White 31 year old, Brandon Huntley, has managed to get as far as he can from the Mowbray mean streets.

Canada were happy to take him on.

This, from the Ottawa Sun :

An Ottawa man has been granted refugee status after an immigration board panel ruled he would be likely be persecuted if he returned back to his native South Africa — because he is white.

A Canadian immigration and refugee board panel ruled Thursday that Brandon Huntley, 31, could stay in Canada because he presented “clear and convincing proof of the state’s inability or unwillingness to protect him.”

 

A white dog
Cute? Apparently not..

 

“I find that the claimant would stand out like a ‘sore thumb’ due to his colour in any part of the country,” tribunal panel chair William Davis said in his decision to grant Huntley refugee status.

It’s likely the first time a white South African has been granted refugee status in Canada claiming persecution from black South Africans, said Russell Kaplan, Huntley’s immigration lawyer.

“There’s a hatred of what we did to them and it’s all about the colour of your skin,” Huntley said of the violence wrought by black attackers on many white South Africans.

Huntley first came to Canada on a six-month work permit in 2004 to work as a carnival attendant. He returned home to South Africa and came back to work in Canada in 2005 for a year and stayed illegally for an additional year until he made a refugee claim in April 2008.

Growing up in Mowbray, a town near Cape Town, Huntley was attacked seven times — including three stabbings — by black South Africans during attempted robberies and muggings.

During these attacks, Huntley told the refugee board that he was called “a white dog” and “a settler ,” a reference to South Africa’s colonial past based on racial apartheid.

“If you have got the money, you can protect yourself,” Huntley said of the armed security guards wealthy white South Africans hire to protect themselves.

Huntley’s “subjective fear of persecution remained constant and consistent” up to the time he made his refugee claim, Davis noted in his decision on Huntley’s claim.

[more here]

Wow – the first whitey to get refugee status in Canada – he’s gonna have a ball over there.

While I do feel sorry for Brandon Huntley and appreciate what he has apparently been through, I would like to know exactly where he lived and why he stayed in a place where he was attacked seven times. Maybe try a different route home? Or install some burglar bars?

A similar thing was happening to a friend of mine living in London.

He moved.

I spent a large portion of my life in the Southern Suburbs and, in particular, Mowbray. My mother’s office was in Mowbray, as well as my bank branch. I didn’t LIVE in the area and I’m aware that it’s not exactly Upper Newlands, but I had and still have a number of friends living there. I have never heard of any of them, nor any other white person I know living anywhere EVER being called a “white dog” or a “settler.”

And what do they mean by him standing out “like a sore thumb.” Is he implying that as a white person in South Africa you will be targeted, but not as a black person? Which part of Mowbray will everything come to a standstill if you walk through it as a white person?

I’m not saying he is LYING, I’m just saying that he is potentially a spice master and I’d love to hear the other side of the story. You know, just to find out a little more about the circumstances. That, and the burning question on everyone’s mind – does he have many friends? Black OR white?

I just find it interesting, that’s all..

What do YOU think? Do you reckon Brandon Huntley is a spice master?

[thanks holly]