PEN Canada started working with exiled writers not as policy, but in response to events. Chinese poet Duo Duo found himself exiled in Toronto after the Tiananmen tragedy in 1989. Journalist Martha Kumsa arrived from Ethiopia in 1991, after a brutal nine years and eight months in jail. PEN Canada staff and members did their best to help them establish new lives here.

To its credit, the government of Canada offered citizenship and passports to these writers when other countries would not. Yet it quickly became clear that many other countries offered something Canada didn't - short-term university positions designed to support exiled writers financially while introducing them into a literary and academic community.

This situation changed when writer and PEN Canada member John Fraser became Master of Massey College at the University of Toronto in 1994. As a close friend of Chinese poet, Duo Duo, Fraser had seen first-hand the alienation of an exiled writer living alone in a strange city.

Since Massey is a small, residential college, he felt that establishing a position there for exiled writers could make their initial resettlement in Canada much easier. Together with former PEN Canada president Graeme Gibson, he approached the board of directors with his idea. The board agreed, and a committee was struck to fill the position of Writer in Exile at Massey College until 1999.

In 2000, Massey College announced the new Scholar at Risk Programme, modelled on the Massey/PEN programme, by awarding the first fellowships to PEN Canada exiled writers Martha Kumsa and Reza Baraheni.

The Work of the Writers in Exile Committee of PEN Canada

1. Writers at Risk Abroad

   PEN Canada 's Writers in Exile Committee has developed considerable expertise over the years in helping freed writers and journalists escape further persecution and find safety through the auspices of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and finally asylum in Canada .

   Some of those who have benefited from our work, such as Martha Kumsa, and PEN Canada President, Dr. Reza Baraheni, are past and present participants in the Massey College Scholar at Risk Programme , a fellowship pioneered by PEN Canada and Massey College in the mid-90's.

   The support of the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation enables PEN Canada to continue to provide emergency life-saving protection, support and assistance to writers of concern to PEN Canada in extreme danger in their countries of origin or in first countries of asylum in their own regions, where they can be equally vulnerable. This work has increased exponentially during the last eighteen months, perhaps due in part to PEN Canada 's effectiveness in this area. In February and March 2003, we welcomed three recently-released Ethiopian journalists who had had to flee for their lives to Kenya where PEN Canada intervened on their behalf and successfully obtained safe refuge for them from the UNHCR. We worked closely with the Canadian High Commission in Nairobi and the Embassy in Addis Ababa to secure asylum for the writers and their families.

   The Writers at Risk Abroad Project provides emergency life-saving assistance to individual writers, scholars, and journalists known to PEN Canada if it has sufficient support. Relying on PEN Canada and International PEN's extensive network of international contacts among writers, human rights advocates, diplomats, UN officials and NGOs, individuals facing extreme risk will be provided with direct assistance to avoid persecution.

2. Integration of newcomer writers in Canada

   When possible, PEN Canada supports its honorary members in Canada with its Handbook for Exiled Writers living in Canada , and by offering (limited) resources such as help with resumés or letters.

   With the support of The Maytree Foundation, the Writers in Exile Committee's Writers in Exile Network Project is:

   1. working to identify writers in exile in Canada to build a Web network.

      
      If you are a refugee/immigrant/newcomer writer please contact us.

   2. seeking to establish contacts with academic and other institutions, such as libraries, across Canada in order to formalize writer residencies similar to the Massey Scholar at Risk program.

As well, PEN Canada 's Readers & Writers program plans events featuring readings by exiled writers with PEN Canada members and hope to help with professional seminars and workshops in the future.

The Committee believes that networks, events, writing outlets and institutional support are all vital elements in helping our refugee writers.