A local Christian clergy and community members stand in a collective solidarity, calling a beloved pastor and his children for the immediate stop.
Reverend Rosalind Vanaki along with his two young children ran away from harassment from a powerful church leader in Kenya, who was four years and eight months old at that time. He has made Toronto his home for the last five years, only to face that danger only to face that danger.
“I was already installed, I had a church, and I had my own business, I have two children. I didn’t come in this way, and then asking me to go back … It’s as good as you want I want to go back to Kenya, honestly, kill me here,” Vanaki says.
Diana Dr. Silva says with the migrant Workers Alliance for Change that Vanaki has become an integral leader in the Torontonian-Kenai community.
“Whatever he does is serving his community; he provides countless hours support in the person and online, and today we are meeting here because the community is the community, the community that he has served, the pastor today has come together to call for a stop for this exile.”
Even the appeal for risk evaluation and permanent residency application is before the courts, the exile of Vanaki is scheduled to be effective on August 7. Local belief leaders say it will create a wave effect, tore a hole in the community’s fabric and the already overwhelmed system will be flooded.
“Within our Kenai community, we rely on our pastor for support, emotional support, mental support for mental support. And using support from our pastor, we are able to see a significant drawback in those who go to hospitals, and who have to rely on the system, so when the system comes to remove one of our priests, we relate as a community.” “Because you remove one, for example, they remove Reverend Rosalind; she is serving more than 1,000 people by herself, and who is going to come and is going to step?”
According to Da Silva, Canada has 42 exile every year, and they are calling the Canadian government to take action.
“In 2021, the Prime Minister, especially the liberal government, promised people to reside regularly or give a permanent residence. They still have not made that promise. What goes every day means that people will continue to burst from their communities,” Da Silva says.
You can learn more about the story of Pastor Rosalind and Sign a petition to support him here,
