Children: Ian Wilkie

Ian Wilkie: Ian Wilkie, his wife Wafaa Abdou and their three children came to Hamilton from Damascus in 2011 as the civil war in Syria worsened. Wilkie, who married Abdou 10 years earlier while working as a translator in Egypt, did not properly file an application with immigration to sponsor his wife. , according to Hamilton Spectator. Despite fierce campaigning by family and friends to free her, Abdou was deported in April, leaving Wilkie and the couple's children to renew attempts to bring her back to Canada. But Wilkie now a single parent struggled financially and the children missed their mother, resulting in a decision for the family to reunite in Egypt and give up the option of settling in Canada. A Canadian man who tried unsuccessfully to resettle his foreign-born wife and children in Hamilton is doing well in Egypt, a friend of the family says. Wilkie has said he received contradictory instructions from Canadian officials, which led Abdou to register as a refugee. Her claim for refugee status was denied, and she was detained for more than 100 days at a federal facility in Mississauga. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.