Dima Siam is a refugee from Syria to Canada who is of Palestinian descent and who lives with her Canadian husband and children in Ottawa.
She was on a deportation order to Syria because of a error in the processing of her permanent resident application. She lived in Ottawa for years with no status, and therefore no medical coverage or access to education, such as ESL classes, after she and her husband returned to Canada on the urging of the Canadian government as the conflict in Syria grew.
On March 8, 2016, a petition was launched by activist Matthew Behrens to demand that the Canadian government grant her permanent residency.
In May 2017, she was finally granted permanent residency.
We did it! After a very long campaign, we have secured permanent resident status for Dima Siam, who has lived over 30 months under a cruel and heartless Canadian deportation order to Syria based on a minor paperwork error.
Congratulations to Dima, Mohammad Al Rayyan, and your four children. Hundreds of other Syrian refugees remain under deportation order from Canada. We still have so much work to do.
Below is Dima's statement of thanks:
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