Date Posted: December 07, 2020

Wishing you and your family a Blessed Advent.

Persecution of Christians

Date Posted: December 02, 2020

Each year, Aid to the Church in Need organizes an event, known as "Red Wednesday" in many dioceses across Canada.  This year's event took place on November 18, 2020.  The event is intended to provide an occasion to join together to pray for and make known the tremendous persecution faced by hundreds of millions of Christians in many parts of the world.  Sadly western media outlets have little to say about the suffering faced by so many.  Please click on the attached link to read a recent article by Susan Korah that was published in Convivium:

https://www.convivium.ca/articles/religious-persecutions-red-letter-day/

Refugee endowment keeps on giving!

Date Posted: October 29, 2020

Please click on the following link to learn more about how endowments can assist the church's work in assisting refugees.

https://www.catholicregister.org/features/estate-planning/item/32290-refugee-endowment-keeps-on-giving?mc_cid=94bf7697a2&mc_eid=f3f5726612

ORAT's General Public Registration is now CLOSED

Date Posted: October 2, 2020

Please note that registration for members of the general public that took place from September 28-30, 2020, is now closed.  We received an overwhelming response to the registration, the intent of which was to assist members of the general public who desired to sponsor family members who are in need of refugee resettlement.  In total, we received 12,226 registrations.  Of these, only 2,798 were valid registrations.  Many of the invalid registrations were completed by the refugees themselves, or by cosponsors who did not reside within the Greater Toronto Area.

Of the 2,798 registration, the majority of these were to sponsor Syrians (52.5%) or Eritreans (38.1%).  The following table reports by Country of Origin/Citizenship, the number of cases that were registered, and the number of refugees that the registered cases represented.

Given the limited number of refugees that sponsoring organizations like ORAT are able to sponsor, we are unable to assist many of those who registered.  To manage this and to be as fair as possible, a random draw will be held in mid October.  All registrants will have an equal chance of being selected.  

In the subsequent weeks following the draw, selected registrants will be invited by email to attend an on-line "Introduction to Resettlement" information session.  If we find out in 2021 that we are able to submit additional refugee sponsorship cases to Immigration Canada, then we will go down the draw order and select the next batch of registrants to begin work on their cases.  Please do NOT email application paperwork to the office, unless invited to do so by ORAT staff. 

If you were not contacted by our office, we encourage you to explore other immigration options that may be available, and/or reach out to other Sponsorship Agreement Holders in your community to see if they are able to assist you.