A Difficult Journey to Freedom

The Vietnam War (1955-1975) was a terrible battleground of the Cold War. For many, knowledge of this conflict comes through an American perspective in movies and other sources. For our Vietnamese friends and neighbours, this tragedy was intensely personal and represented the loss of everything dear to them.In those final days of the war, as the outcome became increasingly clear, many families in the South Vietnamese military and those with the means to travel fled the country to find safety abroad. Those who left in 1975 represented the first major wave of Vietnamese immigrants to arrive in our country.Doctor Kien Le, President of the local Vietnamese Association of Toronto (VAT), was part of that first wave at age 12. Though many years have passed, Doctor Le still has vivid memories of the war's final days, "My father was a high ranking officer in the South Vietnamese Fleet. On April 29, 1975, the day Saigon fell, my family was aboard a battleship. When we heard word that the presidential palace was overrun, we knew the country was lost."That day, Doctor Le's ship and many others regrouped at an American base in the Philippines. From there, families boarded a cargo ship headed to a military camp in Guam where they would wait for months as the international community decided their fate.In July 1975, Doctor Le's family arrived in Toronto, first living in a downtown hotel where he keenly remembers the excitement of seeing his first Caribana Festival. His family moved to the city's east-end where they rented the second floor of an Italian-Canadian family's home and enrolled in the local catholic school. He still recalls the support his family received from a Canadian family, the Catholic Church and other community organizations during their transition into a new life.Today, Doctor Le is an accomplished medical doctor and an active volunteer within the Vietnamese community. In February, the VAT co-hosted a special Lunar New Year event at our local Northwood Community Centre that memorialized the 50-year anniversary of the Tet Massacre where the Vietnamese communists' violation of a ceasefire led to the deaths of thousands of civilians. Through his efforts with the VAT, Doctor Le hopes to make a difference in the lives of Vietnamese-Canadians while speaking for human rights and freedom in Vietnam.The second wave of Vietnamese immigrants began in the late 1970s. Fleeing the communist regime, families risked their lives in small boats on the open seas.Andrew Dang, a volunteer with the local North York Vietnamese Canadian Seniors Association, was part of this second and much larger wave of Vietnamese immigrants. At age 6, Andrew's family sold everything they had to pay for a cramped trip on a camouflaged fishing boat, "There were 91 of us on a small boat. We spent three days at sea without proper food and were robbed clean of our few remaining belongings by pirates. Most families who attempted this dangerous journey never reached shore. We were the lucky ones." he recalls.His family arrived in a refugee camp in Thailand. For six months, they lived on the generosity of the locals and international donations until landing in Montreal in 1980 and moving to Toronto shortly thereafter. Andrew recognizes the sacrifices made by his parents, "They worked long hours in factory jobs so my brother and I could have a better future."The North York Vietnamese Canadian Seniors Association meets on the weekends at Grandravine Community Centre to socialize, exercise and play chess. They are also taken on field trips to enjoy the natural beauty of our province. Andrew is a proud volunteer of this association of which his father was a former president, "Our older generation sacrificed everything for their children and grandchildren. It is their time to relax after so many difficult years."In 2015, the dangerous journey that millions of Vietnamese families undertook following the end of the Vietnam War was commemorated in Parliament as Journey to Freedom Day Act. This worthy recognition received all-party support and celebrates both the role Canada played in welcoming refugees as well as the important contributions that the Vietnamese community has made here in their new Canadian home. 

