How the Canadian TV Show ‘Transplant’ is Humanizing Refugees
Polls continue to demonstrate that attitudes toward immigration, refugees, and visible minorities remain negative among significant swathes of the Canadian public. In this climate, CTV’s “Transplant” has somehow managed to attract millions of Canadian viewers to a story that centres the experiences of a Syrian Muslim refugee in Toronto — a first in North American prime-time drama.
Dr. Yusra Ahmad, a psychiatrist and lecturer at the University of Toronto, provided advice on how to portray the mental health struggles of Dr. Hamed and his little sister in the show. She pointed out that it has taken too long to see a show like this come to mainstream television.