Bursary keeps Yosif’s name alive at Brock

Slain Good Samaritan’s story has ‘resonated with entire campus,’ memorial to support students in financial need

In a different world, he’d be about 23 now, and among those who just graduated from Brock University.

That is not the world that 19-year old Yosif Al-Hasnawi left behind in 2017, after he tried to help a stranger in Hamilton and was shot in the stomach and died.

But the teenager’s name seems destined to live on at Brock, where the Yosif Al-Hasnawi Memorial Bursary has been created, among other tributes at the St. Catharines school he had attended.

“(Yosif’s) story has resonated with the entire campus,” said Terry Cockerline, the director of alumni engagement at Brock.

The bursary will support students in need of financial help to attend the university.

Cockerline said the goal is $25,000 to fund the bursary, and they are about halfway there. Anyone can donate to the cause, whether alumni or not.

When convocation gift boxes were recently mailed to more than 3,300 Brock graduates, among the contents was a picture of Al-Hasnawi and a letter asking students to contribute a small amount to the bursary as part of the traditional “senior class gift.”

The letter said that Al-Hasnawi “was a first-year health sciences student with aspirations of becoming a doctor … Yosif had dreams and a bright future just like us and would have loved to graduate by our side.”

Other initiatives include erecting a memorial bench on campus and a “certificate of courage” bearing his name.

Meanwhile, last spring the third edition of the Yosif AlHasnawi Memorial Lecture was held. The topic was “promoting racial justice in health care.”

Cockerline said Al-Hasnawi’s legacy “is bringing to light systemic racism and conversations that are important to have.”

In June, a judge found two former Hamilton city paramedics guilty of failing to provide the “necessaries of life” in their care of Al-Hasnawi the night he was shot.

The person who helped sparked initiatives to honour Al-Hasnawi is student Zanab Jafry, who was a medical sciences graduate but not a classmate of Al-Hasnawi’s.

“(Jafry) has made extraordinary efforts … She was a prime mover to push the university to recognize that they could take leadership here,” said Margot Francis, a sociology professor at

rock.

“He should not have died and we want to remember him and ensure that his name continues to be spoken.”

Jon Wells is a Hamilton-based reporter and feature writer for The Spectator. Reach him via email: jwells@thespec.com