Torun had protested fiercely in the National Assembly against the Progressives' Refugee Resettlement Plan along with the rest of his party. A long serving member of the far-right nationalist SDN party(Sons and Daughters of the Norse), Torun Styiggson was well respected in certain circles including his hometown of Dalsfjord, in the Swedish countryside west of...
"Zeinab Al-Sharif, you do not at the present time meet the Immigration & Refugee Board's Criteria and Conditions for refugee protection, therefore, your request for political asylum has been denied," read the letter from Citizenship & Immigration Canada, and Zeinab Al-Sharif shook her head, and sighed deeply. This was the end of all hope for her. Having deni...
"I'd like to volunteer to help at our local refugee center." Sandra's words, spoken out of the blue, abruptly ended Frank's little monologue he had been giving, commenting the piece of news about a horribly looking refugee camp they were showing on TV during the refugee crisis in Europe in early 2016. "What, my love?" Frank immediately reacted. "You'd lik...
"Ma'am, in light of your past record as an armed militant in the conflict in Lebanon, I fear that Canada cannot accept you as a conventional refugee," said Judge Marshall Lemieux, speaking for the International Refugee Board of Citizenship & Immigration Canada. Salome Zankoul closed her eyes, hard. These dastardly, smug fools in robes have no idea what life...
"Salaam, bae, how's my favorite booty doing?" Sebastien Lavoie said cheerfully, his deep baritone voice pouring through the cell phone all smooth and confident. Bashira Mahmoud-Lavoie chucked softly, and shook her head. Leave it to that lustful husband of mine to call and ask about my ass, literally, Bashira thought. Sitting in the now empty lunch room locat...
"Mona, come to bed, I just put our son Jacob to sleep, come on," says my husband Alain Dewar, speaking from the bedroom of our townhouse located in the East End of Toronto. I'm sitting on the couch, wearing an old hooded sweatshirt that Alain loaned me. He's had it since his days as a University of Toronto student. It's way too big for me. Underneath it, I'm...
That night, I'd contemplated (more like, I'd panicked) how I was going to manage what had happened between me and Zanire. I'd received the best blow job ever. I had a severe case of 'adulterous guilt.' I wanted another blow job. Could I just ask for one? Was Zanire playing some sort of game? I didn't get much sleep. Being the coward that I am, I certainly w...
It was late and now I was pissed off, very pissed off. This bloody hopeless public servant needs to get a real job. The email came through at the last minute, totally moving the goal posts and now we'd need to rewrite the whole report, all 137 pages. The Report was due at the Department of Infrastructure in 48 hours. I'll need to burn the candle at both end...
Holding hands while walking through the Saint Laurent Mall in the east end of the City of Ottawa, Ontario, my boo Tyrone Ferguson and I got a lot of stares. Oh, well. Let the haters stare. Yes, we're an interracial couple, an Arab woman with a black man. Guess what? We're of different hues and we're happy together and the world isn't ending. My name is Amina...
A Chinese proverb says may you live in interesting times. I've seen it on many of those fortune cookies they give you in restaurants, and I can't but smile every time. If you ask me, people should strive for the ordinary and the mundane and avoid the extremes that come with leading an extraordinary life. They'd live longer if they did. Who am I kidding? We a...