CTV News Interviews Simsek
Heather Butts, a correspondent for CTV National News based in Toronto, interviewed Murat Simsek, the Program Development Director of Northern Justice watch on June 20th, World Refugee Day.
Members of NJW had joined around 100 protestors on June 19th, in Toronto, for the March organized by Amnesty International Canada, to advocate refugee rights.
Simsek marched with the NJW Founder, Yasemin Mamaloglu, the Executive Director Serif Aydin, and numerous other team members, raising posters implying that the rights of refugees must be upheld, respected, and protected.
A day after the march, on World Refugee Day, the CTV News correspondent, Butts, met Simsek and gave him the opportunity to talk from a refugee perspective.
“I’m grateful for the people who are making me feel at home,” Simsek told Butts, as he briefed about his way to Canada. He also mentioned that he is upset about the closure of Roxham Road (a path on the US-Canada border, formerly used to enter Canada) to refugees.
“All our politicians and state officials. They need to understand that people who come to Canada are seeking safety and protection,” said Simsek, implying that the refugees are forced to seek asylum as they experience alarming situations back in their home countries.
Simsek ended the interview with Butts, reading out a poem he remembered of Warsan Shire, “No one is home, unless home is the mouth of a shark. No one leaves, unless home chases fire under your feet, hot blood in your belly.”
