These Ghazan families came to Quebec for security. Now, they face life without health coverage

When Nidal Zacout arrived in Montreal last September from Gaza, he hoped that he would get a chance to rebuild his life.

But security did not mean that the conflict was over.

He soon felt that he and his family would only receive public health coverage for three months after arrival – despite the escape from Ghazan and Israel’s deadly attacks on his motherland.

“It’s a bad feeling, I am thinking about everything every day,” Zakout told his West Island home living room, where he lives with his parents, his two sisters, his wife and his two children.

“I have a big family, a big responsibility.”

Zaqout fears what can happen if a person in his house becomes ill. His father suffers from severe knee pain and migraine from his mother and is on issues with his back, shoulders and necks.

Without Quebec Health Insurance (RAMQ), going to the hospital is no alternative, and the options are rare and expensive.

“Not all people have money, they cannot cover for health because people came from Gaza,” said Aya, a 15 -year -old sister of Zakout.

“Everything is destroyed, they have nothing. They lost everything.”

As Zaqout and her sister spoke, her mother served dates and coffee. The family gathered closely and gently helped each other to tell their story in Arabic, French and English, vigilance for every detail.

Zaqout expressed gratitude to Canadian and Quebec governments and said that he was happy and feel safe here, but I wish he and his family could reach for care.

“I can’t live without a medical card,” he said.

‘I need health care after the war’

Zaqout and his family arrived as temporary residents in Canada Temporary residence program for GhazanTheir visas are valid for three years and they initially received three months of health coverage through the Interim Federal Health Program (IFHP) – after which the federal government says it is dependent on the provincial government.

But Quebec has faced criticism to fail to do so.

More than 70 civil society and health care groups published in the province Open letter in La press Last month, Ghazan is calling the province not to provide health care coverage.

The letter stated, “Quebec remains the only province that is refusing to insure his health care.”

According to federal data, 823 Ghazan has built it in Canada between October 2023 and May 2025.

According to Gaza health officials, after killing more than 54,000 Palestinians, these families are among the affected Palestinians, and 90 percent of the Enclave population was displaced.

The same month, A United nations report It concluded that Israel is deliberately provoking situations “Calculated to bring about the physical destruction of Palestinians as a group, one of the categories of massacre works at Rome law and massacre conference.”

“Everything was destroyed, my house, my everything, my business, my jobs,” Zakuut said, showing a video of its former house in Gaza – elegant architecture and a house with a palm tree that once stood long next to it.

Jehan Elsayed, another Ghazan who has been living in Sherbrook, Q, since December, is very familiar with the loss of all Zacauts.

She tears on the videoconference as she remembers an old man to force an Israeli soldier to strip and her time stays in Gaza, with 180 people in the same house without water, food or electricity.

When she finally made it in Quebec, she slipped on ice and broke her arm. Shortly after his health coverage ended and now, he continues.

“I need health care after the war,” he said. “I don’t want my health condition to be bad.”

Elsayyed French is learning and said that she is trying to integrate in society, grateful for the help received from Cubakers. But she finds it “very disappointing” to live without health insurance.

“I hope I may have the right to live as a respected person … and to be equal to other immigrants in Quebec,” he said.

The doctor says, ‘We are making them even more weak.

In open letters, 75 outfits told after a “double standard” Quebec enhances Ukrainian’s health care coverage – Initially it was set to end in March last year – by March 2028.

Read the letter, “Palestinian families including children have been denied the same security so far, running from the situation described by many experts as a massacre,” read the letter.

Sophie Zhang, a member of the massacre against Quebec doctors, was one of the doctors who signed it.

Zhang said, “What are our governments happening to these Ghazan families and the reason for this is that they are in the first place.”

“So I think we need to take this responsibility and at least give them basic rights like health care.”

Khadij Jizi, a member of the Montreal-based genetic consultant and a health worker coalition for Palestine, said Ghazan patients suffer from chronic conditions, gynecology and reproductive issues and PTSD.

“These are all things that did not disappear when leaving Gaza. They are still there and needed medical,” Jiji said.

He also warned that Palestinian children would not be supported to delay possible development issues or language, without public coverage.

“These are weaker families, so they leave a country during a massacre and come to a whole new country … a set of challenges,” Jiji said.

“When we do not add access to health care, we are making them even more weak.”

Conflicting explanation from Quebec and Ottawa

In response to the CBC request, the immigration and health ministries of Quebec issued a joint statement, which announced that the provincial health coverage eligibility depends on the documents issued by the federal immigration officers relating to the status of the eligibility Ghazan.

The statement said that no specific designation is included, unlike the Canada-Ukraine Authority for a visa emergency visit under the temporary public policy of the federal government for Ghazan.

Instead, the province said, “This is a common document that allows a foreign national to live in Canada for a limited period, regardless of the original.”

Provincial Ministries said they have asked the federal government to expand coverage under the temporary public policy that they “avoid an omission” and “permission) to regularize their position to regularize the permission (Ghazan) scheme,” but they say they have not received a response yet.

Meanwhile, immigration, refugee and citizenship Canada, said that public health care coverage is “mainly a provincial/regional responsibility” and that provinces and regions were also encouraged to consider expanding access to health.

“Comparison between Gaza and other crises, such as in Ukraine, should be overseening complex realities that must be considered, which includes provincial capacity to support new people, ease of movement out of struggle areas, and targets set by the scheme of 2025-2027 immigration levels,” the federal ministry has written in response to CBC’s follow-up questions.

Zhang described the sentence as “shocking” and questioned why Ottawa would refer to immigration goals in this context.

He said that he has explained the statements of both governments as an attempt to save responsibility for an issue that is “very easily solved”.

Haya Alsaka, an organizer with the Palestinian youth movement in Montreal, described the lack of extended health coverage for Ghazans as a “policy of racism and discrimination”, which targets Palestinian and Arabs.

He said that Quebec “very quick” provided health coverage to Ukrainian.

“How do we believe that this is actually an administrative issue that is preventing Quebec from providing health care access to these families?” Asked Alska.

The Zaqout has still loved the people trapped in Gaza with their husbands and children with people living in a tent. He explained that he was living in a separate part of the enclave. When he tried to escape, the road was bombed by the Israeli army. He also said that he did not get a visa from the federal government.

His family cries every day, craves for news and gives a chance to reunion.

As he watches his own videos as a nurse treating Palestinian children inside the tent in Gaza, he shares his experience. Now, in Montreal, he expects to keep the same care to work for Cubakers.

“I want to be successful in my life. I want to provide all my experience, here all my people,” Zakout said.

“I hope to complete my family here and I hope to have a medical card.”