Zimbabwe white farmers flee to Canada after land seized
Since Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe first launched his controversial land reform policies in 2000, some 4,000 white farmers have had their lands seized.
And the few remaining white farmers are being driven out — like the McKinnon family.
Danielle and Mark McKinnon, with their three kids, fled their farm just outside of Harare as the local sheriff, a court official and a group of men sought their eviction.
"That day just felt so uncertain. They were just in your face. They were coming into the house," Danielle tells The Current's Anna Maria Tremonti.
"They wanted us out, then and there," says Mark McKinnon.
Danielle McKinnon recalls leaving in the truck with their animals in the back as they were being laughed at and videotaped.
"It was actually quite a shock because we've never given in before. That feeling of defeat... It was unfair."
The McKinnons say they had a great relationship with their surrounding community. They were helping schools and orphanages and there was no one unhappy with them.
"It had nothing to do with happiness or race or colour or anything, it was money," Mark tells Tremonti.
In 2013, Mark said he was kidnapped by a group with very high connections to ministers and government. They were promised land and told to help themselves to farm plots close to Harare, according to McKinnon.
He was violently attacked for hours, says McKinnon.
"They wouldn't let me go… they wanted me to sign over a piece of paper saying that I allowed them to have a piece of the farm."
"I kept assuring them that I wasn't the person to give land. [It] wasn't my land anyway. It was state responsibility to give land."
Eventually Mark was released when police came but says confrontations like this happened all the time.
Now the McKinnon family lives in Stouffville, Ont. — just outside of Toronto but Danielle and Mark both agree that Zimbabwe is home.
"It's just bad politics. It will come right."
Listen to the full conversation at the top of this web post.
This segment was produced by The Current's Idella Sturnio.