About two years our little community welcomed a new family to Canada. A documentary by SBS Dateline called “Canada’s Open House” documented the Rafia’s from Chipman, New Brunswick as well as another family placed in Nova Scotia. This documentary can been seen on youtube.
To say this was an ill conceived plan on the part of the Govt of Canada Immigration and the church sponsors, appears to be an understatement at this point. There are approximately 1200 people living in Chipman. There are no buses or taxis. The nearest town is one hour away. There is no halal food, no jobs, in fact no services at all to accommodate the everyday needs of the Rafia family.
The documentary shows an increasingly frustrated Mr Rafia struggling to fit in. Mrs. Rafia talked about not wanting to be around her husband all the time. The sponsor hinted she knew more than she wanted to about the family dynamics. Mr. Rafia hated our little community, calling it guantanamo bay.
The Rafia family relocated to Fredericton, New Brunswick a few months ago. Fredericton is home to around 60,000 people. All the services the family needed can be found there. There are other refugee families living there as well. The Rafia family was no longer isolated.
Happy ending? Not so much. Shortly after moving to Fredericton, Mr. Rafia beat his wife for over half an hour with a hockey stick. She was admitted to hospital. The whole family including Mrs. Rafia insisted she had fallen in the bath tub. The hospital called the police. Mr. Rafia was charged with assault and uttering threats. Apparently he said he'd kill her if she talked about leaving him again.
Mohammed Rafia received a sentence of time served (eight days in jail) and one year of probation. What happened to Raghda? She was released from hospital right back into the loving arms of her abusive husband. Rafia told the judge he didn't know beating his wife was illegal in Canada. No one told him. Yes that was his defence. The court heard that he hit his wife all the time.
Canadian law is based on precedent law. That means everyone receives relatively the same punishment for similar crimes. A quick google search comes up with a three year sentence for beating someone with a pool cue. Any other victim would have been taken to a battered women's shelter and the kids placed in care. The wife beater would have been issued a restraining order stating he was not to go near his wife.
Make no mistake here. Rafia will probably end up killing his wife. That's what happens with spousal abuse. The abuser just gets more and more emboldened with every beating. Did Raghna come to Canada hoping things would be different for her here? Was she dreaming about a better life where she would feel safe and be treated with respect?
I'm so sorry, Raghna. Canada has failed you badly. No one can help you. We are not allowed to talk about this. It's hate speech. Your brutal beating has been swept under the rug of political correctness. Don't mention it again eh!
Happy Canada Day everyone!