Ukrainian stranded at Toronto airport falls victim to theft

A Ukrainian newcomer had most of his belongings stolen during a three-day stay at Toronto Pearson Airport.

Vitali Laktionov landed at the airport last week. Because he had nowhere else to go, he stayed there. He said while he was sleeping, someone took almost everything he owned except his phone.

“My feeling was very bad because I [was] alone, my English is not well, I don’t have friends and I don’t have parents in this city,” he said.

His clothing, passport and documents were all taken. An airport organization put him in touch with Grassroots Response to the Ukrainian Crisis (GRUC) – a Waterloo Region group that helps newcomers find homes, documents, jobs and community support.

“They sent him to us and now we’ve started going through the process of getting all the documents reinstated and getting him clothing,” Stephanie Goertz, the founder of the group, said.

Laktionov is living at a home in Cambridge with a few other Ukrainian newcomers.

“It’s perfect because all of us are Ukrainian. It’s my people,” he said with a smile.

He’s one of more than 850 people GRUC has helped over the past two years.

“The settlement support that we thought or hoped would be there for them really didn’t support them to make sure that they could settle in Canada,” Goertz said.

The group has about a dozen properties around Waterloo Region, with several people living at each one.

With no government funding, they’re turning to the community for financial support. A GoFundMe page has been launched in hopes of raising $200,000 to go towards more rental properties in Waterloo Region and beyond.

“So we can have money in our bank account so that we feel we can go out and rent more properties and go into communities to help build these amazing spaces,” Goertz said.

“We’re getting them clothing, we’re getting them food, we’re getting them to English classes all within a two or three week time period. So there’s a lot of energy around our houses.”

Influx of newcomers before deadline

On March 31, there’s a federal government deadline for Ukrainian newcomers.

According to the government’s website, it’s the last day they can enter Canada and receive special measures and various supports offered under the Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel.

Because of that, Goertz said there is an influx of people arriving now and looking for homes. Many have no place to go.

“There’s people that started living and working in other countries like Poland and Czech and they tried to make it work,” she said. “And they’re still trying to make it work, but then they wonder ‘I’m really struggling. Is Canada a better option?”

“There’s a lot of turmoil of trying to figure out what direction do they go in for the rest of their life and this deadline is quickly approaching.”