Newly allied Queen’s Law students and local lawyers are positioning themselves to assist private refugee sponsors in sponsorship application paperwork. On April 16, students and lawyers participated in the Refugee Sponsorship Training Program, locally supported by Cunningham, Swan, Carty, Little & Bonham LLP and the Frontenac Law Association in cooperation with the University of Ottawa Refugee Hub.

“The Kingston community has not only welcomed refugees with open arms but spent a great deal of their personal time and financial resources in this effort,” says Angela Fallow, Law’06, a lawyer with Cunningham Swan who is spearheading the initiative in Kingston. “In other Canadian cities, there has been an ‘echo effect’ of a second wave of privately sponsored refugees. Thanks to the Refugee Sponsorship Training Program, we have a team of lawyers and law students who are ready, able and willing to help when that happens.”

Participants will be working together as a part of the nation-wide initiative to facilitate the private sponsorship of refugees to Canada. This comes on the back of the largest global refugee crisis since the 1940s. Kingston is now home to the 11th chapter of the Refugee Sponsorship Support Program (RSSP), and is connected to a well-organized, country-wide network of lawyers and law students working on the same project in their own cities.

“The paperwork to process someone to come to Canada as a refugee is fairly extensive and daunting,” Fallow says. “Members of the RSSP are able to make that process easier for Kingstonians who are privately sponsoring refugees.”

Law students will be paired with lawyers, and together, each team will provide free services to intake and screen applicants and to review, edit and submit application files on behalf of sponsors and the refugees. Mistakes or technical errors can have serious consequences, such as applications being rejected or family members being left behind. “The Kingston legal community,” Fallow says, “is proud to join the other members of the community in continuing the work that has already begun in bringing refugees to Canada and into safety."

Angela Fallow was also interviewed about the Kingston chapter of the Refugee Sponsorship Training Program by the Kingston Whig-Standard and CKWS-TV.

Watch our video of Dean Bill Flanagan talking about the Refugee Sponsorship Support Program.