Calgary Syrian refugee never gives up hope for his dad's freedom
CBC
Waill Tatari sips tea outside his duplex in northeast Calgary, taking a break from his work as a graphic designer, and thinks back on the journey that brought him to Canada in July 2020.
He says it wasn't an easy transition when he and his mother fled Syria in 2013. They spent years on the run, living in desperation and fear, but because of so many kind people, he says his peaceful life here was possible.
Now he wants to do what he can to help his 65-year-old father, Ragheed Al Tatari, find that same sense of peace — and freedom.
His father was an air force pilot in Syria when he was arrested and imprisoned more than 40 years ago by Syrian authorities.
According to a human rights advocacy group, al Tatari is the longest serving political prisoner in Syria.
And no one really knows why.
"I have all these theories and crazy ideas, but I don't know the truth. I really want him out, so maybe the truth can come out," said Waill Tatari.
Tatari, 40, says when he was young, his mother told him his dad was away travelling.
"I think the default when someone doesn't want to tell (you the truth), well, yeah, he's just traveling," said Tatari.
Tatari says he believed her and would secretly await from his fourth floor balcony for his father's return.
"Every time I see a guy coming alone, which I don't recognize, (I thought) 'could that be my dad?'
"And then I would go to the door and wait. And then nothing happened. And then it got frustrating after a few years. So I stopped doing that."
Eventually, he says, his mother told him the truth. Or at least the truth that she knew.
She said his father had been arrested and taken to prison by Syrian authorities in 1981, shortly before Tatari was born, and she hadn't seen him since.
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