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.
OTTAWA – The Federal Court of Appeal has dismissed a bid by the Prince Edward Island Potato Board to overturn a 2021 decision by the federal agriculture minister to declare the entire province as “a place infested with potato wart.”
That order prohibited the export of seed potatoes from the Island to prevent the spread of the soil-borne fungus, which deforms potatoes and makes them impossible to sell.
The board had argued in Federal Court that the decision was unreasonable because there was insufficient evidence to establish that P.E.I. was infested with the fungus.
In April 2023, the Federal Court dismissed the board’s application for a judicial review, saying the order was reasonable because the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said regulatory measures had failed to prevent the transmission of potato wart to unregulated fields.
On Tuesday, the Appeal Court dismissed the board’s appeal, saying the lower court had selected the correct reasonableness standard to review the minister’s order.
As well, it found the lower court was correct in accepting the minister’s view that the province was “infested” because the department had detected potato wart on 35 occasions in P.E.I.’s three counties since 2000.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2024.
FREDERICTON – New Brunswick health officials are urging parents to get their children vaccinated against measles after the number of cases of the disease in a recent outbreak has more than doubled since Friday.
Sean Hatchard, spokesman for the Health Department, says measles cases in the Fredericton and the upper Saint John River Valley area have risen from five on Friday to 12 as of Tuesday morning.
Hatchard says other suspected cases are under investigation, but he did not say how and where the outbreak of the disease began.
He says data from the 2023-24 school year show that about 10 per cent of students were not completely immunized against the disease.
In response to the outbreak, Horizon Health Network is hosting measles vaccine clinics on Wednesday and Friday.
The measles virus is transmitted through the air or by direct contact with nasal or throat secretions of an infected person, and can be more severe in adults and infants.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2024.
PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Donald Trump is refusing to say how he voted on Florida’s abortion measure — and getting testy about it.
The former president was asked twice after casting his ballot in Palm Beach, Florida, on Tuesday about a question that the state’s voters are considering. If approved, it would prevent state lawmakers from passing any law that penalizes, prohibits, delays or restricts abortion until fetal viability — which doctors say is sometime after 21 weeks.
If it’s rejected, the state’s restrictive six-week abortion law would stand.
The first time he was asked, Trump avoided answering. He said instead of the issue that he did “a great job bringing it back to the states.” That was a reference to the former president having appointed three conservative justices to the U.S. Supreme Court who helped overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision in 2022.
Pressed a second time, Trump snapped at a reporter, saying “you should stop talking about it.”
Trump had previously indicated that he would back the measure — but then changed his mind and said he would vote against it.
In August, Trump said he thought Florida’s ban was a mistake, saying on Fox News Channel, “I think six weeks, you need more time.” But then he said, “at the same time, the Democrats are radical” while repeating false claims he has frequently made about late-term abortions.
In addition to Florida, voters in eight other states are deciding whether their state constitutions should guarantee a right to abortion, weighing ballot measures that are expected to spur turnout for a range of crucial races.
Passing certain amendments in Arizona, Missouri, Nebraska and South Dakota likely would lead to undoing bans or restrictions that currently block varying levels of abortion access to more than 7 million women of childbearing age who live in those states.
