Our Team in the Media

Jacqueline Swaisland – Repatriating Afghan Refugees in the Midst of Catastrophe

2024-01-10T20:29:36+00:00March 4th, 2022|Tags: |

The 9/11 attacks in the United States in September 2001 thrust Afghanistan to the forefront of what was declared to be the ‘war against terrorism’. The country was already languishing for more than two decades of conflict arising from the Soviet-Afghan War that forced millions of Afghans to seek refuge in neighbouring Pakistan and Iran. The war against terrorism saw Taliban bases inside Afghanistan become the ...

Warda Shazadi Meighen – Sarina Faizy was overjoyed when Canada evacuated her family from Afghanistan. Now she fears her father may be deported.

2024-01-10T20:30:24+00:00February 10th, 2022|Tags: |

Sarina Faizy breathed a massive sigh of relief when her family was evacuated from Afghanistan almost six months ago after urging the Canadian government to help. But now she's confused and afraid because her father, who has been housed in a Toronto hotel since August, recently received a letter from the Canada Border Services Agency saying he may not be ...

Warda Shazadi Meighen – Afghan athletes who thought they were headed for Canada plead with Ottawa: ‘Don’t break our hearts’

2024-01-10T20:31:01+00:00February 7th, 2022|Tags: |

A star of Afghanistan's national women's basketball team thought she would be in Canada by now, building a new life with her family after they were forced to flee their old one. Instead, they're stuck living in a northern Albania hotel, mired in uncertainty. Dozens of female Afghan athletes who bravely represented their country at home and abroad are at the ...

Warda Shazadi Meighen – Owner of Kabul law firm that worked for Canadian Embassy pleads for help for employees left behind

2024-01-10T20:31:37+00:00December 14th, 2021|Tags: |

Saeeq Shajjan's law firm in Kabul spent the past eight years working as the local legal team for the Canadian Embassy in Afghanistan. But with about two dozen of his employees still stuck in the Taliban-held country, Shajjan said the Canadian government is now doing little to help them. "These are people who did all they could to help ...

Warda Shazadi Meighen – Memo to the new cabinet: Canada must meet the moment in Afghanistan

2024-01-09T16:43:01+00:00November 17th, 2021|Tags: |

Imagine that you are a female judge in Afghanistan at this very moment: having gone from being in the epicenter of justice just a few months ago to a basement hideaway trying not to breathe too loudly. You are now hunted by the Taliban, by the murderers you convicted (and whom the Taliban released) as well as ISIS-Khorasan....

Warda Shazadi Meighen & Rachel Bryce – Climate migration is already happening – Canada must lead in developing a coherent response

2024-01-10T20:32:10+00:00November 11th, 2021|Tags: |

Representatives from much of the world gathered in Glasgow to discuss how to respond to the existential impacts of climate change. COP26 brought with it a heightened sense of urgency and the destructive effects of climate change can no longer be ignored, even for the most stubborn amongst us...

Warda Shazadi Meighen – « J’ai pu fuir, mais je recommence tout à zéro » : une juge afghane en exil se confie

2024-01-10T20:32:47+00:00November 6th, 2021|Tags: |

Tayeba Parsa fait partie des rares femmes juges à avoir réussi à quitter Kaboul après l’arrivée des talibans. Elle vit depuis en Europe de l’Est, ignorant ce que l’avenir lui réserve. Dans un témoignage exclusif, elle replonge dans les souvenirs de son périple mouvementé et éprouvant vers la liberté...

Warda Shazadi Meighen – Is it time for Canada to open its doors to climate migrants?

2024-01-10T20:33:17+00:00September 2nd, 2021|Tags: |

As huge swathes of the world become uninhabitable due to rising heat, a group of refugee lawyers say Canada could become an important oasis. In February 2021, Ana Hernandez stood on the south bank of the Rio Grande River cradling her two-year-old son as they waited to climb into a smuggler’s inflatable boat.....

Erin Simpson – “I defied the Taliban, and now my family is in grave danger”

2024-01-10T20:33:57+00:00August 16th, 2021|Tags: |

On the morning they left, my elderly parents, older brother, sister-in-law, nephews and niece all watched as their neighbours packed up cars filled with clothes, food and water. Women frantically urged their children into waiting cars, their faces veiled and bodies engulfed by sky-blue burkas...

Warda Shazadi Meighen – Lawyers speaking for the ignored during the pandemic

2024-01-10T20:34:37+00:00August 9th, 2021|Tags: |

While the many negative impacts of the pandemic are obvious, including lives and livelihoods lost, others are not as visible. In this issue, we spoke with a few lawyers who are working to change that...

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