On a podium, a message reads: “What if this family sought refuge in our country today?”

"We want to help people feel the joy of Christmas," Sabine Bou Serhal, 22, a chief for the group, told Catholic News Service.

Our civic duty requires us to rise above partisan and sectional interests and to act to preserve the constitutional order.

The story sparked outrage in some Canadian Catholic circles.

In recent weeks, the Chinese government has intensified rhetoric against Christian churches in Hong Kong, portraying them as part of the “foreign hostile forces” that seek to create political unrest aimed at bringing down China’s one-party rule.

The opposition Labour Party suffered its worst defeat since 1935.