Originally published in TEACH Magazine, 75 Years of the Canadian Citizenship Act Special Issue, 2022
By Meagan Gillmore
Asif Hasan and his wife can foster children in Fredericton, NB, the city he has called home for nine years. But he can’t help decide who will form the municipal government.
Hasan came to Canada from Bangladesh as an international student at the University of New Brunswick and acquired permanent resident status after he finished school. Living in Canada has been a dream for him, he shares.
“I always admired that this is a land for liberty, to practice freedom,” Hasan says. So when he found out he couldn’t vote in municipal elections he was shocked. “It just didn’t make sense to me that my voice is muted,” he remembers.
Meagan Gillmore is a freelance writer in Toronto, ON.
