McGill says pro-Palestinian protest outside senior administrator's home 'crosses the line'
McGill University has denounced a pro-Palestinian protest held Sunday outside the home of one of its senior administrators.
*This article includes material that may trigger some readers
Imagine confronting the dictator who brutalized and destroyed your family’s life – and hearing his desperate pleas to save him.
That was the traumatic and surprising scenario Vasanti Makwana was faced with. The Canadian nurse wanted a change of pace and decided to pursue short-term work in Saudi Arabia for a professional adventure.
“It seemed like a very interesting place to go and spread my wings….And it was a year contract. So it was quite feasible for me to do,” she told CTV News.
But one night in 2003, while she was on call, her past suddenly clashed with her present when she was forced to deal with the most jarring experiences of her life.
“At around 2:00 [am], I got the phone call from the supervisors at the hospital there is a VIP coming in to be treated for dialysis.”
A driver picked her up from her compound – in those days Saudi women were not allowed to drive – and when she got to work, she found out the patient’s name was “Amin.”
But she never expected it to be the Idi Amin.
“When I did see him being wheeled in my unit, that’s when it sank in that ‘Oh, my God. This is the Idi Amin Dada,” she said. “ I was very frightened. It was like everything coming back in a rush…I was so scared. My heart was pumping.”
“And I said: Oh my God…This is the monster of my childhood.”
She remembers that he looked “very sick” and that she needed to “pull four litres of fluids from him to stabilize his condition. And that’s what we did.”
Before ICU personnel took him away, Makwana had a few moments alone with Amin who pleaded with her.
“Please help me. I’m a very sick man,” she remembers him telling her. “And I said, ‘Yes, sir, we will help you’.”
But she also felt she needed to confront him.
“I was able to have just a few moments, very few – maybe not even a couple of minutes – to be able to tell him that I’m one of those Ugandan Asians he had kicked out.
“He looked at me with very big eyes and I said, ‘Don’t worry. I will not harm you. I will help you get better’,” she said. “There was no question in my mind that I would not help him.”
But she did feel compelled to relay a burden she had been carrying for decades.
“The little girl in me needed to tell him that my father never forgave you for doing this to us because my father loved Uganda. I mean – that was his home. That was our home”
Makwana’s father did not only experience the horrors of the expulsion; he saw horrific acts unfold in front of his eyes in the months leading up to the exodus – acts that made it clear to him he needed to urgently get his family out.
One day, his car was stopped by Amin’s men and he saw a bus load of people, including a group of young girls around the same age as his daughter, Vasanti, who was 14 at the time.
“What those goons did to those young girls, my father saw with his eyes.”
“They were raped and sodomized in plain daylight. And I think one of them even died. It was gruesome,” Makwana said. “When he came home, he was ashen.”
Decades later, Makwana says the ability to speak with Amin lifted a weight.
“The way he looked at me, there was like a sense of acknowledgement,” she said.
“Honestly, after I had said what I needed him to know, everything just was gone and I had the most compassion or him. I really did feel sorry for him.”
With a report from producer Shelley Ayres
Did Omar’s family story resonate with you? CTVNews.ca wants to hear from you. Share your own family’s stories of immigration to Canada with us.
You can share your story by emailing us at dotcom@bellmedia.ca with your name and location. Your comments may be used in a CTVNews.ca story.
WATCH the full network special 'Expelled: My Roots in Uganda' airing Friday, Nov. 4 at 9 p.m. on CTV
McGill University has denounced a pro-Palestinian protest held Sunday outside the home of one of its senior administrators.
If you've been to a party lately and haven't seen someone drinking a BORG, you're likely not partying with college students.
Singapore Airlines will reward its employees with a bonus worth nearly eight months of salary, a person familiar with the matter told CNN on Friday.
Katy Perry said her goodbyes on 'American Idol' after seven seasons. On Sunday night’s live 'idol' season finale, a medley of Perry's hit songs were performed, including 'Teenage Dream,' 'Dark Horse' and 'California Gurls.'
U.S.-based restaurant chain Red Lobster has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a Florida court after securing $100 million in financing commitments from its existing lenders, the company said on Sunday.
A federal judge will reopen the sentencing hearing for the man who broke into Nancy Pelosi's San Francisco home and bludgeoned her husband with a hammer after the judge failed to allow him to speak during his court appearance last week.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal by a Canadian-born former Guantanamo detainee who was seeking to wipe away his war crimes convictions, including for killing a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan.
Microsoft wants laptop users to get so comfortable with its artificial intelligence chatbot that it will remember everything you're doing on your computer and help figure out what you want to do next.
A 35-year-old woman is in critical condition after the pick-up truck she was driving was struck by a Via Rail passenger train Monday morning in Quebec's Monteregie region.
A sanctuary dedicated to animals with disabilities is celebrating the third birthday of one of its most popular residents.
Catching 'em all with impressive speed, a 7-year-old boy from Windsor, Ont. who only started his competitive Pokémon journey seven months ago has already levelled up to compete at a world championship level.
2b Theatre recently moved into the old Video Difference building, seeking to transform it into an artistic hub, meeting space, and temporary housing unit for visiting performers in Halifax.
A B.C. woman says her service dog pulled her from a lake moments before she had a seizure, saving her life.
A Starbucks fan — whose name is Winter — is visiting Canada on a purposeful journey that began with a random idea at one of the coffee chain's stores in Texas.
Members of Piapot First Nation, students from the University of Winnipeg and various other professionals are learning new techniques that will hopefully be used for ground searches of potential unmarked grave sites in the future.
ALS patient Mathew Brown said he’s hopeful for future ALS patients after news this week of research at Western University of a potential cure for ALS.
When Adam Kirschner wrote 'Slap Shot,' he never imagined the song would be embraced by his favourite team.
A team is ready to help an entangled North Atlantic right whale in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.