In the last 18 months, Canada has resettled more than 40,000 Syrian refugees, says law professor Anneke Smit, but the job is not done.

“Sponsor groups are still waiting for the arrival of thousands of the refugees they applied to sponsor and vulnerable family members are still left behind,” she says. “Now is the time for important conversations about what we still need to do, and how we might do things differently next time.”

She will moderate a town hall discussion on the subject at 7 p.m. tonight — Tuesday, March 28 — at the Fogolar Furlan Club, 1800 North Service Road.

The event will be an opportunity to reflect on the following questions, among others:

• What are the effects of the federal government's processing backlog for private refugee applications?
• What does the cap on private sponsorship applications for Syrian and Iraqi refugees mean for our new Syrian refugee population in Windsor-Essex and reunification with their families?
• What is the future of private sponsorship in Canada?

Panelists will include: Lina Chaker of the Syrian Canadian Council, Windsor Law professors Vasanthi Venkatesh and Gemma Smyth, lawyer John Rokakis, representatives of private sponsor groups and Syrian refugees seeking to sponsor family members.

This event is free and open to the public; register online.