Lessons Learned from My Jane-Finch Years

El Salvador is a small country in Central America. When a civil war broke out in the 1980s, teachers like my parents became a target for the repressive government. After getting death threats, we decided it was best for our family to leave. We moved to Mexico, thinking the war would soon be over. We had no idea it would last 12 years. After six years in Mexico, we immigrated to Canada, settling in the Jane-Finch neighbourhood. I still remember the landscape of the neighbourhood in the 90s. There was a large number of immigrants from Latin America, visible in the malls, churches, doctors' offices and at school. James Cardinal McGuigan was my high school and the Jane Finch Mall was the cool place to hangout with friends. The youth employment services office at Yorkgate Mall launched me into my first summer job as a recreation assistant for a seniors program at Northwood Community Centre. York University became my alma mater as I obtained a BA and an MA in Political Science. The community was vibrant and full of hope as many new immigrants made it their home. On Sundays, we attended St. Jane Frances for service in Spanish where we thanked God for allowing us to leave the horrors of the war behind and start a new life in Canada. In 1997, our family moved to Woodbridge. We missed our old neighbourhood. My old cat could not get used to his new home and ran away. I drove back to the neighbourhood many times to look for him but he was never found. I still imagine him cruising around the block, refusing to become a suburban feline. For years, I returned to the neighbourhood to shop at Zellers and Marisel's Bakery and get my haircut at Josanthony's, until they closed. When I visit the neighbourhood now, I am very happy to see the changes but also the things that have stayed the same. The malls bustling with people from so many diverse backgrounds, the flea markets, the community centres offering great programs... Sure, growing up in Jane-Finch had its challenges. We lived close to a drug house and police presence was a regular occurrence. At times, whole SWAT teams were deployed on our block. There were gangs and shootings. But we had a strong sense of community and we were always resilient in the face of adversity. Within the corridors of what some referred to as "the concrete jungle" lived the hope of many people of all ages and backgrounds trying to improve their lives and their community; there were recreational programs for youth, neighbourhood associations putting together Caribana floats, seniors groups, free family skating days with hot chocolate and many other great initiatives. I learned much from my Jane-Finch years. Through determination, we can overcome any barrier, whether it be linguistic, economic or cultural. The strength that a community can have when it works together is limitless, regardless of circumstances. Positive change is always possible. These experiences served me well as I became a lawyer. When faced with difficult cases or a fierce opposing counsel, it is my Jane-Finch resilience and strength that help me succeed.  

Ontario's political parties need to take a stand on foreign-trained professionals

We have all heard the stories - doctors working as taxi drivers, engineers working retail, lawyers working in call centers. If you live in Ontario, chances are you know someone who was admitted into the country on the basis of his/her academic and professional qualifications but who, in a cruel turn of irony, was denied the opportunity to practice in the very field for which he/she was admitted. This is a problem all too common to Ontario's newcomer communities who have personally lived these stories. In addition to facing racial discrimination and xenophobia in the job market, immigrants are also faced with formal systemic barriers to employment, barriers that are often legally backed by the provincial government.The negative moral and social consequences of this state of affairs are clear. How can we as a country and as a province claim to be proud of our inclusivity and diversity when we do not even treat the qualifications of all of our members equally? How can we admit individuals on the basis of their education and devalue that same education as soon as they set foot in our country?And, we should make no mistake, immigrants not working in their fields is bad for all of us. Denying the immense degree of skills and expertise that these individuals possess is extremely harmful for our competitiveness in a rapidly changing global economy. As entire industries are destroyed and created in increasingly short order, Ontario needs to be a dynamic and inclusive economy that leads the world through innovation rather than a crumbling old boys club too concerned with protecting its privileges against newcomers to recognize how they can cooperate for mutual benefit.Unfortunately, Ontario's professional organizations have shown that they are unwilling to do anything about this issue. This is where the provincial government needs to step in and correct what is, in all respects, a catastrophic market failure. And, we should make no mistake, Ontario voters demand this.If any party wants to win in June, especially in the GTA’s crucial ridings, they will need to appeal to immigrant communities and their allies on the issue of foreign-trained professionals. If any party decides to continue to ignore this issue, they risk sinking into irrelevance among the province's largest and fastest-growing communities.Pouyan Tabasinejad is the Policy Chair of the Iranian Canadian Congress (ICC), a grassroots, non-partisan, and non-profit community organization that seeks to safeguard the interests of Iranian-Canadians. One of  ICC’s policy priorities is to press Ontario’s major political parties to take a stand on foreign-trained professionals.

