Red Deer-Mountain View MP Earl Dreeshen says he is passionate about helping families.
That's why when he was reading about a Chinese dissident who was trying to immigrate to Canada during his election campaign in September, it became one of his priorities.
Cremona councillor Joseph Shi immigrated to Canada from China in 2000 after serving jail time for leading a counter-revolutionary group.
His younger brother Fukui Shi started to follow what he had started and the two of them collected evidence of poor governance and contacted several media outlets to spread the news.
They discovered that poor people in China were paying more in taxes than they could afford and the school system was flawed as well.
Their efforts sparked a joint government investigation, which resulted in changes to rural resident taxation and the school system.
But Fukui faced death threats after that and was attacked on more than one occasion. Joseph said he was even stabbed during one of the attacks.
Fukui has been trying to immigrate to Canada since 2007 and was able to escape the country and flee to Thailand in February last year with his wife Shoufang and their sons Chunlei and Hanlei.
They lived in a small apartment there for more than a year hoping to get immigration approval to come to Canada.
They finally landed safely on Canadian soil at the Calgary International Airport on April 5, where Joseph and other supporters awaited their arrival.
They are now settling into their new life in Cremona.
After an article was published in multiple Mountain View Publishing newspapers last fall, Dreeshen, who was running for MP at the time, approached Joseph and said he would help bring his brother to Canada if he was elected.
He was elected in October and kept his promise. Fukui was accepted only two months later.
“We started the file up just as soon as I was officially elected, because it was something that I had promised that we would move forward,” Dreeshen told the Gazette from the House of Commons in Ottawa last week.
“I also had a chance to let officials know here (in Ottawa) that it was important that we try to make sure that this moved forward as quickly as possible,” he said.
Complications arose during the process and the Shis were put in an immigration jail for protection purposes just one week before departing for Canada.
“It did take a little bit of time for us to be able to get some of the paperwork dealt with,” said Dreeshen.
“We kept hearing different issues. It looked as though things were going rather smoothly, and then it would seem like there were other concerns that they had, and there were some fears that it might take longer,” he said.
“It has been ongoing and I think that's why it was such great news to hear that it had finally taken place.”
He said it's always a nice opportunity to welcome new people into the riding and is looking forward to meeting the Shi family once he returns from Ottawa.
Joseph said although he is grateful for the Canadian government's part in getting Fukui to Canada safely, he believes the government is prioritizing Syrian refugees and he wants all refugees to be treated equally.
But Dreeshen said the government welcomes refugees from all over the world.
“Canada has always accepted refugees from throughout the world and we have done it not with a lot of fanfare. It is simply the right thing to do,” he said.
“We help in any way that we can. The Syrian refugee crisis of course became a political issue during the election and therefore it became something that everybody seemed to wish to have commentary on. However, there still are people that are coming in from other places in the world where there is serious concern, and I think it's best for us to simply realize that and to welcome them,” he said.
“These are families and they all have a story and they all should be welcomed.”
He said helping families has been a priority for him since he was first elected as an MP in 2008, shortly after Canadian journalist Amanda Lindhout was kidnapped in Somalia.
“That was the first thing that I did when I went to Ottawa. I was at the doorstep of foreign affairs as soon as I had my credentials to get myself through the door,” he said.
“It's a chance to help families. That's what's critical and here was another family in need and I just felt that we had experiences and the knowledge that was required to assist. That's the reason why it was so important to us.”
"We started the file up just as soon as I was officially elected, because it was something that I had promised that we would move forward."Earl Dreeshen,Red Deer-Mountain View MP
