Iqaluit resident a proud Canadian

DENISE RIDEOUT

IQALUIT — Omer Pasalic smiles and proudly pulls a laminated ID card out of his wallet. The card, bearing the words “certificate of Canadian citizenship,” represents a whole new life for Pasalic.

For the 23-year-old, life in Iqaluit is worlds apart from Bosnia, the war-torn nation in southeastern Europe where he was born.

Fair-haired and soft-spoken, Pasalic is a Bosnian Muslim who imigrated to Canada and now lives in Iqaluit. He works with the local RCMP detachment escorting prisoners from the Baffin Correctional Centre to the courthouse.

This July 1, at a Canada Day ceremony in Iqaluit, Pasalic was officially sworn in as a Canadian citizen. Wide-eyed with excitement, he says he’s overjoyed about his new Canadian status.

Pasalic has worked hard to get to this point in his life.

He’s lived in Canada for close to six years. But for six years before that he lived in a refugee camp.

During Pasalic’s lifetime, Bosnia has been torn apart by strife between its three ethnic groups: Serbs, Croats and Muslims.

When Pasalic was just a child, his father sent him and his brother to a refugee camp in Slovenia, another Balkan country that broke away from Yugoslavia, where they would be safe from the Bosnian war.

Times were rough at the camp, Pasalic says.

For six years he lived in a small room with seven other people, eating just one meal a day.

“We were just living day-to-day,” Pasalic says.

Still, during his time at the camp Pasalic managed to finish high school, and then went on to get two college diplomas — one in social studies and another in mechanics.

It was also at the camp that he thought about moving to Canada — a place he heard was safe and beautiful.

When a friend applied to immigrate to Canada, Pasalic soon followed suit.

When good news came, Pasalic says, “I was jumping. I was crazy. I was thinking ‘I’m getting out of here.’”

He also followed the advice of his father, who urged him to go to a safe place and make a better life for himself.

“I wish my father could see me,” he says, his voice quiet. His father went missing in 1995, and Pasalic hasn’t heard from him since.

Pasalic and his older brother headed for Ottawa, hard on the heels of their friend.

Despite having two college degrees, Pasalic went to high school again in Ottawa, immersing himself in English classes.

“When we arrived here we didn’t even know how to say ‘Hi’” he says, laughing.

Pasalic stayed in Ottawa for five years. He moved to Iqaluit with his girlfriend six months ago.

He says he’s enjoying his work with the police and has applied to join the RCMP.

So far, he says, he’s also enjoying life in Canada.

“The nature, the beauty, the people are really nice,” Pasalic says.