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Family who fled wars in Afghanistan, Ukraine find peace in Canada

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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.

 

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MEG Energy earnings dip year over year to $167 million in third quarter

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CALGARY – MEG Energy says it earned $167 million in its third quarter, down from $249 million during the same quarter last year.

The company says revenues for the quarter were $1.27 billion, down from $1.44 billion during the third quarter of 2023.

Diluted earnings per share were 62 cents, down from 86 cents a year earlier.

MEG Energy says it successfully completed its debt reduction strategy, reducing its net debt to US$478 million by the end of September, down from US$634 million during the prior quarter.

President and CEO Darlene Gates said moving forward all the company’s free cash flow will be returned to shareholders through expanded share buybacks and a quarterly base dividend.

The company says its capital expenditures for the quarter increased to $141 million from $83 million a year earlier, mainly due to higher planned field development activity, as well as moderate capacity growth projects.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2024.

Companies in this story: (TSX:MEG)

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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Eby wants all-party probe into B.C. vote count errors as election boss blames weather

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Premier David Eby is proposing an all-party committee investigate mistakes made during the British Columbia election vote tally, including an uncounted ballot box and unreported votes in three-quarters of the province’s 93 ridings.

The proposal comes after B.C.’s chief electoral officer blamed extreme weather, long working hours and a new voting system for human errors behind the mistakes in last month’s count, though none were large enough to change the initial results.

Anton Boegman says the agency is already investigating the mistakes to “identify key lessons learned” to improve training, change processes or make recommendations for legislative change.

He says the uncounted ballot box containing about 861 votes in Prince George-Mackenzie was never lost, and was always securely in the custody of election officials.

Boegman says a failure in five districts to properly report a small number of out-of-district votes, meanwhile, rippled through to the counts in 69 ridings.

Eby says the NDP will propose that a committee examine the systems used and steps taken by Elections BC, then recommend improvements in future elections.

“I look forward to working with all MLAs to uphold our shared commitment to free and fair elections, the foundation of our democracy,” he said in a statement Tuesday, after a news conference by Boegman.

Boegman said if an independent review does occur, “Elections BC will, of course, fully participate in that process.”

He said the mistakes came to light when a “discrepancy” of 14 votes was noticed in the riding of Surrey-Guildford, spurring a review that increased the number of unreported votes there to 28.

Surrey-Guildford was the closest race in the election and the NDP victory there gave Eby a one-seat majority. The discovery reduced the NDP’s victory margin from 27 to 21, pending the outcome of a judicial review that was previously triggered because the race was so close.

The mistakes in Surrey-Guildford resulted in a provincewide audit that found the other errors, Boegman said.

“These mistakes were a result of human error. Our elections rely on the work of over 17,000 election officials from communities across the province,” he said.

“Election officials were working 14 hours or more on voting days and on final voting day in particular faced extremely challenging weather conditions in many parts of the province.

“These conditions likely contributed to these mistakes,” he said.

B.C.’s “vote anywhere” model also played a role in the errors, said Boegman, who said he had issued an order to correct the results in the affected ridings.

Boegman said the uncounted Prince George-Mackenzie ballot box was used on the first day of advance voting. Election officials later discovered a vote hadn’t been tabulated, so they retabulated the ballots but mistakenly omitted the box of first-day votes, only including ballots from the second day.

Boegman said the issues discovered in the provincewide audit will be “fully documented” in his report to the legislature on the provincial election, the first held using electronic tabulators.

He said he was confident election officials found all “anomalies.”

B.C. Conservative Party Leader John Rustad had said on Monday that the errors were “an unprecedented failure by the very institution responsible for ensuring the fairness and accuracy of our elections.”

Rustad said he was not disputing the outcomes as judicial recounts continue, but said “it’s clear that mistakes like these severely undermine public trust in our electoral process.”

Rustad called for an “independent review” to make sure the errors never happen again.

Boegman, who said the election required fewer than half the number of workers under the old paper-based system, said results for the election would be returned in 90 of the province’s 93 ridings on Tuesday.

Full judicial recounts will be held in Surrey-Guildford and Kelowna-Centre, while a partial recount of the uncounted box will take place in Prince George-Mackenzie.

Boegman said out-of-district voting had been a part of B.C.’s elections for many decades, and explained how thousands of voters utilized the province’s vote-by-phone system, calling it a “very secure model” for people with disabilities.

“I think this is a unique and very important part of our elections, providing accessibility to British Columbians,” he said. “They have unparalleled access to the ballot box that is not found in other jurisdictions in Canada.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2024.



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Memorial set for Sunday in Winnipeg for judge, senator, TRC chair Murray Sinclair

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WINNIPEG – A public memorial honouring former judge, senator and chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission into residential schools, Murray Sinclair, is set to take place in Winnipeg on Sunday.

The event, which is being organized by the federal and Manitoba governments, will be at Canada Life Centre, home of the NHL’s Winnipeg Jets.

Sinclair died Monday in a Winnipeg hospital at the age of 73.

A teepee and a sacred fire were set up outside the Manitoba legislature for people to pay their respects hours after news of his death became public. The province has said it will remain open to the public until Sinclair’s funeral.

Sinclair’s family continues to invite people to visit the sacred fire and offer tobacco.

The family thanked the public for sharing words of love and support as tributes poured in this week.

“The significance of Mazina Giizhik’s (the One Who Speaks of Pictures in the Sky) impact and reach cannot be overstated,” the family said in a statement on Tuesday, noting Sinclair’s traditional Anishinaabe name.

“He touched many lives and impacted thousands of people.”

They encourage the public to celebrate his life and journey home.

A visitation for extended family, friends and community is also scheduled to take place Wednesday morning.

Leaders from across Canada shared their memories of Sinclair.

Premier Wab Kinew called Sinclair one of the key architects of the era of reconciliation.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Sinclair was a teacher, a guide and a friend who helped the country navigate tough realities.

Sinclair was the first Indigenous judge in Manitoba — the second in Canada.

He served as co-chair of the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry of Manitoba to examine whether the justice system was failing Indigenous people after the murder of Helen Betty Osborne and the police shooting death of First Nations leader J.J. Harper.

In leading the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, he participated in hundreds of hearings across Canada and heard testimony from thousands of residential school survivors.

The commissioners released their widely influential final report in 2015, which described what took place at the institutions as cultural genocide and included 94 calls to action.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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