Elyas Zabihullah and his wife arrange the furniture in their newly rented home in downtown Regina.
It’s been about two months since they moved to Canada.
“It’s my fourth time starting my life from scratch,” Zabihullah told CTVNews.ca. “I hope this time it will be permanent.”
Zabihullah was 16 years old when he left Afghanistan for Ukraine in 2000 after the Taliban, during their first regime, killed his aunt and forced other family members to leave their homes.
“The situation was really bad. My father asked me to leave the country otherwise I wouldn’t survive,” added Zabihullah.
In 2014, when the situation got worse in Ukraine over the protests to suspend the signing of an association agreement with the European Union, Zabihullah left his home and belongings in Ukraine and went back to Afghanistan.
Years later in 2021, when the Taliban retook power in Afghanistan, Zabihullah—who was now a father—had to flee once again, leaving everything behind.
“When the war intensified in Kabul, I decided to leave the country and go back to Ukraine. Because I now had bigger responsibilities: my wife and my son,” Zabihullah recalled.
The 39-year-old Afghan, who also holds a Ukrainian passport, had to leave Ukraine after Russia’s invasion more than a year ago. But this time compared with 2014, the situation in Ukraine was much more dire.
“It was an early morning in Kyiv when the war started. My wife woke me up and said that she had seen rockets had landed close to their home,” recalled Zabihullah. “I did not believe it at first, but minutes later I saw the rockets with my own eyes.”
A long, bitter pause engulfed the house after Zabihullah and his family realized war has been following them wherever they go.
After calling some of his friends, the Afghan-Ukrainian man decided to leave the house in order to save everybody’s lives.
“I ran from one war to save my family, but now have to run again,” said Zabihullah.
Since the war erupted in Ukraine last February, over 13 million people have been displaced inside and outside of Ukraine. Of this number, over 197,000 people came to Canada.
“On the way leaving Kyiv, the armoured vehicles and tanks were going to Kyiv and I saw several rockets hit the tanks. Thousands of people were on the streets, and everyone was leaving.”
Together with his wife and four-year-old son, Zabihullah had to walk vast distances to cross the border into Poland. However, when trying to cross into the country, Zabihullah had to separate himself from his wife and son.
After weeks in Poland, Zabihullah learned that his wife and son made it to Australia. Soon, he started contacting refugee volunteers to reunite him with his family.
It was a cold, rainy day when Zabihullah reunited with his wife and son in Frankfurt, Germany. After nine months in the country, they came to Canada.
Finally, Zabihullah and his family found a place to call home.
Although he says he is happy and at peace in Regina, he is worried about their future as they’re here with a temporary work visa.
“I request the Canadian government to help me and grant me permanent residence. No energy left to go to another country and start again,” Zabihullah said.
Reporting for this story was paid for through The Afghan Journalists in Residence Project funded by Meta.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
