Refugees In Canada Rely On Welfare, Odd Jobs To Repay Debt To Federal Gov't

The sun was still shining when Grace Bigazi’s plane touched down at Calgary International Airport on June 22, 2015. It was after 9 p.m.The 17-year-old stared in bewilderment, then double-checked her watch, wondering if she had set it to the wrong time zone. On the same day, the sun set in Kenya hours earlier at 6:30 p.m. local time. Perhaps insignificant in the grand scheme of things, but it was the first of many contrasts Bigazi would strike between her previous life in Congo and Rwanda, and the one she was starting in Canada as a refugee.