A 19-year-old Syrian refugee who has been separated from his family for eight years and only recently discovered they are still alive is planning to sponsor them to come to Canada, with the help of a group of Peterborough residents calling themselves Azadi Peterborough.

The group includes David McNab and Scarborough resident Matt Park, the two men who accidentally discovered the plight of Rashid Sheikh Hassan back in May 2021 when the young man, a Syrian Kurd living in Turkey under fear of deportation, posted on a Canadian Facebook group dedicated to birds that he wanted to come to Canada.

Rashid’s post was immediately met with racist, hateful, and anti-immigrant comments. Park defended Rashid, condemned the online attackers, and brought the post to the attention of McNab, a retired OPP officer and instructor at Trent University. McNab began corresponding with Rashid and teaching him English and, with the help of Park, McNab’s veterinarian wife Kristy Hiltz, nurse practitioner and veteran U.N. peacekeeper Lee-Anne Quinn, and social advocate Michael VanDerHerberg, raised funds to sponsor Rashid to come to Canada.

Just over a year later, his sponsors greeted Rashid as he arrived in Canada at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport. Rashid immediately embraced his new Canadian life — including trying poutine for the first time on the way to Peterborough. Since then, Rashid has attended high school, become fluent in English, and worked at The Whistle Stop Café in downtown Peterborough (which serves poutine of course).

After the devastating earthquakes this past February in Turkey and northern Syria, Rashid launched a campaign to raise funds for the Canadian International Medical Relief Organization (CIMRO). Hastings resident and former longtime 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 still alive. Shortly after that call, he saw and spoke to his family for the first time in eight years during a video call on WhatsApp.

VIDEO: Meeting Rashid at the Airport

Knowing of Rashid’s desire to be reunited with his family, his original sponsors have formed a new group called Azadi Peterborough (azadi is the Kurdish word for “freedom”). Other members of the group include 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 is being supported by the Unitarian Fellowship of Peterborough.

To apply to the Immigration Canada to sponsor Rashid’s family to come to Canada, Azadi Peterborough needs to raise $45,000 to cover the travel costs and the costs of family support for one year.

Rashid has himself already contributed $10,000 — all the money he has earned and all of his savings — and Azadi Peterborough members have contributed another $10,000, so the group is nearly halfway to its goal.

“He is a hard-working, unselfish, and determined young man who has been contributing to his new community since he arrived,” McNab says in a media release. “It is now hoped that this community will help reunite this deserving young man with the family that he grew up believing were lost forever.”

If you would like to help Azadi Peterborough bring Rashid’s family to Canada, you can donate online via GoFundMe at gofund.me/92820f32 or by etransfer to rashidfamilysponsorship@gmail.com.

Donations can also be dropped off at or mailed to The Avant-Garden Shop (165 Sherbrooke St, Peterborough, ON K9J 2N2) or dropped off at Sherbrooke Heights Animal Hospital at 1625 Sherbrooke Street in Peterborough.

Rashid’s story

In March 2014, when he was 11 years old, Rashid Sheikh Hassan’s family home in Aleppo, Syria was bombed. Along with his parents and his younger siblings (two sisters and a brother), 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 in a village north of Aleppo, hoping the rest of his family would follow. They never did.

It was two years before Rashid could return to Aleppo. He and his grandfather made the journey to seek any news of their family but found none, and were ordered out of the area at gunpoint by the military in control of the neighbourhood.

Rashid worked and helped his grandparents until after he turned 16 in 2019, when he feared he would be conscripted into the Syrian military — a dangerous possibility, especially for a young Kurdish man. He fled Syria for Turkey in early 2020 and, after eight attempts, managed to get across the border. He made his way to Istanbul but, since refugees were no longer given protection or official refugee status, he was considered an illegal resident.

Rashid 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, he was at constant threat of being captured and deported back to Syria.

