Airport terminals bring forth a range of emotions, from impatience and frustration to anxiety and anticipation. And then there’s the joy of being reunited with loved ones.
For Peterborough resident Rashid Sheikh Hassan, it was all joy on Friday (April 24) at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport as he hugged and kissed his Syrian family after being separated from them for 12 long years.
Rashid’s parents and his brother and two sisters arrived in Canada via a flight from Turkey, long delayed from an originally scheduled arrival date of March 17 due to the war in Iran.
What mattered to Rashid, above all else, was his family was finally safe, now far removed from the war-ravaged Middle East that Rashid, then an 18-year-old Syrian refugee, fled close to four years ago for a better life here in Peterborough.
“The first thing I did was hug my mom and my dad, and smell them, and kiss them on the head,” recounts Rashid of the unabashed joy that inevitably results when one reconnects with family after so many years of being apart — including the first eight years when he didn’t even know if his family was still alive.
“Just to hear ‘I love you’ from them, and to say ‘I love you’ to them, that was all I’ve hoped for. I hugged them the whole time and cried. It was a good moment for me.”
Shaped by war and separation as a youth
Close by, as he has been since Rashid’s arrival at the same airport on June 23, 2022, was Peterborough resident Dave McNab who, with his wife Kristy Hiltz and others, sponsored Rashid’s emigration to Canada and, specifically, to Peterborough.
“It’s been an absolute roller-coaster ride,” says McNab of the long and challenging journey that saw Rashid brought to Peterborough and acclimatized to his new home and now, with his family, safe and far removed from the violence and strife that has devastated his homeland.
“We saw the trauma. We saw the grief when we were all convinced that they (Rashid’s family) were no longer alive. We mourned along with Rashid. It was heartbreaking to see.”
“But then to discover in February 2023 that they were alive, the joy we felt was like nothing I can remember, aside from seeing my own kids born.”
It was after that discovery that Rashid, with the help of his original sponsors and other Peterborough residents, worked to sponsor his family to come to Canada, which included raising $45,000 to cover the travel costs and the costs of family support for one year.
“Watching the stages to get them (Rashid’s family) here unfold so slowly, we’ve shared Rashid’s frustration, and the anxiety and worry that it might not happen. Then we shared that joy again when each stage was achieved. Then to get the flights confirmed — that was the best day in last few years for everybody.”
The journey that McNab references started long before Rashid’s arrival in Canada almost four years ago.
In 2014, when Rashid was only 11 years old, his family home in Syria was bombed. Along with his parents and three younger siblings, Rashid made it out of the house safely but subsequently became separated from his family in the chaos that followed. He travelled 100 kilometres across a war zone to find his grandparents, hoping the rest of his family would follow. They never did.
Five years later, at the age of 16, Rashid fled Syria to Turkey out of fear for his life, leaving behind his grandparents and the hope of ever finding his family, as he would have no way to communicate with them after he left.
It took him a week to successfully enter Turkey, but he could not receive refugee status because it was no longer being granted. He lived in Turkey for almost two years, supporting himself with meagre wages in a country where he was not entitled to education or health care.
As a Kurd with no legal status in Turkey, Rashid was at constant threat of being captured and deported back to Syria.
From a chance online connection to a new life in Canada
Hoping to come to Canada, Rashid went on Facebook and searched for a Canadian Facebook group. He found one and posted a desperate plea for guidance on how he could come to Canada to start a new and safer life. However, with little knowledge of English, he had inadvertently posted his request in a group intended for people posting photos of birds, where his post was met with hostile, anti-immigrant, and racist comments.
Matt Park, one of the members of that Facebook group, defended Rashid and brought his post to the attention of McNab, a retired Peterborough County OPP officer, who began communicating directly with Rashid online. Over several months, McNab helped Rashid improve his English and, along with Hiltz, Park, and Michael VanDenHerberg, raised funds to sponsor Rashid to come to Canada.
From day one after his arrival in Canada on June 23, 2022, Rashid’s overriding concern was for his family, who he feared were dead. When Rashid launched a campaign to raise funds for the Canadian International Medical Relief Organization (CIMRO) after the devastating earthquakes in February 2023 in Turkey and northern Syria, Hastings resident and former Peterborough paramedic Mark Cameron, who is the president of CIMRO, was able to connect with two people working in the village where Rashid’s grandparents live.
