Members from his community in Montréal considered the IRB’s decision to be discriminatory and decided to come to his aid by creating the Committee to Support Abdelkader Belaouni. They stipulated that the IRB’s decision, based on the fact that Kader did not have a family in Canada and did not have a job discriminated against him because of his blindness.

Kader says that the IRB left him in a “vicious circle” whereby he could not attain a job because he was without status in Canada and he could not get status because he was unemployed. Three months after arriving in Canada in March 2003, Kader registered with the job bank at Institut Nazareth et Louis-Braille to help him find work. “Every time they found found a job for me, I was unable to take it because I had no papers. I was not allowed to work,” he insisted. “Everyone told me that as soon as I had the papers, I should contact them because they’s like to hire me.”

As for him not having a family, Kader replies that his family here are his friends. “The guy cleaning my room right now, is my family. The girl who called earlier will bring my my supper. She is my friend. I find that I have a large circle of friends that are my family,” he says with a smile.

When asked what he does to pass the time, Kader says that four months into his stay in St-Gabriel’s Church, he decided that his time here would be time to spend learning. Sanctuary would become his music school. He has a piano teacher and several musician friends who have helped him compose original music. He already has an album and is working on his second. He also excercises on his stationary bike and the purple Pilates ball you see in the photo.

Kader says that he might make the same decision today after three years if he had to choose again whether or not to go into sanctuary. But he’s glad that he doesn’t know the future. “If I knew I would still be here three years later, I might hae been afraid to move forward,” he says, adding that destiny brings with it many things. “It’s true that I’m enclosed in this church but I’ve become a musician. I host a radio show called Radio Sanctuary.

Although he wants to leave as soon as possible, Kader says, “I am will in the church. I miss nothing. What I denounce in the injustice. Other than that, there is little else I can do. Other than be patient.”

On January 17, more than one hundred of Kader’s ‘family’ came out to denounce the Canadian government’s refusal to grant Kader refugee status on humanitarian grounds, which would allow him to rejoin his community outside the walls that have kept him confined for over three years. The demonstrators walked through the streets of Pointe Saint Charles to remind those that may have forgotten, that Kader is indeed still confined after three years. The march was postponed to one week (as the poster indicates) because a large demonstration in support of Gaza was organized on January 10th.

=====
View Larger Map

The IRB was accused of being arbitrary and prejudicial against Palestinians seeking refugee status in Canada. One case that the Montréal Palestinians often referred to to back up their claim are of two brothers who are both from the Burj el-Barajneh Refugee Camp. “One brother got accepted while the other was refused even though they both lived in the same harsh conditions in the camp,” said one Plestinian refugee who requested anonymity becaue his case was still pending before his commissioner.

Questions I wanted to answer in the 16-minute film below, Mythos Canadensis (2003), attemped to reconcile the divide between official Canadian immigration policy and the practice of refusing to give refugee status in Canada to a Palestinian, already recognized as a refugee by the United Nations.

The Citizenship and Immigration Canada website writes that their department, “resettles, protects and provides a safe haven for refugees,” yet young Palestinian men, who were born refugees and who are card-carrying beneficiaries of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), are still refused refugee status in Canada and deported back to refugee camps in the West Bank and Lebanon.

Between 2002 and 2003, I followed Montréal-based Coalition Against the Deportation of Palestinian Refugees to meetings, demonstrations, occupations, concerts, presentations, everywhere I could.

The short film is my attempt to document and understand the challenges faced by Palestinian refugees seeking status in Canada from Montréal. While following the Palestinian refugees’ activities within the coalition as they mobilized to get status in Canada, I was confronted by several questions whose answers I had previously–and wrongfully–assumed: 1) are Palestinians genuine refugees? 2) Is Citizenship and Immigration canada genuinely committed to providing a safe haven to all those in genuine need of protection?; 3) Are IRB commissioners well informed and non-partisan?; 4) Are Palestinians persecuted inside refugee camps?, and 5) Has Citizenship and Immigration Canada ever deported stateless refugees and does the government department always tell the truth?

Mythos Canadensis – David Widgington – 15:44