Algerian refugee Abdelkader Belaouni has spent the past two years in sanctuary at St-Gabriel’s Church in Pointe St-Charles. On Jan. 1, 2005, Belaouni took sanctuary in open defiance of a deportation ordered by Citizenship and Immigration Canada.
"I’m not hiding from Immigration Canada, but I want to tell them clearly, I will not be presenting myself for deportation," stated Belaouni in a public statement at the time.
Ever since, Abdelkader Belaouni, with the support of multiple community organizations and social justice groups, has been fighting a very public battle with Immigration Canada. It isn’t the only battle he’s faced in this lifetime. In 1996 he escaped a violent civil conflict in Algeria, which took an estimated 100,000 civilian lives. As a blind man, Belaouni made the journey to New York City, and while he never gained status there he did carve out an independent life selling telephone cards.
Following Sept. 11, 2001, Belaouni left New York out of the fear of systemic persecution against Arabs and Muslims, including mass deportations, disappearances and the fire-bombings of mosques. Immigration Canada didn’t exercise sympathy or compassion in the case, instead issuing a deportation order for Belaouni three years after his arrival in Montreal.
Today, Belaouni remains in sanctuary, never having stepped foot outside St-Gabriel’s Church in all the time he’s been there. "After two years I remain here without status. It is tiring, it is depressing, I want freedom," he explains. "It is clear that the government is aware of my current suffering and my difficult history in Algeria; they must act now and regularize my status."
On Friday, Jan. 18, the Committee to Support Abdelkader Belaouni is holding a demonstration in Montreal to mark his two years in sanctuary, starting at 11 a.m. at Phillips Square, on Ste-Catherine and Place Phillips in downtown Montreal. For more info, visit www.soutienpourkader.net.
4 comments
the facts are clear & there is nothing left to be questioned about a blind man that deserves a life, just like we all do.. SUPPORT him for his right is none other than the basic human right to liberty….
I’m sorry for his handicap, but there is a limit everyone that come to quebec our the rest of Canada are getting to us by making us feel sorry for every problem in the world, that in’t right , all strangers know very well that we in QC or Can. are soft at heart and they abuse us that fact to get into this country. I say No this should stop.
I have a great deal of empathy for Mr. Belaouni both as a man without the benefit of sight and as someone from the conflict in Algeria. However despite the writer biased language ( his lines about disappearances, fire-bombings, deportations and persecution would have you think that it was the Middle East and not the U.S. !!) it is a bit to simplistic in painting Mr. Belaouni as a tragic victim. Seenig he merely ‘left’ New York shortly after the tragedy, would it not make sence to simply ‘return’ there if life in Canada is so unfair and seeming unbearable? It seems to me that this is also a case of breaking rules that are there to help govern and unsure the greater publics safety. I can understand the left-leaning sensibility to paint in braod strokes just like the right is doing in the U.s. and here in Canada. But it seems to me that the truth is somewhere in the middle regarding this issue. Otherwise is there an end in sight if he is allowed to thumb his nose at the rest of true perescuted immigrants?
Why do we deny that there is a growing anti-Arab and anti-Muslims sentiment in the West? This did not only start after 911, by the way, but 911 made it easier to express in public.
And why do we deny Abdelkader, a man who undoubtedly faced his fare share of challenges in life, a chance to start a new life in Canada, the same chance most of us (or our ancestors) got?