During a brief call with his grandmother, Rashid was told his parents and his two sisters and brother were indeed alive. Shortly after receiving that good news, Rashid saw and spoke to his family for the first time in eight years via a video call.
That set the wheels in motion to reunite Rashid with his family.
His original sponsors formed a group called Azadi Peterborough (azadi is the Kurdish word for “freedom”), with additional members including Blue Beret and veteran Lee-Anne Quinn, Clayton Ibey and Brenda Wierdsma-Ibey (owner of The Avant-Garden Shop), retired paramedic Jim Vinn, Lainey Bates (one of Rashid’s high school teachers), pottery instructor Karina Bates, grocer Paul Halasz, and Trent University graduate student Simal Iftikhar. The group was supported by the Unitarian Fellowship of Peterborough.
While that effort was underway, Rashid spoke to his family with increasing frequency. And all the time, he fretted and worried for their safety — something that ramped up even further this year with the war against Iran launched by the United States and Israel and its adverse effects on neighbouring countries.
During those conversations, Rashid has brought them up to speed on life in Canada, and particularly in Peterborough.
“I told them everything, but there is some private life I wouldn’t share with them,” says Rashid, adding “I tell them about the rules, the life and everything here. They were excited more than anything else to come. They just wanted to see me.”
Building a new life for his Syrian family with the support of his Canadian family
Far from being lost on Rashid is the love and unconditional support shown him daily by “my second family … my Canadian family.”
“I love Mr. David and Mrs. Kristy as a mom and as a dad. I respect them and will do anything for them, 100 per cent. The only thing that makes a difference is the language and culture, but we are family.”
When Rashid arrived in Canada, McNab says he was “very conscious of the fact that I could never replace his father.”
“As much as I tried to fill in some gaps, I knew that it just isn’t the same — we don’t have the childhood memories and the things you share with your parents — but it has been wonderful to get to know Rashid.”
“I’ve said to people ‘He’s like a son to me.’ He’s a close as you can get to someone you raised from a child. We love him like he is one of ours. To hear that from Rashid (that he considers us his second family) is heartwarming.”
Now that his parents and siblings — twins (a boy and a girl) aged 17 and a 21-year-old sister — have arrived in Canada to begin their own journey of adapting to a new home and life, Rashid is now the teacher rather than the student.
“I’m 100 per cent ready for any challenges,” Rashid vows. “I’m willing to teach my family about the culture, society, and everything.”
“When I got here, I was really curious. I wanted to be part of this community. I wanted to learn the language and join the society. I’m still learning English. I’m still chasing my dreams and the challenges. I still have to learn a lot.”
Now working as a tailor at a Peterborough business, Rashid has put his post-secondary education on hold but does plan to resume his studies at some point.
“Rashid has had a year of (post-secondary) schooling,” says McNab. “The door is open if wants to go back and finish. He has been balancing work and family stuff. I hope maybe his father and I can push him to go back. We’ll team up on him.”
‘Rashid has never relied on government support of any kind. The goal is his family will never need that either.’
Bringing Rashid’s family to Canada came with expenses, notes McNab.
“The day that Rashid first made contact with his parents, he said he wanted to sponsor them. Rashid worked and lived very modestly, and was able to save $10,000. He was banking that money for his education but when he said ‘I want to sponsor my family,’ he put his money toward the $45,000 needed.”
As for the family’s Peterborough accommodations, McNab says there is a house available for the short term but if something happens that makes that unavailable, “they can stay at our house.”
“Then there are all the things a Canadian needs: a health card, a social insurance number, a driver’s licence. Rashid is going to be the leader on all that. The sponsorship of Rashid and his family has been a community effort. The number of people involved is literally in the hundreds.”
“There’s an awful lot of discussion about taxpayers’ dollars being used for immigration — this is a sponsorship that’s all privately funded,” McNab points out.
“Rashid has never relied on government support of any kind. The goal is his family will never need that either. If all goes according to plan, Rashid’s family will support the Canadian economy and won’t draw from it.”
His family now safe and at his side, Rashid pledges to never forget the love and support shown to him and, now, to his parents and siblings.
“I thank everybody from the bottom of my heart,” he says.
As much as Rashid has learned from McNab and his other Canadian friends, McNab has also learned something from the experience: gratitude.
“We are so lucky because we live in a country that’s free of war — there are no bombs falling here,” McNab says. “We have complaints about not having everything we want, but Rashid has helped me appreciate we are lucky we have peace … that we have freedom. There is indeed a lot to be grateful for here.”
