Liane Boyer McLean wouldn't call herself "political" but when a call rang out across Canada to organize events around the Syrian refugee crisis, she realized her time to act on the issue had come.
McLean's daughter is four years old, the same age she was when her family took in two teenaged "boat people" from Laos.
They grew up with McLean and her two siblings under the same roof in a town of 1,200 people in the Ottawa Valley.
The opportunity allowed one of those refugees to go on to become a pharmacist and it changed McLean's perspective for life.
"People sometimes say negative things about refugees but I can't imagine anything better than giving these people help," she said.
"They're amazing people and they had an incredible impact on my life. We've done this before. We can do it again."
McLean is urging concerned citizens to gather under the Canadian flag at Hillcrest Park on Monday at 7 p.m. for a demonstration.
She hopes to find similarly-minded people who are willing to help make Thunder Bay home to those fleeing war zones halfway around the globe.
"The more people come out, the more we send the message to politicians and our entire community that this is something we care about," she said.
"It's not just Syrians. It's refugees in general. This should be a higher priority for our government."
On Thursday, the local organization D.O.O.R.S. to New Life Refugee Services announced Thunder Bay receives calls from refugees around the world looking for safe harbour every day.
Its administrative assistant Joanne Ruberto said all it takes is a group of five people to sponsor refugees.
She added, however, red tape held up an Iraqi family for four years before they were allowed to immigrate to Thunder Bay in 2014.
