Isn't it Ironic...

Listening to CBC this morning I was struck by what I see as an incredible irony.

A story about Toronto-based Dewson Street Junior Public School trying to raise $30,000 in 30 days to sponsor and resettle a displaced Syrian family was followed by a citation from The Daily Bread Food Bank Annual Report.

According to the report, food bank use is up 45% in Toronto suburbs and the length of time families are dependent on the food banks has increased from 12 months to 2 years.

So what is it, I wonder that spurs some people to action? Why is it that there are desperate families within the cradle of Toronto who are being passed over in favor of supporting refugees half a world away?

One could argue that annual Easter and Thanksgiving food drives have desensitized us to the needs of those around us, or that we are disillusioned into thinking that sending our kids to school with packages of pasta and jars of peanut butter tucked into their backpacks is making a bigger difference than it is. Or perhaps we believe that being poor and desperate in Toronto is nothing compared to the blatant and very real images of despair we see being prostituted by our media outlets and talked about by our politicians.  Some of the same polititions, I might add, who have a far greater ability to impact a larger number of lives than the population of Dewson Junior Public School.

One could argue that visibility breeds compassion, that the refugees are the current “hot topic.” That they occupy the nation's eye and therefore demand attention. While I agree that despair is always worthy, I wonder at the logic of bringing even one family to Toronto, a city in which, also according to CBC, the poor are being priced out of the housing market; also in which a refugee family is bound to be relegated to rely upon those same overtaxed food banks once the nation's eye falls upon a new "hot topic".

I am all for eradicating desperation from all the small and large hollows in which it lives and also all for activating compassion and global citizenship in our young. What I question is this...how visible will a new Syrian refugee family be, in the very suburb which is diligently working to sponsor it, once is has been here for a hot minute. When the citizens are finished patting themselves and each other on the back. When the family has become just like every other impoverished family in the GTA, where will the community's attention turn and how does this benefit anyone?

There are already people in Toronto living in despair, people without jobs and without adequate housing, clothing or food. Individuals sleeping on the streets and families working daily yet finding themselves falling behind the rate of inflation.

With winter looming, we will again hear stories of people who can't afford to heat their homes, others freezing to death on Toronto streets and also of Toronto shelters struggling under the weight of demand from the community they are attempting to service.

It's interesting to me the value we give to some lives over others. The value we see in possibly creating a newly desperate situation for Syrians by transplanting them into a City which may or may not have the ability to support it emotionally, financially and socially on a long term basis, while we ignore those among us who are equally desperate and equally deserving.

As I sit in my decidedly comfortable yet far from decadent kitchen, I sip my tea and ask the empty room, "Isn't it ironic?"