Hundreds protest against proposed tents in Kanata for asylum seekers

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Hundreds of residents gathered Saturday to protest the city’s proposal to place temporary housing for refugees in a Kanata park-and-ride.

Earlier this week, the city announced two locations to build tent-like structures to house asylum seekers and newcomers for 30 to 90 days.

The city originally had planned to put the structures in Barrhaven, but after community pushback, said one shelter would now be located near the Nepean Sportsplex and the other near the Eagleson Road Park and Ride in Kanata.

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Krista McIntyre may be relatively new to Kanata, but said she has seen a similar situation play out in London, Ont., which took in refugees after an influx overwhelmed Toronto’s homeless support system.

The sudden addition of newcomers overwhelmed London’s healthcare system, transit and schools, she said.

“A lot of the same concerns here today. No communication and the community hasn’t been notified of a plan,” she said. “From my experience, the concerns are very valid.”

Protesters held up signs saying “transparency not tents,” waved Canadian flags, and chanted “our community, or choice.”

McIntyre said she didn’t believe the protest came from an anti-refugee sentiment in the community but rather was an issue of “resources and transparency.”

A similar protest is planned near the Nepean Sportsplex for Sunday.

Knoxdale-Merivale Coun. Sean Devine says he’s received more than 100 emails from residents, and their concerns fall into one of four camps.

Some residents are looking for more information and are “confused and scared,” while others acknowledge the need for temporary housing for refugees, but don’t believe it should be in their community.

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Others welcome the measure, offering to get involved and help, while some “are quite anti-migrant in general,” he said in an interview Saturday.

“For anybody to assume there is one single consensus, that is naive,” he said. “For those who say, ‘I see a need to do that, but don’t do it here,’ I’d like to ask them, where do they think it should go?”

City council gave city staff the authority to identify sites for the short-term housing, something Mayor Mark Sutcliffe told reporters Friday was to depoliticize the decision.

“Because if we go to constituents and say ‘Hey, do you want a refugee camp?’ You know the response,” Devine said.

He added the tent-like structures being proposed are part of a larger initiative, funded by federal dollars, to address the growing migrant crisis felt by Ottawa and other major Canadian cities. It includes nonprofits being given money to provide more permanent housing solutions for refugees.

Devine noted two Ottawa community centres have been used to house asylum seekers and refugees for two years now.

All told, there are currently 330 beds at temporary emergency centres, as well as approximately 600 newcomers staying in homeless shelters, which represents about 60 per cent of shelter users, the city said.

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The Ottawa Mission has previously called on the federal government to boost aid for newcomers, as its downtown Ottawa shelter bursts at the seams in an attempt to keep a roof over everyone’s heads. Earlier this year, CEO Peter Tilley said people are sleeping in chairs or curled up on a mat in the corner of the waiting room.

“A plan being implemented,” Devine said. “Because if we do nothing, they’ll continue to overwhelm the Ottawa Mission.

“And the Mission won’t turn them away, nor should they.”

More to come.

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