COVID-19 pandemic, it still felt like freedom. Deaths rise along with vaccine hopes as Canada faces grim coronavirus winter “It felt like I was in a movie,” he said via an interpreter in an interview with The Canadian Press from his home in Waterloo, Ont.For Mansour and thousands of refugees set to start new lives in Canada this year — and for the community groups providing them financial and social support — the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic may reverberate for years.Mansour, 31, fled Syria in 2017 to escape military service.
Through a connection, he became acquainted with Aleya Hassan’s family in Canada.Hassan arrived in 2011 as part of the skilled-worker program, and three years later became involved in sponsoring refugees.