The global number of people currently displaced from their home countrymore than 50 millionis higher than at any time since World War II. Yet in recent years Canada has deported, denied, and diverted countless refugees. Is Canada a safe haven for refugees or a closed door?
In Flight and Freedom, Ratna Omidvar and Dana Wagner present a collection of thirty astonishing interviews with refugees, their descendants, or their loved ones to document their extraordinary, and sometimes harrowing, journeys of flight. The stories span two centuries of refugee experiences in Canada: from the War of 1812where an escaped slave and her infant daughter flee the United States to start a new life in Halifaxto the War in Afghanistanwhere asylum seekers collide with state scrutiny and face the challenges of resettlement.