Many people say: “Well, if you went to Britain you could not request political asylum because it is an EU Member State, and here in Canada you can request it, you will get welfare and someone else will take care of you.” What would you say to that argument?
I wanted to go as far away as possible in order to protect my children. I have had the experiences I have had. The other thing is that it was very hard for us to go to Canada, because no one in my family has ever been on welfare. I have always been employed, and our aim has always been to give the children an education. My son Marek is a college student, and I have been studying at college myself, at Masaryk University, and now I have interrupted my studies by leaving. My daughter has graduated from high school and had the opportunity to study at the American university here. She was one of the hot candidates for a scholarship at that university, which is open to supporting Roma students in the Czech Republic. I have interrupted all of that, and it is clear to me that it will be terribly difficult to work my way back up to something like that here.
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"Our family faced physical attacks by neo-Nazis, so we decided to leave for Canada," explains Anna Poláková, head of the Roma broadcasting section of Czech Radio. Skinheads attacked her son several years ago and, even though they were sentenced for it, continued to threaten her family.
"I believe it would have been naive to risk further attacks and another court case, not to mention that when one knows what the situation is like one must really consider where to work, whether to stay, whether to carry on as one has, being aware that one is risking the life of one's children or someone else in the family. That is what it is like! Just consider, that during the past 20 years, more than 30 Roma have died this way. Once I know that, precisely because I do this work and I am aware of what is going on, then I have to consider the situation. Protecting my family won in the end, exactly because of the experiences I have had," Poláková emphasized. She and her entire family requested asylum in Canada this week.
Anna Poláková recording an interview with Kumar Vishwanathan (Photo: Jana Šustová) Her son Marek, who was attacked by skinheads several years ago, does not trust the Czech authorities anymore, because the attacks continued: "I trust no one in the Czech Republic anymore. It happened to me so many times that the guys and I were in a bar and the Czechs yelled at us 'Get out of here you gypsies!' When the cops came, they just yelled at us some more, sent us home, and did nothing about it."
What made you decide to leave for Canada?
My experiences, the growth of neo-Nazism, the support of a large part of society for what is happening today, the frequent attacks on my family, and fear for my family
Your son Marek was attacked several years ago, can you tell us what happened?
Marek was leaving a discotheque when he was attacked at the Palmovka metro station by four skinheads who were kicking him, and his life was saved by a police patrol that happened to drive by and see it. The attackers ran off and my son was lying there unconscious. They took him to the hospital and later I found out he was there. There was a court case and all the attackers were found guilty. They received conditional sentences with the justification that they were young people whom such a light sentence would set on the right path - the authorities did not want to criminalise them. The paradox is that these people continue their activities. Four years after the attack on my son, I saw one of the attackers at the National Party demonstration at Lety, when their chair, Edelmannová, was setting up their counter-memorial there, and I warned the media that he was there. He was carrying a National Party sign, so I pointed him out to the media. These people have not been set on the right path at all, they are continuing their activities.
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hence why it is probably the most lively and interesting Provinces in Canada.
