Why did you come to Canada?

“I come from a very safe city for Mexican standards, but it’s still pretty dangerous. I was coming home one night from the club and I stopped to get some gum because I’d been drinking. I parked my car infront of the gas station and went in, I was going back to the car and these two guys jumped me. One of them put a knife to my mouth, it was like a big machete. They were like, “Okay give us your money” and I had zero money whatsoever. They brought me into my car and they were super high or drunk and they were driving super fast. We go to the bank and they ask me to withdraw. The real fear there was that I was going to get kidnapped, in the moment I was thinking what that would do to my family because you see all these stories on the media and everything where entire families fall apart because of this and I didn’t want to see that happening. So I begged for my life there. I tried to withdraw, and there was no money. I thought okay that’s it, they’re gonna kill me. They told me to turn around and I started walking when I turned back they left with my car. I ran away, I was in shock. I stopped a cab and told them they just robbed me, I don’t have anything to pay. I was shaking. I rang the doorbell to get into my house and my father came out, he was scared and he started crying. I had difficulty breathing. I made some mistakes there and shouldn’t have stopped where I stopped. They took me that morning to the police station. When we got there my car was crashed and already at the station. They took my statement, and the police officers took me around the city to identify all the spots that I mentioned and then they tried to put ME in jail. They started making crazy allegations like “We know you crashed your car, you were coming out of the club” and even questioned my sexuality. My father used the find my phone app and found the person they sold my phone to. That person showed him the houses of the guys and told them the names. We told the police and they didn’t do anything. These guys are still free.

“Two years later they call me to do the first facial recognition, I told them I don’t remember, this happened two years ago. I’ve had other experiences in my life, that family members and friends have had. So I started asking myself, who is one person in my life who hasn’t had an issue? I didn’t know one person who didn’t have something happen. Why am I staying in this country? So I started looking at universities. I had this teacher who was really encouraging. He kept saying we have a lot of opportunities outside, and we should study abroad.  Nobody thought I was going to make it. I wasn’t the best student to be honest here. I was the only person in my class who actually left Mexico. I’m still committed to that, I’d rather work in a call centre here than be president of Mexico. At the end of it, I came to the International College of Manitoba at the University. We under estimate the differences between Latin America. People are so different here. It was a shock but I got used to it and I really enjoy being here. I did feel relieved. You have more security, money security, physical security, your rights are protected for the most part, it’s a safe place.”