My Ordeal in Canada is a narration of my tragic plight as a black man in Canada. I have been incarcerated five times by the police force and for no valid reasons whatsoever. I was also condemned to a psychiatric facility, admitted forcibly, without my consents and in violation of my rights as a Canadian citizen. Since I came to Canada in 1985 I have been subjected to many denials and deprivations by the prejudiced Canadian justice system which I have enumerated in my book in greater details. Since 2005 I experienced a number of discriminatory impediments imposed on me by the systemic racism that is prevalent in the Canadian justice system. I was prohibited from having access to my children for a total of more than ten years even though I committed no offense against any of them whatsoever. The Toronto police and the justice system treat black men like myself differently and impose their racially biased verdicts without any repercussions. This book highlights the various racist ordeals I was subjected to especially by the police and the Canadian justice system and by my employers. My deplorable and dismal predicaments, however, are not unique to me alone. They are paramount manifestations of the pathetic and pitiful trends and discriminations black men especially have to endure in racially biased Canada. It is my hope that by writing my story and experiences in Toronto I will influence and bring the required changes and to highlight the discrepancies customary and prevailing in the Toronto police and the Canadian justice system. I feel that I have a story to tell that will make Canada a better place to live in for all its citizens when the required changes are instituted.

Freedom, truth, and justice are taken for granted in some countries. In others, they are aspirational. And yet in others, they are deemed justification for persecution, punishment, and silence. Through first-person essays and short stories, the contributors to The Uncaged Voice share their brutal yet heart-rending tales of fleeing the oppressive regimes of their homelands, where freedom of expression and the press is an ideal, not a reality, and where totalitarian forces attempt to subjugate, if not annihilate, all forms of dissention. From war correspondents reporting across dangerous “no-go zones,” to female journalists escaping conservative and patriarchal tyranny, to independent newspaper editors risking imprisonment or worse to criticize authoritarian states — these fifteen writers-in-exile continue to write, sharing both the suppressed truths of their past and the hopes they have for the future in Canada, their chosen place of asylum. With introductions by editor Keith Ross Leckie and Mary Jo Leddy, The Uncaged Voice tells often-silenced stories, not only of censorship and persecution, but also of the strength and resilience of those unwavering in their fight for the freedom of expression. Contributors include: Aaron Berhane, Gezahegn Mekonnen Demissie, Alexander Duarte, Ava Homa, Abdulrahman Matar, Ilamaran Nagarasa, Luis Horacio Nájera, Kiran Nazish, Pedro A. Restrepo, Maria Saba, Kaziwa Salih, Mahdi Saremifar, Bilal Sarwary, Savithri, and Arzu Yildiz.