A prominent Canadian Muslim businessman has pledged to donate $20,000 to help house refugees camping in downtown Toronto for weeks.
Order of Canada recipient Mohamad Fakih said volunteers are already working to find a place for these refugees to live, promising to pay the bills.
“They don’t need a handout; they need a hand up. Those people are exactly like [me when] I came here and a lot of us came here, and we need to step up for them and show them that we can do better,” Paramount Fine Foods Founder Mohamad Fakih told Newstalk1010, CTV News reported.
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Fakih urged the government to move faster to provide help, encouraging other citizens to provide any help they can.
“It’s our job. It’s our Canadian dream for us to protect and to send the message that no that’s not the welcome we want to provide them,” he said.
Urgent Help
The initiative comes as more than 30 people have been sleeping outside of a shelter on Peter street for weeks ever since the city started referring refugees to federal programs in June.
“Every single minute, every single day comes to these people when they’re sitting in the street, and they’re not safe,” Fakih said.
Mohamad Fakih is a Canadian Muslim entrepreneur who started a popular restaurant chain and is known for his philanthropy.
The founder of the Middle Eastern restaurant chain, Paramount Fine Foods, conducts charitable work and community service through the Fakih Foundation.
This is not the first time for Fakih to shelter homeless or refugees.
During a stretch of -30 degree weather in December 2017, when Toronto’s housing shelters were at capacity, Fakih helped pay for dozens of hotel rooms for the homeless and years later, continues to financially support ongoing efforts to get families off the streets.