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 group’s members, defended Rashid and brought his post to the attention of retired Peterborough County OPP officer Dave McNab, who began communicating directly with Rashid online. Over several months, McNab helped Rashid improve his English. McNab, along with his wife Kristy Hiltz, Matt Park, Lee-Anne Quinn, and Michael VanDenHerberg, raised funds to sponsor Rashid to come to Canada.

On June 23, 2022, Rashid arrived at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport where he was welcomed to his new home by his sponsors. He now works and attends school in Peterborough and speaks fluent English, his third language.

On February 22, 2023, Rashid had a video call with his grandparents, his parents and siblings, and other family. Until an hour before the call, they feared he was dead and he feared they were dead.

Environment Canada has issued a severe thunderstorm watch for the entire Kawarthas region for Thursday afternoon (July 6).

The severe thunderstorm watch is in effect for all of Peterborough County, Kawarthas Lakes, Northumberland County, Haliburton County, and Hastings Highlands.

Conditions are favourable for the development of severe thunderstorms that may be capable of producing producing strong wind gusts, large hail, and heavy rain.

Scattered thunderstorms are expected to develop early Thursday afternoon as a slow-moving cold front moves through southern Ontario. The severe thunderstorm threat will diminish Thursday evening.

Large hail can damage property and cause injury. Strong wind gusts can toss loose objects, damage weak buildings, break branches off trees, and overturn large vehicles. Intense lightning is likely with any thunderstorm that develops. Heavy downpours can cause flash floods and water pooling on roads.

Emergency Management Ontario recommends that you take cover immediately if threatening weather approaches.

A 65-year-old Oshawa man drowned in Rice Lake on Wednesday afternoon (July 5).

At around 2 p.m. on Wednesday, Northumberland OPP responded to a call that a man was in distress in the water off the south shore of Rice Lake north of Harwood.

Police, fire services, and paramedics were dispatched to the scene.

According to police, a man was calling for help from the water. Members of the public tried to rescue the man, but he went underwater and never resurfaced.

After emergency services arrived on the scene, they located the 65-year-old Oshawa man in the water and pronounced him dead on the scene.

The office of Ontario’s chief coroner is assisting with the police investigation into the drowning. Police say no foul play is suspected.

The OPP is reminding the public of proactive steps to reduce provincial drowning deaths:

• always swim with a buddy
• know your limits and swimming abilities
• let someone know when and where you’re going for a swim
• test the waters with your feet, don’t dive right in
• don’t swim while under the influence of alcohol or drugs

To have pre-existed dinosaurs and still be around some 220 million years after first walking the earth, the turtle’s survival skills should not be an issue. Still, all eight of Ontario’s turtle species are increasingly at risk, with loss of habitat, poaching, and roadway mortality just some of the factors at play.

Combine that with the fact that turtles remain a major biodiversity component of the ecosystems they inhabit and the message is clear: turtles’ well-being and good health deserves our attention.

Since opening in 2002, the Kawartha Turtle Trauma Centre on Chemong Road has seen and treated thousands of injured turtles, the majority struck by vehicles. In many cases, the eggs of female turtles that subsequently died have been extracted and hatched, ensuring the species’ continuance.

With a mission to conserve and protect Ontario turtles, the Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre (OTCC), which oversees the trauma centre, has been hard pressed to serve its shelled patients. Over the last 10 years, injured turtle admissions have increased six-fold, with close to 2,000 turtles admitted last year alone, resulting as well in close to 8,000 eggs to incubate and hatchlings to house.

Enter Mary and Gerry Young.

The siblings, wanting to preserve their family’s 100-acre farm property off Television Road north of Parkhill Road, have donated it for the development of the Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre’s new home. Projected to open about this time next year, the 10,000-square-foot facility will house a new state-of-the-art turtle hospital, including an ICU, a designated hatching area, and a turtle education centre.

VIDEO: Conceptual Design of the future home of the OTCC

On Wednesday (July 5), the Youngs were on hand as turtle health advocates and dignitaries, including Northumberland-Peterborough South MPP David Piccini — Ontario’s Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks — lauded their gift before breaking ground for the new centre’s construction.

