Dr. Agron Alija, CCFP/FCFP
Dr. Agron Alija is a Family Physician, Emergency Physician and Associate Professor at Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry in London, Ontario. He was a staff physician in the Chest Clinic at University Hospital in Prishtina when the war in Kosovo. In 1988 he started working with Kosovo Diplomatic Observer Mission and Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe as local staff for the Medical Evacuation Team. Both organizations were involved in keeping peace in the region and helping internally displaced persons.
In March of 1999 when both KDOM and OSCE withdrew from Kosovo just before NATO action, along with his wife and 2 small children, he was forced to take refuge in Macedonia. Only a few days later he started working with Canadian Embassy in Macedonia, helping the many war refuges that had started fleeing the country as result of ethnic cleansing. In May of 1999 he decided to join other Kosovar war refugees in seeking a new place to live and immigrated to Canada. Together with his wife and children, they settled in Hamilton Ontario. The same year Ministry of Foreign Affairs formally recognized him for his role in implementation of operation “Parasol” by sending him a letter of recognition and a commemorative plaque.
While living in Hamilton, he did not waste time. He started writing the well read and respected column “Canadian Diary” for The Hamilton Spectator. In the span of 5 years, he wrote over 200 columns that offered readers a glimpse into the life of a war refugee. Simultaneously, he was pursuing recertification in medicine and in 2009 he was finally granted residency in family medicine at the University of Western Ontario. In 2011, he finished his specialty in Family Medicine and opened his Family Medicine Clinic in London. He also started working in the Four Counties Emergency Department and later on became associate professor at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry. Throughout these years he remained very active in many areas especially with Albanian-Canadian community by providing his full support in various cultural endeavours.