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RCMP investigate serious stabbing
Forensic investigators were still going through a Nowell Street residence on Tuesday. ERIC WELSH/ THE PROGRESS
Marty van den Bosch, fills out some of the refugee sponsorship paperwork, with brother-in-law Jason Byers. JENNIFER FEINBERG/ PROGRESS
Syrian family could be arriving within weeks Jennifer Feinberg The Progress They’re listed as the ‘Group of Five Chilliwack’ in the paperwork. They will likely be among the first locally to welcome Syrian refugees as a family group. Chilliwack resident Marty van den Bosch, created his ‘group of five’ under the federal Blended Visa Office-Referred (BVOR) Program. The other members include his wife, Kristy Van Den Bosch, mother-in-law Patsy Byers, and brother-in-law and sister-inlaw Jason and Esther Byers of Agassiz. They’re expecting a prescreened family of four from Damascus to arrive in Chilliwack in about four to eight weeks from now. “The community of Chilliwack has been tremendous in their support,” he said about the furi-
ous networking, and offers of goods and services, found on the Facebook page Chilliwack Refugees Support, and from Chilliwack Community Services. Kristy van den Bosch said their group is excited to have been approved by the Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s Matching Centre, which matches refugees cleared for resettlement with sponsors. “I think it will be as rewarding for us, as it is for them,” she said. Marty van den Bosch said he decided to do something after getting into an ideological debate about the Syrian crisis. “What I noticed is that the antagonists tend to be quite vocal, but take little action.” He was already contributing financially, but felt it wasn’t quite enough. “I asked myself, what am I actually doing about this?” van den
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Bosch said. He started researching the options. “What I found was those who were in favour of helping the refugees were either doing nothing because they didn’t know what to do, or they felt intimidated because it seemed so monumental and overwhelming.” They decided to form a Group of Five and move forward. The other options are going through a ‘sponsorship agreement holder’ or an organization like Mennonite Central Committee, for example. “My goal in talking about this publicly is to move those who are paralyzed and doing nothing, into a group that takes action,” said van den Bosch. “This is not about us.” It’s more about the process. “I want people to know what the actual burden is to take a family out of hell and bring them here to start over.”
It’s easier than ever now in terms of the bureaucracy. Whereas under the Harper government the wait for a family to sponsor Syrian refugees could have taken several years, now in the wake of changes made to BVOR by the Trudeau government, the actual wait time has slashed a matter of months, once the paperwork is all approved. “The process is not nearly as overwhelming as people might think,” said van den Bosch. The figure of $27,000 for a family of four get bandied about, but he figures it will actually be less than that, and it works out to about $1400 per month to support the family. “You don’t need to have the cash up front necessarily, although it doesn’t hurt,” he said. One reason why it is doable is that Government of Canada will Continued: FIVE/ p5
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A 44-year-old Chilliwack man was rushed to hospital with lifethreatening stab wounds Sunday. RCMP were called to the 9300 block of Nowell Street at around 3 p.m. following reports from BC ambulance paramedics that a man had been stabbed. Police quickly cordoned off the area as officers from the Chilliwack Serious Crime Unit supported by the General Investigation Support Team and the Lower Mainland Forensic Investigation Section began the initial phases of their investigation into the incident. Police are seeking the public’s assistance in identifying a suspect “The investigation is in its early phases and officers are determining if the incident was targeted,” said Cpl. Mike Rail. Police are urging anyone with any information regarding this incident to contact Chilliwack RCMP at 604-792-4611 or, should you wish to remain anonymous, call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS).