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It was a matter of impunity, of injustice, that made me leave my
country.
I looked out the window and saw the first snowflakes fall. I went
out with my umbrella to keep myself dry. I walked under my umbrella, but I saw
that no one else had one. I wrote to friends: "It falls on us like flour,
but it doesn't stay."
Remarks recorded during an interview.
Christine Paré was born in Côte d'Ivoire. After the death of
her father, when she was three years old, the family moved to Burkina Faso. She
studied computer science in Benin, then settled in Ouagadougou, in Burkina. The
murder of her best friend drove her to immigrate to Quebec. "It was
heart-rending. I left part of myself in Burkina: my close relatives, my family,
my friends, my memories."
In August 2000, Christine arrived in Rouyn, in the region of Abitibi. She
enrolled in Project Management at the Université du Québec en
Abitibi-Témiscamingue, but, feeling very isolated, decided to continue
her studies in Montreal, in the same field. After earning her master's degree,
she went to live in Calgary to improve her English. To pay for her courses, she
found a job as Coordinator of resources for the City of Calgary. She would stay
there 10 months. Today, while working for the Collectif des femmes
immigrantes in Montreal, she plans to take courses in Community Services
Administration at Concordia University. "I had the luck to be able to
change careers. Even at age 65, one can still change." For
Christine, to be an activist in human rights associations like the
Comité Canada Norbert Zongo, named after a journalist in Burkina
Faso who died for justice and liberty, remains very important. "To
apprise Canadians of what is really happening in Burkina Faso. Whatever the
country, when it is a matter of injustice, I am ready to commit myself and also
be an activist with Canadians." Activism, studies, work, without
forgetting the dream ... that of leaving again, one day, to work in Africa.
"That continent gave birth to us, and it needs us," she
says.
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