Tabaj family relishes return to Canada

Tabaj family relishes return to Canada. The Tabaj family celebrated Christmas in Etobicoke for the first time since being deported to Albania in 2009. Maria, 12, Kristian and Vicenco, 6, and parents Anilda and Arjan are thrilled to be back in the community after their removal was deemed unlawful. Here they show off the flag they received upon their return to Canada from former Etobicoke Centre MP Borys Wrzesnewskij. Staff photo/MARY GAUDET

"This is a beautiful Christmas. We are home now. We are in Canada," Arjan Tabaj exclaimed recently at the Dixon Road apartment in Etobicoke he shares with wife Anilda, daughter Maria, 12, and five-year-old twin sons Kristian and Vincenco. "Last year we had zero Christmas...The only thing I asked for is that my kids be able to go to school, and now they're enjoying the goodness of their country - school, freedom, friends, everything. It's beautiful."

For more than two years after being deported from Canada to their native Albania in June 2009, the family of five moved from hiding spot to hiding spot for fear for their safety, only venturing outside when absolutely necessary.

Much to the lament of Maria, Christmas trees were not deemed a necessity. Nor were presents.

"Last Christmas we didn't have a tree and we didn't have, like, any presents because we couldn't go out and buy them because we were hiding," said the St. Eugene's Catholic School Grade 7 student, expressing her excitement at the all the possibilities for this year's holidays. "There's a lot of places we can go because we can go out. In Albania we couldn't go out. We couldn't do anything."

That's because they feared for their lives, said Arjan.

Back in 2000, Arjan alleges he was the victim of an assassination attempt in Tirana, Albania that killed his best friend and brother-in-law, and cost him his left leg (he now wears a prosthetic limb) and the use of his left arm.

Those responsible for the automatic weapon attack on the pro-democracy van he was riding in that day, he said, are still at large and therefore still a threat, which is why he and the family fled to Canada.

But the Tabaj's immigration case is a complicated one because the family abandoned a previous refugee claim filed in 1998 - the first time they fled to Canada. After only two years here and feeling it was safe to do so, the family returned to Albania in 2000 with Albanian-born Maria, only to have Arjan's life threatened by the assassins.

When they came back to Canada shortly thereafter using fake passports, they were told they couldn't stay - a ruling they fought against for nine years, right up until their deportation on June 8, 2009.

Even then, the Tabaj family spent the Christmas holidays of 2008 - before their deportation - apart, with both Arjan and Anilda behind bars at a detention centre, the kids under the care of a neighbour.

"I was suffering so much. Can you imagine? My wife in jail, me in jail, the kids - the babies just 18 months old - with someone they don't know," Arjan recalled. "A priest used to come and visit me and he'd say 'Arjan, don't worry. God will work in a mysterious way.' I didn't then, but now I understand how God worked in a mysterious way."

That's because, according to Arjan, God sent him and his family a whole host of unlikely 'angels' to come to their rescue - including a former MP, two immigration lawyers, and a federal court judge.

The Christmas of 2008, then-Etobicoke Centre MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj stepped in at the last minute and pledged $12,000 out-of-pocket to secure the release of Anilda so that she could spend the holidays with her kids. It would be the first of many acts Wrzesnewskyj would perform on behalf of the family, including sponsoring immigration lawyer, Katherine Ramsey, who would ultimately bring the family back from Albania this year.

Arjan and Anilda also credit immigration paralegal Macdonald Scott and Justice Sandra J. Simpson for their contributions to bringing them back home for the holidays.

"I thank God these people never gave up on my family - to bring them new hope and a new life," Arjan said, showing off the Canadian flag gifted to the family by Wrzesnewskyj upon their arrival at Pearson airport on Sept. 22. "Always when we were away I was dreaming to walk with my kids peacefully in these nice streets here, and now I can. My kids are my future. For them now, I see schools, parks, they can go outside, fresh air, friends, more food, more everything. It's a gift."

Added Anilda: "We'll never forget. Your country is the country that gives you happiness and gives you rights. This is the country I call my country."