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Man who abducted his 4 kids, brought them to Iran, says he was escaping ‘Canadian nightmare’ | Globalnews.ca

 By Claude Adams

Saren Azer’s story is one that has blazed through social media in Canada for nine months—a bitter marriage breakdown, a fight over four young children, and finally, a dramatic abduction and flight to a Middle East war zone by a father who says he and his kids were escaping a “nightmare.”

Now, for the first time since fleeing Canada with the kids last August, the father —an international fugitive—has spoken publicly.

SEE MY INTERVIEW WITH SAREN AZER HERE

“We were surrounded, we were encircled, we were brutalized,” Dr. Azer told me  in an exclusive Skype interview from Iran.
”For others it might be just another case in a family court. What I saw my children go through was nothing less than a terror.”
Azer, an Iranian-born Kurd, came to Canada in 1994 as a political refugee. He married Alison Jeffrey in 2002 and they separated ten years later. What followed was a bitter fight over access to the four children, Sharvahn, 11, Rojevahn, 9, Dersim, 7 and Meitan, 3.


After a court-approved European holiday in August 2015, Azer put the children on a flight to Northern Iraq and broke off all contact with the mother. The father and children later slipped across the border into Iran, Azer’s homeland, and moved in with members of his family. (He would not tell Global News the name of the city but other sources have identified it as Mahabad.)

Now Azer is a hunted man, wanted by the RCMP and Interpol on abduction charges.

In an emotional Canada-wide campaign, Azer’s ex-wife, Alison Jeffrey, has pleaded with the Canadian government to do something to have the children returned.

WATCH: Alison Azer appeals to PM and to Canada for the return of her four kids


Thousands of supporters joined her on social media, many of them vilifying Azer 
in the strongest terms. “A disgusting human being,” was a typical posting.

Alison was dismissive of her ex-husband’s latest comments.
“What he’s doing is the desperate attempts of a man who’s been on the run for nine months. He is a wanted fugitive. He continues to cross borders illegally. And really his actions speak to the desperation that he must be feeling knowing that authorities are circling in on him.”
Nine months passed before Saren Azer responded publicly to the storm generated by the abduction of his children. In the interview with me, he rejected Alison’s claim that the children were “traumatized and terrified” in their new life in a strange land, away from their mother and friends, where they couldn’t speak the language.

“They have never been as well as they are,” he said. “They are thriving, they are happy. Our daily life is filled with joy, all of them are healthy, they are well, they are thriving at school, they are learning languages, they are learning different cultures, different traditions, they are surrounded by their families and they are loved and they are adored.

“My children were in a war zone in Canada; they were in a psychological and mental war zone in that country and you could see how their fragile lives were being shattered in front of our eyes.”


Global News obtained copies of medical reports dated 2013 that point to some psychological and physical problems: delayed gross motor skills for one of the children; significant stress and anger in another; and “suicidal ideation” in a third.

In 2013, Azer says, his son Dersim, then only five, was interviewed by an RCMP officer about an allegation by Alison that Saren had disciplined the boy by tying him to a chair in the basement. A social worker with the BC Ministry of Children and Family Development said in a letter to Alison that “your children are in need of protection from your ex-husband . . . due to physical harm.”

The RCMP investigated and no charges were laid.
“I remember the terror that my son went through. For weeks on end he would not separate from me. Is this what a father should do, stand by as their children are shattered in this process?”
Three months later, the same ministry closed its file on Azer and confirmed he had completed a parenting program. Azer says the physical harm never happened.


Photos of kids with fugitive father offer hope

Alison says Azer, in his comments to me, was exaggerating the children’s emotional and physical issues.

“Not only were they not as serious, there were no disorders. The children were seen by a long list of healthcare professionals during the period of time that we spent reaching our joint custody agreement.

“I think that those papers are a matter of public record via the courts and in no way speak to the conditions or disorders that I think he’s finding it convenient to manufacture at this stage of game being an international fugitive.”

Saren Azer, a high-profile humanitarian doctor who once appeared in a video with former Prime Minister Stephen Harper, says he was overwrought by what he saw happening to his children.

“When I was working in the hospital Intensive Care Unit , almost on a weekly basis I would resuscitate teenagers with suicide attempts. Almost without exception their story was the same–from families that were dominated by hatred, anger, family court proceedings. RCMP proceedings, ministry (of children and family development) proceedings, and I could see the trail that myself and my children were on wasn’t going to be any different. I could see how these fragile and beautiful lives are going to be shattered in this process.”

But to Alison says it's the abduction by their father that will cause her children the most distress.
“Our children will suffer as a result of having been kidnapped. It’s nine months in and the sooner they’re rescued the better chance they have of returning to a healthy childhood state. And I need the Canadian government to act as quickly as they can. My children are in danger, they’re being abused, and they need to come home.”
The federal government has said it is treating the situation seriously. The Harper government ended diplomatic relations with Iran in 2012.

Azer had a lucrative medical practice on Vancouver Island and the reputation as a humanitarian who made frequent mercy missions to refugee camps in Iraqi Kurdistan. In a 2009 article Alison wrote for an Alberta publication, she said Azer worked in the spirit of celebrated doctors like Norman Bethune and Albert Schweitzer.

Azer and Alberta Liberal Party leader Dr. David Swann worked together on a number of human rights causes in Calgary over a period of 10 years.

B.C. woman says ex abducted 4 kids overseas

“(He was) absolutely selfless and sacrificial in many different ways,” Swann told Global News. “He’s put his own money and his own energy and his whole medical career on the line and gave everything he could, especially to the people of northern Iraq and the Kurdish community.”

But in the final analysis, Swann said, “I think he has violated not only the integrity of his family but international law” and that he should return the children to Canada.

The law notwithstanding, by the summer of 2015, Azer says it was a clear cut choice: his career, or his children.

“I had to decide. My options were to stay in Canada and have all that you mentioned–Canadian citizenship, well-paid physician, respected and all the rest–and the well-being of my children on the other hand, and I chose the well-being of my children.
“Yes, I have lost a lot. But at the same time I have gained more. I regained my children.”
He also extended an invitation for his ex-wife to join him in Iran.

“If Alison truly cares for these children . . . the door is open. I don’t think anybody could stop her from coming to Iran. She has many friends here. She could come here, she could see them. She could spend time with (the children), and she could see their lives. That I can definitely agree with and facilitate.”

“We are an ordinary family. Our important issues now are finding a car, looking after our cats, making our meals, cleaning our house. These are our issues . . . we couldn’t care less about that madness that goes on in Canada.”

Avalanche Rescue: Greg Hill's Story

By Claude Adams

Even among extreme skiers, Greg Hill is a phenomenon. The BC man has spent most of his adult life climbing and skiing at high altitude, up where the air is thin and risk is ever-present. It’s been a life of high adventure, and a lot of fun . . . But then, on a recent morning, Greg Hill came upon a scene he can never forget—a snowfield of death in the mountains of Nepal.

Greg talked with 16x9’s Jill Krop in his first extended interview at his home in Revelstoke.  (October, 2012)

Watch the full 16x9 video story HERE


VO
THESE ARE THE MOMENTS GREG HILL LIVES FOR.

CLIMBING TO THE TOP OF THE WORLD.

AND THEN COMING DOWN SLOPES NO ONE HAS EVER SKIED BEFORE.

IT’S A PASSION THAT DROVE HIM TO EXTREME LENGTHS.

LIKE SETTING A RECORD FOR VERTICAL ASCENTS.

In 1999 I was hiking up a mountain and I did a big day and I was 5000 foot day and I started doing math and I was..Wow if you did just over 5000 feet everyday you’d do 2 million feet.

VO (various climbing and skiing shots)
IT TOOK A LONG TIME AND A LOT OF TRAINING.

BUT FINALLY, IN 2010, HE MADE IT.

TWO MILLION VERTICAL FEET IN THE SPACE OF ONE YEAR.

THAT’S NEARLY 400 MILES OF MOUNTAIN  . .CLIMBED.

SU from 2million.movie 5:59 “  (CLIP—HIS JOY OF MAKING IT)
“There it is (shows altimeter at 2 million feet) CHEERS. I guess I am going to get emotional. Holy shit. “ You’re a nutbag. You’re crazy! (Greg tearfully) Holy shit. One year!”

BUT AT THESE ALTITUDES, IT’S NOT ALL CELEBRATION

THERE ARE RISKS AT EVERY TURN.

YOU NEED A CLEAR MIND, A FIT BODY AND ABSOLUTE FOCUS

there’s all sorts of different levels of things you have to consider out there. Most of the time obviously avalanches are your biggest hazard

JILL: DESCRIBE AN AVALANCHE TO SOMEONE WHO’S NEVER SEEN ONE OR HEARD ONE OR BEEN IN ONE

An avalanche is very similar to a wave on a beach, except it starts at the top of the mountain and it’s this big vertical wall of snow which kinda sweeps down the mountain.

WITH A LOT OF FORCE

With a lot of force something you never wanna be below or above.

HIS ABILITY TO ASSESS RISK PROBABLY SAVED GREG’S LIFE ON A RECENT VISIT TO NEPAL.

(PHOTO OF GERMAN TEAM)
HE WAS WITH A TEAM OF GERMAN CLIMBERS ON MANASLU, THE WORLD’S EIGHTH HIGHEST PEAK.

AND WHAT HE SAW DISTURBED WHAT HE CALLS HIS “MOUNTAIN SENSE”

(PHOTO OF LINEUP ON MOUNTAIN)

This was the most busy mountain that I’ve ever been on I mean you can see from one of my pictures it’s there’s a line up of humans going up the fixed ropes and yeah we’re very busy.

VO 
300 CLIMBERS . . . 200 SHERPA GUIDES

(photo of mt, with camp 3 marked)
SOME OF THEM SETTING UP CAMP

IN A BOWL-LIKE DEPRESSION THAT SEEMED, TO GREG, DANGEROUSLY EXPOSED.

No I would never camp at camp 3. Especially at that spot

JILL: EVEN A ROOKIE COULD SEE THAT COULD BE IN THE DIRECT LINE OF AN AVALANCHE

Yeah definitely some questions with that camp spot I was surprised when I got up that day and saw about 14 camps up there.

VO  
GREG AND THE GERMAN TEAM FOUND A SAFER SPOT TO PUT UP TENTS

We were just trying to get to our Camp 2 which was positioned on this kind of a rise and a bit of an ice bulge and as safely as I could find on the mountain.

SO YOU PICKED THE SITE WHERE YOU AND YOUR GERMAN CREW SLEPT

Definitely as a group we picked it, there wasn’t many other places I would have slept on that mountain.

One of the rules is definitely to sleep in the safest spot you can find.

VO 
BUT GREG SAYS THERE’S ANOTHER CODE IN MOUNTAINEERING.

WHEN IT COMES TO RISK, YOU MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS.

Everyone has their own kind of risk tolerances in the mountains and they’ve got their objectives, and they’re willing to take that risk and..we’re not gonna go over there and force our views on them.

JILL: EVEN IF YOU THOUGHT THEY WERE IN DIRECT LINE OF AN AVALANCHE YOU WOULDN’T TELL THEM THAT

There’s very experienced people there and they’re all making their own decisions and like I said they’re deciding on their risk tolerance and it’s not for me to tell them what to do.

VO 
ON SEPTEMBER 23, AT 4:45 AM, GREG WOKE UP . . .  AND HE KNEW THERE WAS TROUBLE.

Just right off the bat, the winds and just kind of started flapping our tent really flapping our tent,  . . .  we were just oh that’s really odd and I think that was an avalanche that just went by.

we could hear voices up the slope and peeking out and we could see head lamps and desperation desperate voices shouting for each other and we knew that something had just happened

once it got clear and we started hiking up we could see that it was a huge event. Many people caught in it and it was the entire tents 14 tents that we had seen the night before were gone somewhere in the debris*****

(RESCUE VIDEO)

WHAT’S YOUR VERY FIRST THOUGHT

Our very first thought was well we should go save them.

JILL: FIRST THING YOU SAW WHEN YOU GOT THERE?

we saw a discarded down boot which meant somebody’s tent had been bashed and then we knew there was no tents left up at base camp 3 that everything had been swept down so all of a sudden there’s another discarded boot there’s jackets there’s sleeping bags and then there’s saw a bit of the first group of French people that were sitting there and you could see they were obviously all shell shocked

it’s freezing cold at 5 am so we basically just gave them some hot drinks and stuff and so started focusing on those that were actually in need of our direct assistance.

YOU’RE NOT A DOCTOR

No I’m a First Aid attendant. I’ve been a First Aid attendant for 16 years. But I’ve only dealt with sprained wrists and splinters I’ve never really dealt with anything actually real this was the first time it was real.

WHAT WAS THE RANGE OF INJURIES

the one guy Ralph that we started digging out right away he was kinda buried up to here with his tent all wrapped around him and he had some broken ribs and kind of a dislocated arm out there in the snow,

VO
GREG’S MOST VIVID MEMORY, THOUGH, IS A FRENCH WOMAN, NAMED CATHERINE.

I remember she actually had a ton of internal injuries and was really not with us but we wrapped her and got her on a sleeping mat and then all sorts of sleeping bags and got oxygen on her and kinda seemed like she’d be able to stay with us but as the length of the rescue happened she definitely she just faded away and there was nothing we could really do for her***

Jill: SHE WASN’T THE ONLY ONE TO DIE THOUGH
No there was many others that were completely buried and suffocated in their tents under feet of snow

VO  (viz of hill sobbing and talking)
IT’S THEN THAT GREG WAS OVERCOME BY EMOTION.

HE TURNED THE CAMERA ON HIMSELF

SU    HILL TALKING/SOBBING
I didn’t know any of them, but it’s so fuckin’ sad . . they all come out here trusting their Sherpas and everything and camp in this huge avalanche bath (?) and I don’t know, how many died, ten? Oh God!

VO  
GREG THEN DID SOMETHING HE’D NEVER DONE BEFORE

HE LEFT A MOUNTAIN . . .UNCONQUERED

My time there was done and I wouldn’t have any desire to climb it at this period of my life and I was just gonna grab everything and exit stage left and get back to what’s important to me

WHICH IS..

Family, friends.

(Revelstoke scenics—then home with his family)

VO 
BACK HOME TO REVELSTOKE, BC

HOME, AND HIS TWO KIDS AND WIFE TRACEY

THE EVERYDAY THINGS THAT HELP BLUNT THE BAD MEMORIES.

TRACEY SAYS SHE’S NOT UNCOMFORTABLE WITH GREG’S LIFESTYLE

 I find that Greg’s a very passionate person about what he loves and that’s who he is that’s how he’s always been  . . and he’s happy.

VO
HAPPY . . . BUT IN HIS CLUTTERED WORKSPACE, GREG CAN’T SEEM TO GET HIS MIND OFF THE HUMAN DRAMA HE WITNESSED.

HIS HASTILY-UNPACKED CLIMBING GEAR STREWN ACROSS THE FLOOR. . . AS HE REVIEWS THE IMAGES FROM MANASLU WITH HIS SON AIDAN

JILL: WILL YOU STILL KEEP TRYING TO SCALE THESE HIGH MOUNTAINS

I’m sure at some point I will try those peaks again it’s something that I get to fully experience and say I had to deal with this tragedy I think it’ll take a while.

VO (shot of him on back porch looking at mountains) 
SO FOR THE TIME BEING, HE’LL REST, AND PROCESS THOSE EXPERIENCES IN NEPAL.


BUT THE MOUNTAINS, AND THE MEMORIES THEY HOLD, ARE ON GREG HILL’S HORIZON, EVERY DAY.

END