Peter Duschinsky
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Peter Duschinsky was born in Budapest, Hungary into a Jewish family. Peter's mother raised him alone until he immigrated to Canada with his aunt and uncle as a teenager, during the Hungarian Revolution. They arrived in Saint John, New Brunswick on board RMS Empress of Britain in 1957, and Peter then lived with family in Montreal. He studied English the first summer after his arrival and eventually finished high school in Montreal. After two years in engineering at McGill, Peter moved to Vancouver, BC. He first worked, and then enrolled in a History program at UBC, where he met his wife Christiana (Chris). Peter joined the Canadian Foreign Service in 1974. He was posted as an immigration officer in Paris, Chicago, Cairo and Budapest and worked with many refugee movements. He has been an active member of the Canadian Immigration Historical Society.