Unconscionable to have a single mother with a stateless child in the middle of COVID-19 become destitute again.

—ROB TIBBO, LAWYER FOR A HONG KONG REFUGEE IN CANADA.

When she and daughter Keana first set foot on Canadian soil last year, Vanessa Rodel couldn’t stop smiling, despite just getting off a 15-hour flight.

Rodel had left behind an increasingly precarious life in Hong Kong, where she helped hide U.S. whistleblower Edward Snowden, then faced years of alleged harassment for her role in one of the biggest news stories of the decade.

Accepted as a refugee by Canada, she looked forward to a new existence in Montreal. “We are safe and free,” she declared then.

Rodel is still hopeful for her and Keana’s future, but a year later has come to realize that life in her new haven can be a challenge, too.

She has toiled to learn a new language — French — dealt with some of urban Canada’s chilliest winter weather and then had to single-parent in the midst of a pandemic that ground the economy to a halt.

COVID-19 hit as her sponsor’s financial obligations ended, though the cashstrapped not-for-profit managed to extend her allowance for an extra two months.

“I was in a very, very bad situation in Hong Kong for 14 years,” said Rodel, 48. “Now in Canada, for my daughter and I, I don’t want it to happen again.”

Meanwhile, the other five refugees who helped Snowden, including a former partner who is Keana’s father, remain in Hong Kong waiting to learn if Canada will accept them as well, all in the midst of turbulent times in the enclave.

The asylum-seekers’ sponsor, the group For the Refugees, must now focus on those five, who have been denied any kind of government funding in Hong Kong. With the pandemic putting its fundraising plans on hold, the NGO has only enough money to support them for another few months. The lawyers who set it up have worked pro-bono on the cases.

Rodel is now eligible for social assistance in Quebec.

But lawyer Rob Tibbo, who represented Snowden and convinced his refugee clients to conceal the American for two weeks, is setting up a separate group — Help Vanessa and Keana — to raise money for the Filipina until she starts working.

“Vanessa did the extraordinary in her selfless acts to shelter and help the most significant whistleblower of the 21st century and she was persecuted for that,” said Tibbo. “It is simply unconscionable to have a single mother with a stateless child in the middle of COVID-19 become destitute again.”

The Montreal native was practising in Hong Kong when, in 2016, he revealed that three years earlier some of his refugee clients had opened their doors to Snowden, allowing the former National Security Agency contractor to disappear for two weeks as U.S. authorities pursued him.

Hailed as a hero by some and a traitor by others, Snowden had come to the city to leak documents that described a series of secret mass-surveillance programs conducted by U.S. and allied intelligence agencies.

But Hong Kong authorities began what appeared to be a wide-ranging campaign against the migrants and their lawyer after news of their role emerged. Tibbo himself fled the city, convinced the police were about to arrest him on trumped-up charges. Hong Kong authorities deny any such persecution.

Then For the Refugees sponsored the group to come to Quebec, one of the few jurisdictions in the world that will accept asylum seekers who fled first to Hong Kong. Rodel had spent her entire life in the tropics when she landed in Montreal.

She says the cold literally made her sick, giving her a skin condition that was so irritating it kept her awake at night.

She soon discovered she also didn’t have the right boots or coat to withstand the cold, until one of her Montreal lawyers got her warmer gear.

She says Keana, eight, has progressed the fastest with learning French, sometimes even helping her mother, who wants to eventually attend university and work with refugees herself.

But despite all the challenges, the new Montrealer said she remains eternally thankful to the Canadians who helped her get here.

“When you start a new life you have to go step by step, and I won’t give up,” said Rodel. “I have my dream, I have my goal, I have opportunity, I have support. I’m so grateful.”

MINH-TAM TRAN Vanessa Rodel and her daughter Keana were accepted as refugees in Canada last year. Now COVID-19 is presenting challenges for the Montreal residents and the non-profit organization that sponsored their escape from Hong Kong.