After more than a decade of struggling to remain a presence in their lives, and a year living in Egypt fighting for custody, a Cree woman finally arrived home in Quebec, with her two Cree-Egyptian daughters.
Candy Gunner and her girls Fatma, 16, and Aisha, 13, arrived at Montreal’s Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport Monday, in an emotional reunion with their Canadian family.
The girls moved to Egypt as infants and haven’t been back to Canada since.
Candy, from Mistissini, Que., moved back to Canada on her own after an illness made it difficult for her to stay in Egypt, according to her GoFundMe page.
She has travelled back and forth from Egypt for the past 12 years to spend time with her girls — dreaming of one day bringing them back to Canada.
While they were with their father’s family in Egypt, Candy said she worried for her daughters safety.
“It feels surreal…like I’m dreaming,” said Candy, after successfully getting her girls onto a plane this week without their father knowing.
“For so many years I’ve been trying to get them back. And they are here finally,” said Candy. “I’m just overwhelmed and I’m tired, now I can finally rest. It’s been a long, hard struggle.”
Fatma and Aisha were infants when they moved to Egypt. They arrived at Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport in Montreal on Monday with their mother. (Submitted by Candy Gunner)
Candy has been in Egypt full-time since last October, fighting in court to get full custody of the girls.
Current Egyptian custody laws state that children should be under their mother’s custody — unless the mother remarries. When the children reach the age of 15, however, they can choose to live with either their father or mother.
Both girls wanted to return to Canada with their mother.
Last week, she finally got all the travel papers they needed to get the girls out of the country.
The Cree Nation Government helped “intensively” co-ordinate Candy’s legal battle and worked with Global Affairs Canada to help get the girls and their mother out of Egypt safely.
“I was nervous and scared,” said Candy. “Because we had to go through customs and it’s a different law over there. We were still scared even when we were at the airport.”
Candy and her daughters say they didn’t really relax until they landed in Toronto before coming onto Montreal.
“I can’t believe it,” said Fatma at the airport Monday. “I left hell you know? It was like prison.”
“[I’m] not going be scared of my father, to like come and try to take me away while trying to get out,” said Aisha, 13, who said she started having panic attacks because of the situation.
Fatma and Aisha pose with a Canadian passport. (Submitted by Candy Gunner)
A small group of Cree relatives and friends were at the airport Monday to greet Candy and meet the girls, including their grandfather, Morley Gunner.
“I can’t hold my tears back,” said Morley, who has only seen his granddaughters in videos and through the video chat app FaceTime.
“I want to show them my love first. I have no plans right now, I just want to see them,” said Morley.
Candy Gunner (right) is hugged by her father Morley Gunner as she landed at the Montreal airport. It was her first time back in Canada since last October. (Susan Bell/CBC)
Several thousands of dollars was raised through two GoFundMe campaigns and Air Creebec, a Cree-owned and operated airline, is offering them tickets to Candy’s home community of Mistissini.
“I had a lot of love and support from the Cree communities from all over,” said Candy. “I can’t thank everyone enough for all their help.”
A welcome home party was planned for Monday night in Montreal. Candy says her priority is to get them in school and to introduce them to their extended Cree family in Eeyou Istchee.