In her remarks, Mary explained that their motivation for donating the land was, and remains, anchored in their desire to see the property preserved as a natural wetland that provides the habitat for wildlife, including turtles, to populate and thrive. As the location of the new centre, that is ensured for future generations to enjoy.

“We want the property to continue to look about the way it does now and we want it to continue to provide habitat for wildlife,” she said, adding the new centre’s development “fits in with this vision.”

Mary added she has been tremendously impressed with the dedication to turtle rehabilitation and conservation shown by veterinarian Dr. Sue Carstairs, the executive and medical director of the OTCC.

“I first met Sue about five or six years ago. I was amazed at her energy. At that time, she was the sole veterinarian and every summer she would treat anywhere from 1,000 to 1,200 turtles alone. That’s a lot of work.”

For his part, Gerry said the hope is the property, that was bought by his father Clinton Young in 1928, will remain a natural oasis in a sea of urban sprawl for years to come.

“I’m thinking 50 or 75 or 100 years from now. The city is going to evolve around this (but it) could be a natural habitat for people. Curtis Creek comes down through here. This is going to be a good lifestyle place for wildlife.”

For his part, Minister Piccini spoke to the collective effort that any conservation effort relies upon. He also reflected on his first exposure to the OTCC’s work — a visit to the centre prompted and encouraged by Peterborough-Kawartha MPP Dave Smith, who was also present at the groundbreaking event.

“I remember seeing turtles on the ground and up high in every nook and cranny there were turtles,” he recalled. “Everywhere I go since then I see the (I Brake For Turtles) stickers on cars and people stopping (for injured turtles). If you (OTCC) are the pebble, the ripple has spread across Ontario. This is a big day. We’re turning the tide for at-risk turtles.”

Since 2018, the Ontario government, as part of its Species At Risk Stewardship Program, has already provided just more than $914,000 in support of the OTCC. The province is investing nearly $500,000 in new funding to help mitigate threats to at-risk turtles through rehabilitation, education, field studies, research, and data sharing.

“This forever home has been a dream that is finally coming to reality,” said MPP Smith. “I cannot express how much great work the centre does, from rehabilitating injured turtles to the recovery and fertilization of turtle eggs from those turtles that sadly don’t make it. We are extremely fortunate have a world leader in conservation right here in our backyard.”

Douro-Dummer Mayor Heather Watson was also on hand and echoed Minister Piccini’s praise for Dr. Carstairs and her staff as well as volunteer contributors.

“The five-year effort to get here today reminds me of the turtle success mantra — slow and steady wins the race,” said Mayor Watson. “Because of the contributions of champions like Mary and Gerry Young, and the many other contributors and philanthropists, this project is able to move forward.”

“The centre will be able to continue to do the work that it does so well in a facility that’s specifically built for this purpose,” Mayor Watson added. “Generations of turtles will continue long past any of us being here, thanks to the work of the centre.”

Noting this day “has been six years in the making,” Dr. Carstairs praised “the pillars” of the $3 million capital campaign for their contributions — a list that includes a number of family-established foundations.

She later noted that the capital campaign has brought in about $2.5 million to date and naming opportunities remain available. To learn more or to make a donation, visit www.ontarioturtle.ca/donation-options.

Of note, care for injured turtles extends well beyond the centre’s doors. For example, the Turtle Taxi program has more than 600 volunteers across Ontario who pick up injured turtles and transport them to partnering veterinary first responders, clinics, and then to the OTCC.

The same volunteers also transport healed turtles back to their home habitat. Also helping out is a pilot who flies injured turtles from northern Ontario to Peterborough.

At the site of the new centre, the OTCC is currently caring for 1,000 turtles in two cramped buildings converted for that purpose. That’s in addition to the 2,000 turtles being cared for at the Chemong Road location. It’s projected the new centre will double that capacity.