Friends and community members are remembering Abel Mengistab, a Carleton student who died in a bus accident Saturday evening.
The third-year public affairs and policy management student was an active member of the Carleton community.
Abel acted as the Carleton New Democrats co-chair from 2018-19, and was the president of the National Democratic Party (NDP) for the Nepean region since 2018. He was a member of the Healthy Transport Coalition, which encourages safety and transportation infrastructure, as well as a long-time advocate of young voters, and a youth leader for The Door Youth Centre in Ottawa.
A childhood friend of Abel’s, Amir Fanous, said he remembers his friend as truly unique.
“[He was] very different in the sense that he didn’t care what people necessarily think about him, he didn’t worry about his appearance in front of others,” Fanous said. “He was true to himself and super honest in everything that he did.”
Fanous added that his friend was politically involved and had the support of his community behind him.
“We would always joke, ‘Oh, you’ll be the first Black Prime Minister’ because he was very well spoken, he was somebody who was very passionate [and] he wouldn’t give up,” Fanous added.
Originally meeting Abel during MPP Joel Harden’s campaign trail, another friend and co-member of the NDP, Mike Bleskie, said in a Facebook post that Abel’s political philosophy was rooted in community action.
“We’ve lost an organizer with an electric energy and a fire in his heart,” Bleskie wrote. “I can’t think of a progressive cause he did not play a role in.”
Bleskie added that Abel’s drive and political involvement made him a fierce advocate for the Black community.
“Abel was the perfect example of an everyday Black hero fighting to make sure his community was heard,” Bleskie wrote.
Carleton student Fritz Kwabena Okrah, who met Abel while campaigning for the previous Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) election, said Mengistab’s political activism inspired him.
“There’s not a lot of Black men involved in Canadian politics, in general, there’s not a lot of diversity,” Kwabena Okrah said. “Seeing him doing that on many fronts, wherever was possible, is really inspiring.”
When one of Kwabena Okrah’s childhood friends passed away during the campaign, he said Mengistab was one of his biggest supporters.
“That’s the kind of person that Abel was,” he said. “He was there when you needed him.”
“It’s been really nice, especially because it really shows that one person really can have such a deep and positive impact at so young of an age on so many people,” he said. “That’s the type of impact that he’s had on everyone that he’s come into contact with.”
Growing up together at St. Mary Coptic Orthodox Church, Fanous also said that Abel was a devout Orthodox Christian.
“He’s originally Eritrean, but the church I go to is all Egyptian — so it’s the same belief, but there was a language barrier for him, but he never let that hold him back.”
Father Marcos Morcos, the priest at St. Mary Coptic Orthodox Church, said he couldn’t believe the news when he first got the call about Abel’s fatal crash.
“I couldn’t accept at first, I couldn’t understand maybe, I don’t know, in the beginning, I was shocked,” he said. “He grew up in this church.”
Father Morcos remembered Abel as “an angel on the Earth.”
“He was like an angel,” he said. “Very sweet, involved in everything, smiling all the time, tried to be nice with everyone, serving the people.”
Abel was an integral member of his church’s community, and Father Morcos added that his impact was far-reaching.
“He’s not serving only our community,” he explained. “He was looking to serve outside, for example, he went to many shelters to serve the people.”
Father Morcos said Abel was dearly loved by his friends and community members, and that he will be deeply missed.
“He was like a role model,” he said. “He was only 20 years old, but he was a real role model for everyone.”
A public service will be held Thursday, June 25 at 12:00 p.m. both in-person at St. Mary Coptic Orthodox Church in Ottawa and online due to social-distancing restrictions.
Featured image provided by Father Marcos Morcos and St. Mary Coptic Orthodox Church.
