The Canadian Way Immigration breeds gratitude & pride
T PEGGY REVELL
he child of refugees, now helping those seeking shelter in Canada.
It’s the story of Dr. Gabriel Fabreau, who was born and raised in Medicine Hat.
“To me it’s a personal story. I think refugees matter. Essentially I’m just paying back an opportunity that was given to me,” said Fabreau, who is now based out of Calgary.
Fabreau’s parents came to Canada as political refugees in 1977 from Uruguay, and were settled by the government in Medicine Hat.
Calling it a culture shock would be an understatement, said Fabreau
at Connaught School who encouraged him to pursue and love academics and Quinn Skelton, Medicine Hat High School's football coach.
After graduating high school, he attended the University of Calgary on a football scholarship. The plan? To become a professional athlete. While he enjoyed science, he had no intention of becoming a doctor. But after graduating, he travelled the world, including spending a lot of time in the developing world.
I will forever be eternally grateful to this country Canada, it gave us a home
when we had nowhere to go. Many kind people have helped us . . .
And you should be too Gabi, if it were not for Canada
you would not exist. Always remember, this country
“The difference between immigrants and refugees is that refugees have no idea where they’re even going. Sometimes they don’t even know until they get off the plane,” he said. His parents arrived in the dead of winter, “which is also a culture shock. When you come from a place where there is no snow, everything is different."
His brother was born in 1979, and he followed along in 1980.
Growing up the child of refugees had its challenges, he said.
“Like a lot of first generation kids you live between two cultures. You have the culture you live at home, you learn at home, and then the culture you’re immersed in, in school and everywhere else. Back when I grew up, it was a struggle, it wasn’t that easy.
And there was “undoubtedly” racism, discrimination and conflict that he and his family faced, he said. He was the kid whose parents had accents and had funny food for lunch. But there was also a lot of good.
“I had a wonderful childhood, I had a fantastic education,” he said, pointing to the teachers
helped raise you and now you have an obligation to give back to it . . .
— Gabriel Fabreau's father upon graduating from Harvard
“You’re just exposed to a whole different degree of suffering and health disparities that we’re protected from in Canada,” he said. This led him to go back to school and become a doctor. He’s now a specialist in internal medicine, working at both Foothills and Peter Lougheed hospital in Calgary, two clinics which focus on low income/homeless people, and a clinic for refugees.
It’s about giving back, he said, and helping the children of his patients have the same opportunities he has had,
and the same chance for success.
Those he meets — particularly over the last year with the surge of Syrian refugees — are immensely grateful to Canada, and want to give back and contribute to the country.
“People are the same everywhere, it doesn’t matter where they’re from. People just want a better opportunity for their children and to live in peace, and they want an opportunity to work and contribute to society.”
Many want to even start working and contributing before they can even finish their English classes, he said.
Fabreau is also is a professor at the University of Calgary.
“The other half of my job is to do research, public health and health services so we can improve the health system so it can stay standing for everyone,” he said. “If you don’t have health, there is no equal opportunity.
We live in a society that believes in equal opportunity and we live in a place, in Canada, that the values our health-care system.”
He was reminded of this after visiting the U.S. — alongside the difference in welcoming refugees.
“If you look at what’s going on south of the border, if you look at the Muslim ban — and I’m going to call it a Muslim ban because that’s what it is — if you look at hate speech and xenophobia, and the currents of hate and exclusion that we’re seeing, I think that Canada ... we should think carefully about where we are, what our position is in Canada,” he said.
While Dr. Fabreau believes racism still exists in Canada, he feels multiculturalism has grown, and that Canada has changed since his parents first arrived and were given a chance to succeed. “And that breeds a gratitude to this country, that’s what built our country.”
This country’s welcoming of refugees has made him “very, very proud to be Canadian.”
“It’s a fragile idea that I think we need to protect.”❚
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