights Day in Canada?
On April, 4, 1985, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects the rights of refugee claimants in Canada to life, liberty and security of the person. Claimants are therefore entitled to an oral hearing to make their case as a refugee in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice and international law. Read the full story

According to the United Nations, there are about nine millions refugees in the world. Only about a dozen countries offer permanent refugee re-settlement, and Canada is one of them. The Salvation Army is deeply involved in refugee issues, both overseas and in Canada.

Major Ruth Kimmins has national responsibility for immigrant and refugee issues at the Army’s national headquarters in Toronto, and she works on behalf of refugees waiting to come to Canada. Major Holly Patterson works with refugees living in the Greater Toronto Area.

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It was an evening like any other. The young man, still a teenager, went to a nearby village to visit a friend. Then everything in his world changed. Word came that soldiers entered his village, raped the young women, killed the older people and took livestock and money.

Thinking they could be next, Christopher and the villagers immediately fled and scattered into the bush. After some time without food, water or contact with others, he decided to try to return to his own village. Read the full story

They are doctors, university professors, engineers, students and teachers. Many of the hundreds who come to Canada as refugees are found employed in the service industry. They are safe and have a future.

June 20, 2006, is World Refugee Day and celebrations will be held all around the world to commemorate the courage and resilience of the millions who have traveled and who continue to travel the Refugee Highway. Read the full story