• A Mother and Daughter Recall Frightening Days in Quarantine
    … still hoped to return to her home one day, her family decided to come to Canada in June 1955. “…one was in Montreal, and the others were … us. And, of course, he wanted to be with his family, so that’s why I have time to be convinced to come to Ottawa,” recalled Laima. “It came … either. She said that’s not the right way to do it. So anyway, that’s how we decided to come to Canada.” The family travelled to Cyprus and …
  • Self - Acceptance by Roisin
    Time 0:03:18 Transcript Immigration never was a topic that I thought much about before beginning my placement at Immigrant Services Guelph-Wellington. After all, I was born and raised in Canada. On the other hand, both my parents were immigrants, born and raised on opposite sides of the world, in …
  • Bittersweet Freedom by Aliyah
    Time 0:02:36 Transcript Here I was riding a bike for my first time at 16… falling, getting back up. I wanted to be able to ride a bike like everyone else. Growing up in a small knit cultural & religious community in Ontario, everyone knows what you’re up to ALL the time, so basically my whole …
  • L/Cpl Hugh Archibald MacRae
    … Hugh Archibald MacRae was born in Bayfield, Westmorland County, New … March 21st, 1912, the youngest son of Norman and Annie (Grant) MacRae. Hugh enlisted in the No. 71 Canadian Army (B) Training Centre, the … in Holland and the picture of him standing has written on the back, "Hugh Holland". He was discharged under Routine Order 1029 (5c1) to …
  • Philip Barry Chaytor Pepper
    … America when WW2 started. Such were the restrictions that he could not have money sent from England for return fare, or that being possible, a … his father in WW1. As he was just 17 years old his family thought it best for him to come to Canada until he could get a passage home. His family and a …
  • Crossing the Big Pond by Monika
    Time 0:04:50 Transcript I was born in Bremerhaven on January 23, 1941 to Karoline and Theo Muller, two doting parents. Everything was on fire, chaos everywhere. Although I was born in St. Joseph Catholic Hospital, I was baptised Lutheran immediately. Since Bremerhaven was bombed continuously and …
  • The Smell of War in the Air - Yella and Mooshie Zahirovich
    … Becoming a Refugee Time 3:12 Transcript: Mooshie Zahirovich (MZ) : So … to explain, because this is—we have that inside us, we always hope for the best. That we become ob—oblivious to somethings happening around us …
  • My Second Life by Kang
    Time 0:03:46 Transcript When I was 18 years old, I started working as a car mechanic in Korea. When I was 25, I started my own business in Seoul called Kang Motors. Four years later, I married my wife Hey Suk Cho and next year we had our first child. I did my best at that time. My business was …
  • Monybany Dau
    … in the competition with a Canadian born in a job he may get it first before I get it despite my qualification, and I knew that, I was prepare … my name there, start calling me United Nation guy, meaning that I’m refugee, I’m not supposed to be here, you know. People start telling me, … child soldiers. Through the United Nations, Monybany applied for refugee status in Canada. He arrived in September 1998 and found work in …
  • Herman and Grada Blom
    … aboard the Groote Beer on Apr. 8, 1953, with $100 in the family coffers. Making the journey were my parents, Herman and Grada, and their … itself been a trial. Under Nazi occupation, my father, Herman, had become involved in Resistance activities, a risk which was finally … mind on the job his sponsor had arranged, Dad kept the family moving west. Finally we arrived at our destination: Saskatoon. The family soon …