Ontario's Workers Demand Justice

“Why hasn’t Canada signed, ratified, and implemented the UN’s Convention on the Rights of Migrant Workers and Their Families?” asks a plum. “I demand dignified treatment, respect, and guarantees of my rights as a worker”, says a pear. An apple notes that, “It is legal for farmers and employers to exploit migrant farm workers in Canada.” Meanwhile, grapes from the Niagara region join in with “Ice Wine: Pride and Luxury with a Canadian label, one of the most expensive but produced with the exploitation of migrant labour with the worst salary and without protection.” These fruits are not actually talking but are simply packaged in small paper bags with a card, with a question, or statement. Migrant workers in Ontario were asked, “If the fruit you were growing could speak, what do you wish they would say?” This traveling exhibit, Speaking Fruit, collected their answers and has been on its way to Ottawa to raise support and demand a response from our government.Many Ontarians are unaware that most of the produce grown in Ontario comes from a small town near Windsor called Leamington. Leamington has a vast series of greenhouses growing food for sale to big and small grocery stores in this province. Calling itself the Tomato Capital of Canada, Leamington has the largest concentration of greenhouses on this continent. The farmer-owners of these greenhouses employ migrant worker to do most of the gruelling labour. Most of these workers are from Mexico and the Caribbean and they are brought in with promises of rich-country wages. However, they arrive to learn that they have to pay their employer for their housing (at several times the market rate) and they would be living with as many as 20 people in one house and would have to sleep in shifts. These workers are not given safety training or equipment and they are adversely affected when working with pesticides and chemical fertilizers. If migrant workers complain, they lose their jobs. Since their work visas are tied to their employment, they are also then immediately sent back to their home countries. In many cases, even their final pay-cheques are withheld by their employers or they are not paid the full amount. If one of them dies or is injured on the job – an all too common occurrence – they (or their corpse) are swiftly sent home to their family with no recompense or even apologies. Ontarians should be ashamed that this happens in our province.What can be done to help? Currently, Bill 148 (Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act) is under consideration by the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, the mandate of which is to raise the minimum wage and improve workplace conditions. However, there are no provisions to improve conditions for migrant workers - or temp agency workers, for that matter. There cannot be two classes of workers: one treated fairly under the law and one for exploitation. Call or visit your MPP and let them know that Ontarians demand fair treatment for all workers.

Isolated, Deceived and Blamed: Toronto’s Immigrants

By:Jennifer Ouch, Emma van Wijngaarden, Lisa Im, Katie Koob, Carson DeRuiter, Charvine Mercado, Yar Matin, Mykhaylo Kosykh, & Katie MacPhersonAccording to Statistics Canada, the country welcomed over 300,000 immigrants in 2016. Over the course of many months, we have been working with immigrant populations within some of Toronto’s most ethnically diverse neighbourhoods.Whether it be at a Community Centre, a nursing home, or a school, it is clear that one of Toronto’s greatest strengths is its multiculturalism and ethnic diversity. Despite this strength, our interactions with immigrant people have opened our eyes to the challenges of moving to a new country.Numerous immigrants reported that moving to Canada is an extremely isolating and confusing experience. Take a moment and ask yourself; What is your quality of life when you can’t speak English and don’t know where to get food or health care? A Torontonian shared “I felt “so alone and I got lost a lot. It was hard to find friends because I couldn’t speak English and there was so much stigma about my situation”.Immigrant families and children also reported a disconnect between accessing government resources or lack thereof. One community member said “I know there are resources out there. I just have no idea where to find them and I have a hard time reading the forms because English isn’t my first language”.Finding employment is another barrier that immigrants face when moving to Canada. A long-term care resident disclosed that the Canadian Embassy told her she could find work in Canada, but when she arrived, her credentials were not validated; “I felt misguided and deceived. I thought I could find a job but instead had to go back to school.”Culture shock and adjusting to Canadian climate is another common struggle for immigrants in Toronto; “It’s a challenge coming to a new country looking for a better life when the culture and weather is so different from what you’ve always been used to” said a community member.Immigration is crucial to Canada’s economy, helping support the sustainability of this great nation. However, it is evident to us that immigrants face a multitude of struggles when moving to Canada but no one takes the time to listen to their stories or lend a helping hand. The negative attitudes of the greater population towards immigrant people needs to stop. This involves the general public debunking false cultural perceptions and not tolerating degrading comments directed towards immigrants.Immigrants are experiencing unfair stigmatization, victim blaming for their hardships, and everyday stereotyping. We are advocating for social reform to correct these misconceptions and the preservation of dignity for the immigrant population. Services need to be changed and policies reformed. Canada as a whole needs to embrace immigrants, seek to understand their lived experiences, and provide the necessary supports they need. Please spread #StopTheBlame to raise awareness.Immigrants seeking further assistance can access: http://www.costi.org/index.php