"Good evening, Serena, how are you?" Suleiman Machar asked the lady in his rather pleasant baritone voice. Serena silently observed him before replying. The tall, dark-skinned, ruggedly handsome lawyer stood in his office, looking at the City of Ottawa, Ontario, which sprawled beyond the window of his eleventh-floor office on Bank Street. The place looked deceptively bright and peaceful...
When Suleiman first came to Ottawa eight years ago, he was filled with home. A native of Juba, Capital of South Sudan, Suleiman had ambition to spare, but the people of Ottawa rebuffed him at every turn. In the Canadian Capital, there was a strict pecking order. Whites at the top, with Asians and Arabs competing for the second spot, and Blacks at the very bottom. Well, not if Suleiman could help it...
Suleiman was determined to beat the system and success on his own terms. He pushed himself at school, graduating at the top of his class at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law. He articled for an old family friend, a Ghanaian-Canadian lawyer named Timothy Tsegah, who owns a law firm located in Nepean, Ontario. Suleiman got hired by Waterson & Downing LLP, one of the biggest law firms in the Canadian Capital. He hadn't had a good night's sleep since...
Canadian society likes to think of itself as diverse, multicultural and tolerant, but Suleiman was finding out just how untrue this was. In the cutthroat world of Capital City politics and business, a good-looking, 'articulate' black man with proper educational credentials and ambition ought to do well, but there were still many systemic barriers set in his way. This is something Suleiman knew this all too well...
That's why Suleiman was still at the office at midnight, doing a lot of legal research because, well, there were lives at stake. Such is an attorney's life. He couldn't afford to screw up in his current case. In about twelve hours, he would appear before Judge Ryan Stonewood, and speak in defense of Taylor Cantwell, a young black man accusing two Ottawa City Policemen of racial profiling.
Cantwell, a student at Algonquin College, had a clean record prior to being arrested supposedly without cause by the two officers. The firm of Waterson & Downing did some pro bono work, and as a rookie attorney, Suleiman had been assigned the Cantwell case. The habibi partners wanted Suleiman to plead the case and make it go away. Suleiman thought he and Cantwell had a shot at successfully suing the Ottawa Police...
"Good evening, habibi," Serena Gemayel replied, and the forty-something Arab Christian gal donned gloves before emptying the trash can from Suleiman's office. Out of all the big-shot lawyers, businessmen and corporate raiders at the Solar Financial Complex, Suleiman was the only one who ever treated her like a human being. The others looked at Serena as though she were invisible. Tonight, her voice seemed to jolt him out of a deep trance...
"How goes life?" Suleiman asked, stepping away from the window and standing in front of his framed Law degree from Ottawa University. Serena looked at the smiling, handsome man, and nodded gently before returning his smile. Suleiman looked so damn good in a sky-blue dress shirt, loosened red tie, and black dress pants.
"I'm fine, habibi, and I wanted to thank you for giving me a ride home the other day, the buses were terrible during the snow storm," Serena said softly, and Suleiman nodded graciously. She noticed that he was smoking, something he once told her he only did when stressed. Upon pointing out the cigarette in Suleiman's hand, Serena got a most unexpected answer...