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The tragic death of three-year-old refugee Alan Kurdi and his family has thrown a sharp spotlight on the Syrian crisis and Canada’s response to it. Here’s what you need to know:

What happened to Alan and his family?

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Alan, his five-year-old brother and his parents were among the 1.9 million Syrian refugees currently in Turkey. Speaking in B.C. on Thursday, Alan’s aunt, Tima Kurdi, said she had applied as a private sponsor to bring one part of the family – currently living in Germany – to Canada, and was planning to bring Alan, his brother and his parents afterward. In the end, Alan’s parents paid smugglers $5,000 to take them and their sons by raft from Turkey to Greece. The boat capsized in the Mediterranean, and Alan, his brother and mother drowned. His father survived.

What did the government say in response?

Speaking on the election campaign trail Thursday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the tragedy was heartbreaking, blaming the refugee crisis on Islamic State (ISIL) militants. Harper reiterated his pledge to accept an additional 10,000 Syrian refugees over three years if re-elected in October, which is in addition to the 11,300 the government has already promised to resettle. But he maintained that helping refugees alone won’t solve the refugee crisis, which is why Canada is fighting ISIL in Iraq and Syria.