Less than one hour ago, at 1:20 a.m. today my father moved on. I am writing these words through the fog of my tears. Robert Kap was born Bojidar Nikolaiovich Kapusto on June 10 1023 in Skopje Macedonia Jugoslavia. He was a Russian Jew, survivied the holocaust, a partisan in the WWII and a man I did not always like but one I always loved. I already miss him, and regret each moment without him. The world is a poorer place now that his spirit has left it.
He was amazing. I pray with all my heart God welcomes this man He so much loved.A piece of me dies today and life added another crack to this my aging vessel and soul. Who will say Kaddish for my father, and who remember me? He is with our maker.
January 6-7, 2010
Fonthill, Ontario and Sofia, Bulgaria
It was in Sofia Bulgaria on the night of Sunday January 6th 2008 that one of the greatest miracles of my life occured. A miracle that would be confirmed and reconfirmed in months and now yeares to follow.
Each day, hour and second I celebrate that miracle and share its story of how God acts thorugh others and is always faithful to those who are faithful to Him. Today I want to record that miracle here, to let the world know it, or for just one lost soul to find and read it.
Sofia, Bulgaria
It is Sunday January 6th 2008 at 10:30 p.m. and a new journey towards the miraculous and my freedom is about to begin.
The story will follow shortly.
November 28th, 2009
Fonthill, Ontario
It is a Saturday. Our lives an hourglass, each moment a single grain drops as we move closer to infinity.There are so many important things to do, so many things to share, yet we remain lost in the day to day drudgery of the petty. Our soul's hunger for knowledge and truth buried by worldly needs and emotions. Can I add more to my life and to the lives of others? This is the month I was born, it is the month my mother died and it is the month that I refect on who I am.
July 3rd, 2009 Ottawa, Ontario Canada
It is a Friday night in 2009. In 2008 it was a Thursday and at 3 p.m. I finally had my freedom of a sort. I left the bars behind exactly 12 months ago. In a few days I would be allowed to come home. On July 7 2008 I would touch Canadian soil. I will have much to say about that day. Much.
June 26 2009
Ottawa, Ontario Canada
This marks exactly 12 months after a Bulgarian criminal court suspended the balance of my 17 year criminal sentence. I was moved from one prison to another, a I was refugee in a Bulgarian detention camp for illegal aliens. The fight would continue.
Only I remembered this date. No one called. The memory of humanity is short. Never believe that even the closest to you will remeber. Time heals all wounds. Amnesia. Only one person besides me remebered. And they are 10,000 kilometeres from me. This day I reflected on th struggle that only two people remebered. What does this say about humanity? There is no anger here, only reflection on the human condition. How soon we forget, how soon we become to busy to remember. I will never forget.
Not my suffering, not the suffering of otheres and never will I forget those who still suffer. I will be busy with remembering, not trying to forget.
There will be a 6 day struggle. It felt like 10 years.
April 6th, 2009
Ottawa, Ontario Canada
Home 9 Months
April 1st, 2009 marked
the 16th birthday of Michael and Tracy's son, Nicholas Kapoustin born April 1st
1993 in Vancouver, British Columbia Canada.
While imprisoned in
Bulgaria, Michael will miss 13 of his young son's birthdays. Sadly, because of
personal economic hardship Michael is forced to miss his son's 16th birthday of
only a few days ago. That makes a total of 14 consecutive birthdays where a father
and son have been separated by men and by money. For 13 years it was a foreign
prison's walls with it bars, mortar and guards that separated Michael and his
son. Now because the reason is less heinous and more common, today’s economy.
Amazingly and blessed
miracle that it truly is the love between this father and son is not diminished
but time or distance. Their bond and mutual respect grows, their love
unwavering. Michael's son now lives in Penticton, BC with his mother until he
finishes the 10th grade and plans to move to Ontario to live with his father.
And the father is undaunted by his financial hardship and continues to remain
committed to turning a noble idea into a reality. He is also looking after his
86 year old father, Robert.
