Syrian refugees finish quarantine in time for first Canadian Thanksgiving

Monday, October 12, 2020 – by John McHutchion

Here’s what you need to know to get the day started:

Syrian refugees finish quarantine in time for first Canadian Thanksgiving

The Al Khalif family is just grateful to finally be in Canada, even if the pandemic delayed their arrival and quashed their much-anticipated airport reunion.

Syrian refugees Mahmoud Al Khalif, his wife Mariam and their three children waited nearly five years to reunite with his sister in Regina. Then, just as the family got ready to fly from Lebanon to Canada this past spring, the pandemic shut down the borders and prolonged the separation.

Their brother-in-law, Abdelkarim Al Elaiwy, who has lived in Regina since January 2016, said the delay was hard to take after so much anticipation.

"After COVID-19, we [were] very, very sad about the bad luck," said Al Elaiwy.

It took another six months, but the family was finally allowed entrance to Canada on Sept. 21. The long-awaited hugs had to wait a bit longer, however.
The two groups were only able to wave to each other from a distance at Regina International Airport. The refugees arriving from Lebanon had to quarantine for 14 days with no contact with anyone else, as required by a federal public health order.

For 30-year-old Rawda Al Khalif, being unable to hug her brother at the airport was excruciating. She missed him and worried about him, every day since leaving him behind in Lebanon. "Crying, sad, no eat, no sleeping," she said.

On Thursday, just before the Thanksgiving long weekend, Al Elaiwy hosted his brother-in-law's family — now out of quarantine — at his bungalow in south Regina. All 10 of the children ran around in the backyard while the parents drank tea. The families, who will stick together in a bubble, were making plans to celebrate both a birthday and Canadian Thanksgiving over the weekend.

More on this issue

Bubble celebration

(Ringo Chiu/Reuters)

A Los Angeles Lakers fan in a bubble celebrates the team winning the 2020 NBA Championship against the Miami Heat. Thousands of fans gathered outside the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles after the Lakers won the title inside the NBA's bubble in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. Read more about the Lakers' win here.

In brief

On an October day in 1983 in Prince Rupert, B.C., a first-degree murder trial began for 17-year-old Phillip Tallio, who was accused of sexually assaulting and killing his 22-month-old cousin. According to court documents, a psychologist who spoke with the teen at the time claimed Tallio, who came from the tiny First Nations community of Bella Coola, had the mental capacity of a 12-year-old and a "rather blind faith that someone will come and rescue him." That didn't happen. Instead, in what Tallio's lawyers claim was a miscarriage of justice fuelled by police "tunnel vision," ineptitude of legal counsel and the questionable tactics of a controversial forensic psychiatrist, Tallio pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. This week, in B.C.'s Court of Appeal, Tallio's lawyers will attempt to undo that alleged injustice — asking the judges to allow the 54-year-old to withdraw the plea he entered in 1983 and order an acquittal or stay of proceedings. Read more on this story from CBC’s Jason Proctor.

The most dangerous occupations in Canada — from logging and fishing to farming and construction — have always been and remain male-dominated. Female roofers, truck drivers, ironworkers and miners exist, of course, but they're still rare. Women are overrepresented in indoor jobs that tend to be considerably safer. In 2018 — the last year for which we have full statistics — 1,027 Canadians died on the job. All but 30 of them were men. But thanks to a pandemic that has made many female-dominated jobs and professions much more dangerous, the outdoors is suddenly the safer place to work. Service-oriented trades that tend to employ a lot of women — such as health care, education and retail — also involve a lot of interaction with the public. That means a heightened risk of exposure to the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. That heightened risk may be showing up in the caseload statistics now. In every age demographic but one (60 to 69 years), the number of women being diagnosed with COVID-19 slightly exceeds the number of male victims. Read more analysis of the risks of working during the pandemic.

