When legendary Canadian marathon runner, Martin Parnell, had a life threatening blood clot he was inspired to recover and run again when he read about the first courageous Afghan woman to participate in a marathon in her own country, Zainab. He invited young filmmaker and Ryerson University graduate, Kate McKenzie, to join him in documenting the journey and trained her to run her first marathon. The result of this journey is the documentary "The Secret Marathon" which will be released this year.

On December 15, 2016, Afghan Canadian Soleiman Faqiri was killed during an altercation with prison guards at the Central East Correctional Centre in Lindsay, Ontario.

Soleiman Faqiri’s stay at the Central East Corrections Centre (CECC) was meant to be a temporary measure, yet it ended up being fatal.

This October, cities in British Columbia, Ontario, and Manitoba are holding elections for the positions of mayor, city councillors, and school board trustees.

The family of Soleiman Faqiri have launched a petition address to Premier Doug Ford and Michael Tibbolo, Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services seeking justice after Soleiman was beaten to death by staff at the Central East Correctional Centre (CECC) in Lindsay, Ontario. Soleiman was in custody after he was charged with assault, these charges were later dropped.

Yusuf Faqiri has been speaking out as part of the Justice for Soli Campaign over the last year trying to get answers about this brother's death and demanding accounablity on the part of those responsible for it.

Afghan Canadian Sadaf Parweez recently made headlines in Durham region after graduating from UOIT. An Afghan refugee, Sadaf has overcome the obstacles many newcomers to Canada face when trying to pursue their education.

Muslim Link interviewed the recent graduate about her educational journey after coming to Canada as a refugee.

Razia Sultan Hamidi is a Muslim community organizer in Montreal. She has focused on creating spiritual programming that is welcoming and relevant to women and youth.

Muslim Link interviewed Razia about her work in Montreal and what civic engagement means to her.

On December 15th 2017, friends and supporters held a vigil at Dundas Square to mark the one year anniversary of Soleiman Faqiri’s death. This vigil was organized to honour and commemorate Soleiman and call for justice, transparency, accountability and most of all reform in Ontario’s correctional services.

November 15, 2017

On December 4th 2016 Soleiman Faqiri was temporarily housed at the Central East Correctional Centre (CECC) in Lindsay Ontario while awaiting a bed at the Ontario Shores Centres for mental health. Eleven days following that, on December 15 2016, Soleiman was killed by guards after they had applied force on him.  The Corners report showed that Soleiman has sustained 50 injuries on his body; a significant number of which were due to blunt impact trauma. 

The following is a statement from the Justice for Soli coalition after learning that the Kawartha Lakes Police Service will not be pressing charges against those responsible for the death of Soleiman Faqiri.

Readers should know that this is the second time that a Muslim coping with schizophrenia has died after spending time in the Lindsay Detention Centre. The first was Somali refugee Abdurahman Ibrahim Hassan, who died in a Peterborough Hospital. Hassan was under indefinite immigrantion detention at Lindsay. Fellow immigration detention inmates went on hunger strike to demand an inquest into his death.