Michael returned to
Canada only to learn from his sister that his father was slowly dying of
cancer. It was then that Michael took the decision to live with his elderly
father and take responsibility for him. Now one father, Robert, is preparing to
leave this world and another father, Michael, is trying to make his way back
into the same world. Three men at three different stages of life's journey that
has held many surprises, some blessings for which we are grateful and others
hardships placed there to test our faith and commitment to principles as old as
mankind's collective memory. Among these is the duty of a father to a son and a
son to a father. And in the midst of this Michael, his friends and supporters
continue their work towards helping other Canadians.
This project is moving
towards the critical mass needed for a public and political initiative, albeit
it does so very slowly. But then such things always come into existence only with
the shedding of blood, the passing of time and spending of treasure. And in its
only with the fullness of time that projects like this come into the public
conscience.
For now there are still
many more sacrifices to made and these in the silent anonymity that is the life
of each ordinary man. Michael’s life is like the thousands of Canadian
lives before him who became part of Canada’s unwritten and eventually unspoken
national history. That is of course for those exceptional and rarest of
occasions when someone among the millions and billions of this World takes it
upon him or herself to read a short story about a little guy trying to make the
big changes.
We all want the big changes, those
that will protect our families and the weak and will somehow improve our lives
and our lot as Canadians. But too often we leave the struggle to someone else,
we let them pay the personal cost for walking down that hard road alone and we
wish them good luck. David met Goliath the same way and we know how that story
ended. They don't usually end so well but then who can dare guess God's plan?
January 6th 2009,
Ottawa, Ontario Canada
Home 6 Months
Today marks 6 months since the miracle of my release from Bulgaria and return to Canada. The six months since have been a time of trepidation, a state of mind induced by experiencing what are several lifetimes of terror and of having to rediscover what it means to be free. It was on July 6th 2008 that in only 12 hours I had gone from the confinement and hopelessness of an overcrowded cell to the unbelievable beauty of Canada with its new opportunities and many challenges. However my freedom also meant keeping to those promises I had made during these darkest moments of my life. Promises to an authority far greater than anything or anyone in this world. And among these was me helping others as I was helped.
So in the next days and weeks you will see this site change in its appearance, content and mission. This site will evolve into one about the millions of Canadians Abroad and about the political and legal processes necessary to their protection and the repatriating back to Canada the hundreds of Canadians who each year are unlawfully detained and some tortured in foreign prisons. My prayers and effort will also be turned toward bringing an end to the disenfranchisement and exile of what are now thousands of other Canadians our government has abandoned to foreign prisons.
As a Canadian I have a duty to rescue every Canadian who is being subjected to injustice and forced to suffer torture. Sadly, our government is tolerating the torture of Canadians and their unjust imprisonment. Why? The only reason so far is that crimes of torture and unjust imprisonment are being committed against Canadians behind a vail of state sovereign right. [de jure imperii]. Our government is not helping. For more than a decade the liberal government ignored my case and dozens more like it. Today, it is the Conservative government who is ignoring te suffering of thousands of Canadians Abroad. This site is not sympathetic to crime, but as a human beings and Canadians we havean obligation to try and help the innocent families left behind in Canada. The mothers and fathers, the spouses and the children they are the real victims of uncaring politicians and bureaucrats.
For 10 years I watched my own wife and son struggle alone, few showed compassion for thier pain. And now I shudder to think how many Canadian mothers and fathers, wives and children are at this very moment alone and paying for the mistakes of others. My wife and son may never completely recover from the years of separation and sense helplessness.
Their tears and suffering are mine, but should be all of Canada's. To long we Canadians have silently allowed our fellow citizens to be tortured and mocked by foreign states who show little mercy or compassion. It is a time to act.
The six months of freedom is not enough to fully heal from the personal trauma of enduring 2 years of routine beating while held inside a solitary confinement cell. Physical torture was combined with the public humiliation of being demonized by the Bulgarian state propaganda machine. For more than a decade I was routinely humiliated both in public and in private. And six months of freedom and Canada's fresh air has not yet healed the wounds or silenced the nightmares born from my living in the overcrowded cells of a Bulgarian prison infested with rats and cockroaches.
I am a survivor, and I am a witness to the worst of all possible sins committed by other survivors. Men and women who have chosen to publicly wallow in their self-pity and to egotistically rant against the government about what they endured. They all demand only compensation for their suffering, some demand change but few are acting on those demands. They are right to be angry about the wrongs they suffered or the injustice they experienced. But don't just complain, do something!