On a leafy suburban street outside Pennsylvania's state capital Harrisburg, where election lawn signs compete for space with elaborate Halloween displays, Sarah Becker is part of one of the most closely watched demographics in the U.S. presidential election. A 35-year-old mother of three, a lifelong Republican, a former White House staffer under George W. Bush and, this year, a voter for the Democratic Party. "I truly remain dumbfounded that this is the reality we're living in," Becker said. "I can't believe it's real, even after four years." Becker represents what pollsters and strategists believe could be the tipping point in a crucial battleground state: white suburban Republican women upset with U.S. President Donald Trump to the point where they'll vote for the Democrats and former vice-president Joe Biden. Read more from the U.S. election campaign trail here.

Secrets long suppressed have been rising to the surface in Cairo — and with them hopes the country may be experiencing a feminist movement capable of challenging the culture of impunity that has long accompanied gender-based violence in Egypt. Online testimonials over the summer by hundreds of women on social media accounts offering anonymity have led authorities to open investigations into two alleged rape cases involving young men from wealthy and influential families. "Egypt is on fire," Mozn Hassan, head of women's rights organization Nazra for Feminist Studies, told CBC correspondent Margaret Evans. "On fire for more than three months talking about different incidents in different sections and layers [of society]." Social media, she said, has offered Egyptian women a safe "public sphere" that lets them know they are not alone. Read more on this story here.

Assuming the on-screen identity of the late Princess Diana, one of the most iconic and photographed celebrities of the last century, has put Emma Corrin at the centre of her own — albeit smaller — media whirl. The irony carries mixed emotions for Corrin, the 24-year-old British actor who plays Diana in Season 4 of the Netflix show The Crown, which launches Nov. 15. "It's more and more strange as it gets closer to it. I'm very scared of losing my anonymity," Corrin said in an interview from London. "I think I have very much taken it for granted up until this point and maybe thought of fame and being in the public eye as quite a fun, silly thing that would accompany this amazing job that I'm very lucky to have." The experience offers parallels, on a much lesser scale, to the life Diana lived at the centre of an ever-increasing maelstrom that followed her engagement and ultimately ill-fated marriage to Prince Charles, eldest son of Queen Elizabeth and heir to the throne. Read more from our interview with Corrin here.

Now for some good news to start your Monday: Adelaide Prince is being credited with helping save her mother Brynn's life last month after their car went down a nine-metre embankment along Highway 99 near Squamish, B.C., trapping them inside. Squamish RCMP and the Britannia Beach Volunteer Fire Department last week honoured the seven-year-old's actions and bravery. After the crash on Sept. 9, Adelaide used her climbing skills and quick thinking to get out of the vehicle and flag help from passersby. She described how she managed to escape from the crashed car and get help for her mother, who was stuck inside. "I found a window, kicked it open because it was cracked and there was already a little bit of a hole in it, so I climbed up the bank with my bare feet and started waving down help." She said two people saw her and stopped on the side of the highway to help. Read more about the recognition the girl received from first responders.

The Central Park Five's Yusef Salaam on life after wrongful conviction

When Yusef Salaam was 15, he and four other teenage boys were falsely accused of raping a woman in New York's Central Park. Salaam was imprisoned for nearly seven years before he was exonerated. His life story has inspired a new book called Punching the Air, which he co-wrote with young adult novelist Ibi Zoboi.

Salaam and Zoboi talk to host Josh Bloch about why the stories and perspectives of Black youth are so important right now and how they connect to the global movement against anti-Black racism in the United States.
Listen to today's episode

Today in history: Oct. 12

1917: Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden announces the formation of a Unionist government, made up of 12 Conservatives, nine Liberals and independents
and one Conservative senator to represent the labour movement. Borden forms the government in order to stand by the conscription bill his Conservative government had passed. In the subsequent election, the Unionist government wins a large majority.

1930: The Montreal Orchestra, the city's first professional symphony, gives its first concert at the Orpheum Theatre.

1970: The Quebec cabinet appoints Montreal lawyer Robert Demers to negotiate terms with the FLQ (Front de libération du Québec) for the release of hostages James Cross and Pierre Laporte. However, negotiations soon broke down and resulted in the federal proclamation of the War Measures Act on Oct. 16.

2000: The Supreme Court of Canada unanimously upholds the country's so-called rape shield law, further solidifying a woman's right to keep her sexual history out of sexual assault cases.