Yazidi refugees lack promised trauma care; documentary available for free from March 6 to 9 shows plight of women and girls in Canada
International Women’s Day plans for Powell River involves a documentary about Yazidi women and girls who were brought to Canada as refugees.
Completed in July 2020, the film created by Moira Simpson and Chris McDowell is called The Least We Can Do.
Peg Campbell, who met Simpson in the 1970s when they were part of a small community of women in film, is promoting the film screening locally.
“People often sit around and ask ‘what can we do?’” said Campbell. “It’s an empowering film for anyone who wants to make a difference. It shows how a small group of women can lobby for change.”
The documentary follows a small group of women in BC who are relieved when the Canadian government votes to bring Yazidi women and girls to Canada and provide them with comprehensive trauma care for their unimaginable suffering. At that time, the government promised the Yazidi refugee program would include social and psychological supports, such as trauma counselling, for the trauma the women and girls had suffered. By March 2018 it became obvious that promise had not been kept.
Featuring Yazidi survivor Adiba and Rev. Majed El Shafie, founder of One Free World International, senator Mobina Jaffer, and MP Jenny Kwan, the documentary action takes place in Vancouver and Ottawa. It is illuminated through text and photographs from the…
