I never thought Canada would face the threat my homeland did [Video]

This First Person article is the experience of Nino Antadze, an associate professor at the University of Prince Edward Island. For more information about CBC’s First Person stories, please see the FAQ. 

I was a PhD student at the University of Waterloo when Russia invaded my homeland — the small country of Georgia, which straddles southwestern Asia and Europe — in August 2008.

Within days, Russian troops were less than 80 kilometres away from the capital Tbilisi, where my family lived. I called my parents and brother to persuade them to leave, but they refused. Thousands of kilometres away, I felt utterly powerless and desperate, unable to do anything amid the oncoming catastrophe. 

By this time, I had been in Canada for about a year. I was enjoying the intellectual excitement of graduate studies and the sunlit streets of Waterloo, Ont., thanks to a generous scholarship. Yet, the quiet, predictable surroundings of the university campus were in sharp contrast …