Arriving in Canada ‘one of the happiest moments of my life’
One of the happiest moments of Cam Galindo’s life came while he was sitting in a U-Haul truck.
Galindo and his family had fled the gang wars and violence of Colombia just months earlier, hoping to find refuge in the United States.
The problem was, they had entered the US as illegal aliens in May 2001, and the September 11 terrorist attacks meant there was little hope of the family ever gaining legal status.
“We packed our stuff in the U-Haul truck and we just drove to the Canadian border and claimed refugee status, because we had no other option,” he says. “If we went back to Colombia, we faced the danger of being killed.”
After nearly a week of waiting in Buffalo, New York, the family was finally able to cross the border into their new home.
“That was one of the happiest moments of my life – when we were finally able to go into Canada as refugees.”
Now a fourth-year Political Science student, Galindo tells his story of starting a new life in Canada in the video below.
