Triumphing Over Odds
Dragi Zekavica was born in a displaced persons’ camp, West Germany, 1948. His parents, whose ethnic roots were Serbian from Yugoslavia, were victimized throughout most of the 1940s by two different forces: the Third Reich of Germany and the Communists who took control of Yugoslavia after World War II. Thus it was that Predrag and Branka Zekavica, with their new-born son, Dragi, forfeited any hopes of ever returning to their native homeland. Instead, as displaced persons, they landed at Pier 21, Halifax, October 8, 1949. When Dragi was only 16 years, he was tragically struck by a truck in his hometown of Niagara Falls, losing all sight in both eyes. Recuperating at the Toronto General Hospital, Dragi was able to complete his secondary education, thanks in large measure to Toronto teachers whose generous tutoring helped him graduate from high school and gain admission to university. When he graduated from Carleton University, he became the first visually-impaired student to graduate from there with an Honours Degree in Constitutional History and Political Science. After much resistance and objection, Dragi was admitted to the Faculty of Law, Queen’s University. Upon graduation, he became the first blind student to complete all requirements for an LL.B. from that school. It is not well known that Dragi challenged authorities requiring visually impaired students to pass examinations that they couldn’t write because of blindness. Thanks in large part to Dragi Zekavica, blind students in Ontario are no longer required to write L.S.A.T. entrance examinations. Since his admittance to the Ontario Bar, 1978, Dragi has been practising criminal law. He was the first Barrister without sight to appear before the Supreme Court of Canada. He is a Director, Canadian National Institute for the Blind. As a criminal lawyer, Dragi Zekavica has incorporated Street Link, an organization acting as liaison between prison inmates and families. He is affiliated with Toronto’s Serbian Centre for Newcomers in Ontario (since 1993), to assist Serbs who, like his mother and father, fled war zones in Yugoslavia. For his contributions to the Serbian community, the Minister of Citizenship and Culture recently presented an Ontario Volunteer Service pin to Mr. Zekavica for his 20-year service to the Serbian radio program “Sumadija” on CHIN radio. In this view, Dragi Zekavica stands in front of his alma mater with his law degree diploma. [Photo, courtesy Dragi Zekavica]