When Rani Hemaid’s daughter Alma learned her grandparents were coming to Canada, escaping the war in Gaza, she started counting down the days, he says. Even his two-year-old son, Zaid, who hadn’t seen them in a long time was excited.
For Hemaid, it was a huge relief after months of anguish and sleepless nights worrying about their safety.
Late last month, his parents arrived at Toronto’s Pearson Airport, nearly half a year after Hemaid applied to the Canadian government to bring them here.
Alma ran through the airport to greet them with a hug, he recalls.
“I can’t explain to you how happy they are,” Hemaid said of his children, now that the family has been reunited after a tense eight months.
The family home in Gaza was destroyed in an airstrike on Oct. 10, Hemaid previously told CBC Hamilton. His parents had been living in a rented apartment in Cairo since around New Year. They arrived in Canada on May 23 and are now safely living with Hemaid in Hamilton.
WATCH | Hemaid says he’s happy to have parents in Canada but worries for sister’s family in Gaza
Hamilton man Rani Hemaid says his Palestinian parents feel welcome in Canada but the family still worries for his sister and her family who they haven’t been able to get out of Gaza.
“They’re enjoying the beautiful weather, the parks, our welcoming community,” Hemaid said.
He came to Canada in 2014, also fleeing war in Gaza. “We are very lucky to be in Hamilton,” he said.
However, he said, the family can’t rest easy. His sister, her partner and their five children are still in Gaza, waiting to learn if they can get approval to join the others.
“They could be killed at any second,” Hemaid said. “With every news [story] coming from there, we just hope that my sister and her children are not on the list of people who are killed.”
Hemaid worked for months to reunite his family
On Oct. 7, a Hamas-led attack on Israel killed about 1,200 people, according to Israeli officials. That sparked the start of the most recent war in the region, in which more than 36,000 Palestinians have been killed in the past eight months, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
Hemaid has been advocating for reunification of Palestinian families. In December, he told CBC Hamilton that the stress of what his family was going through was so much he couldn’t eat or sleep. His daughter Alma was picking up on it, he said, and she told him she wanted to become a doctor so she could look after her grandma and all the children in Gaza who needed help.
When federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller announced in December the government would start granting temporary residency to extended family members of Canadians who want to leave Gaza, Hemaid said he was “thrilled.”
He applied to bring family members here right away. The process includes making an initial application, receiving a code to submit documentation and further information and then the approval of the temporary visa.
“[We thought] we’re gonna have our family as soon as possible and the government is gonna get them out. And then boom. There’s nothing,” he said.
In April, he learned his parents’ temporary visa was approved. He’s still waiting to hear about the others.
It’s been too long a wait, Hemaid said, echoing a common concern voiced by many Palestinians in Canada.
“This program is very disappointing for myself and for many families considering this was supposed to be an emergency humanitarian program to expedite the process,” he said.
In reality, he said, it was “extremely difficult” and “extremely slow.”
“Everything is up in the air. People are sitting in a mosque or a church just praying to God that the ministry … will look at our family application first.”
Temporary visa program has brought in 41 people
Initially the program accepted 1,000 temporary resident visa (TRV) applicants, but in late May, immigration minister Marc Miller announced the cap would expand to 5,000.
But Hemaid said that doesn’t mean much when so many people are still waiting and so few have made it to Canada.
As of May 20, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada had 2,903 complete applications accepted into processing, Matthew Krupovich, a spokesperson for that ministry told CBC Hamilton in an email.
Of those people, 254 who exited Gaza on their own and were able to submit biometric data had been approved to come to Canada, and 41 had arrived.
WATCH | Hemaid says Canada’s reuinification is not what he and others advocated for
Rani Hemaid advocated for the creation of a family reunification program for Palestinian Canadians and their family members in Canada. Six months after the creation of said program, Hemaid says the program is slow and discriminatory.
Government officials have said movement out of Gaza is restricted by Israel and Egypt, limiting their ability to actually get people out.
“We have put forward names of people who passed preliminary eligibility and admissibility reviews to local authorities for approval to exit Gaza, however, Canada does not control who or when someone can exit Gaza,” Krupovich said.
He added that the situation could change and if so, “we will be ready to help more people.”
In addition to the emergency measures, Krupovich said, Canada approved 448 temporary visas through existing programs for Palestinians outside Gaza between Oct. 8 and May 10.
Questions over biographical information requested by Canada
Hemaid said he’s skeptical that Canada is putting all the pressure it can on Israel to get Canadian’s family members out.
He’s also found the process to be discriminatory. He said he thought Palestinians would be treated like Ukranians, over 200,000 of whom have come to Canada under emergency measures responding to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Comparatively, he said, the process for Palestinians seems much less effective.
Hemaid was also perturbed by the sort of information he had to provide about his family members, including his 14-year-old niece. Among other things, the application asks for a list of social media accounts, a thorough work history including disciplinary measures, and a description of any scars or injuries for people 14 and older.
“You’re assuming that my family are terrorists. You’re assuming all Palestinians are terrorists,” Hemaid said. “This is clear discrimination.”
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The ministry of immigration spokesperson told CBC that “a multi-stage screening approach” is part of a standard practice in crisis response where government officials do not have people on the ground for screening.
Collecting “enhanced biographic” information allows them to do security screening while people are still in Gaza and finalize applications faster when they leave, Krupovich said.
As for comparisons to Ukraine, the ministry said every crisis is different and requires a different approach.
“In the case of Ukraine, people generally had the ability to exit the country at their discretion. With regards to Gaza, the primary challenge continues to be the ability for people to exit, as movement out of Gaza remains extremely difficult or impossible due to various factors that remain outside of Canada’s control.”
Hemaid spoke to his sister the day before speaking to CBC Hamilton in late May, he said.
Her family is in Gaza City, where they’re without electricity and struggling to find food and water. He said his 11-year-old nephew has a fracture in his leg but can’t get medical treatment and has had to rely on a makeshift splint.
“They’re just very terrified,” he said.