If it is "right" and God's law is on your side then stand up, go out make something happen and not just complain.
As a Jew and a person of faith, I learned from my peoples history that being terrorized and tortured should teach us to never forget, never remain silent and never, ever remain idle. And I will never forget having been buried deep inside the bowels of a brutal prison, tortured and forced to alone face a corrupt Bulgarian judicial system. My having lived and survived it has created an obligation that requires me to try to save other Canadians from the same fate as mine. And in the process to help being an end to official and public complacency about the suffering of Canadians Abroad.
Maybe others will feel as I do, and that is this, it is better to Live for Something than to Die for Nothing.
My deepest respect goes out to everyone who stood up and helped me. My admiration goes to those who stayed in the fight against any injustice, torture and corruption.
To me being Canadian means being ready to act where others fail or refuse to act. I may find myself alone in this fight. But that's OK I thought I was alone when I was in solitary confinement only to discover that I was never alone. God watches over the righteous and never forgets them or leaves them alone.
Continue to watch this site and you will witness what it means to act. Progress may appear slow, but do not be deceived by the pace of change. I was surprised at how quickly 13 years in prison can past and how things can quickly change. A fact that should not be lost on those men and women in power today and who stand silent as Canadians are tortured and unjustly denied thier homeland. Posterity will say few kind words about those Canadians who are in power but who choose to witness in silence the torture and suffering of thier fellow citizens outside of Canada.
Michael Kapoustin
WELCOME HOME MIKE!
Michael Kapoustin, now 56, was released from a Bulgarian prison on July 3, 2008. He returned home to Canada, greeted by family, on July 6, 2008. See Media Coverage and What's New? for the latest developments in Mike's 13 year ordeal.
The information below was posted November 20, 2007:
Michael Kapoustin is a Canadian citizen who has been illegally imprisoned by Bulgarian authorities for the past 12 years. Dean Peroff, a lawyer specializing in international law, represents Kapoustin on a pro-bono basis and summarizes the facts of his trial and imprisonment as follows:
Kapoustin was wrongfully and unjustly convicted of an economic crime that he did not commit;
The pre-trial and trial process that led to his conviction was grossly unfair and contrary to international and EU norms;
Kapoustin was tortured and kept in solitary confinement in the pre-trial stage of the legal process, without the benefit of competent legal counsel or judicial oversight;
He was given a harsh and disproportionate sentence of 17 years imprisonment that is contrary to EU norms;
Kapoustin has been constantly demonized by the Government-controlled Bulgarian media as a fraudster, even though the Bulgarian Court of Appeal found that he was innocent of committing any form of fraud whatsoever;
He has been denied the right under the treaty between Canada and Bulgaria to be transferred to the Canadian prison system.
Kapoustin’s story is complicated and disturbing on many fronts. It begins just after the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe in Bulgaria, a country known for human rights problems. Kapoustin brought western business practices to Bulgaria in the early 1990’s and quickly became high profile and successful, raising the ire of business competitors linked to organized crime. He was subjected to death threats and a smear campaign promulgated through the Bulgarian media. Undeterred, he continued his business in Bulgaria and soon fell victim to police abuse, arbitrary arrest and a corrupt judicial system.
To compound matters, for a period of time, his own country, unbeknownst to him played into the wrongful actions of Bulgaria. Then in 2005 the Government of Canada told Kapoustin and his Canadian wife that it would no longer address issues relating to his transfer to Canada. With nowhere to turn, Kapoustin’s wife by chance came upon Dean Peroff, who helped her to get Canada to reconsider. The newly elected Canadian government asked Bulgaria to transfer Kapoustin to the Canadian prison system, which Bulgaria flatly refused on illegal and irrelevant grounds. Canada has since invoked the mediation clause of the treaty governing such transfers - a first in Canadian history.
While Canada fights to bring Kapoustin home, he remains in Bulgarian prison fighting for the rights of all foreign prisoners.
This website has been created by a recently formed committee to bring awareness to this tragic story and to support Kapoustin’s family as they continue their long journey for justice. We only ask that you view this website, and if compelled, add your name in support of the efforts to urge Bulgaria, Canada, the Council of Europe and the European Union to do all that they can to rectify this situation.
