Your mom and I were born and raised in the South of Vietnam. We both grew up during the war where the capitalism of the South were fighting against the communist from the North. Before the war ended, we were both attending university as many others except ones had to join the South army going to the frontline. By end of April 1975, the South fell to the North and being under control of the Communist regime. Since then, many people wanted to escape our homeland seeking for freedom. People tried to get out by all means but mostly by boat to the neighboring countries like Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and even as far as Australia. Because of the wave of refugees arrived by boat in those countries, refugees were then named as “boat people� by the international media.
Your mom escaped by boat from Da Nang and made it to Hong Kong in early 1980. A few months before that, I took my younger brother left the country, also by boat from Sai Gon and arrived in Singapore. We got rejected from the Singapore government and were forced to get towed away brutally to the open sea by the Singapore Navy. We later landed illegally in Malaysia and were rescued by the United Nations.
My brother and I stayed in one of the refugee camp islands in Malaysia for three months, got accepted by Canadian delegation in Malaysia and arrived in Ottawa in May 1980.
Mom stayed in a Hong Kong refugee camp for a few months and also got accepted and arrived in Ottawa two months after us. At the time, we all got sponsored under Project 4000, initiated and pioneered by then Mayor Marion Dewar of Ottawa. This humanitarian project was a huge success, became prominent and triggered other nations to follow Dewar’s footsteps.
The exodus of boat people caught attention worldwide, Canada and many other countries joined the effort of getting the refugees out of the refugee camps.
boat (dad) boat (mom) airplane (dad) airplane (mom)
Mom: When I was in Hong Kong, I was working in the UN office doing translations. I had the choice to go to any country I wanted, so I chose Canada because I wanted to raise my children in a peaceful country. Not the U.S., where war can start any time.
Dad: Your mother and I both worked for the UN office doing translations, and we both had the choice to go to any country. We chose Canada (instead of U.S. or other countries) because Canada’s known for peace and truly a peace keeper. Canada does not involve in too much war or interference with other contries to gain economical advantage from it like the U.S. However, if it does, it’s solely for peace and human rights. We came from a war torn nation, and we chose Canada to call it our second home.
About a year after meeting your mother in Ottawa, we moved to Edmonton because at the time, Alberta’s oil industry was booming and there was lots of job opportunities. I went to NAIT and received my diploma in electrical engineering technology, while your mother worked as a medical researcher at the University of Alberta.Your older sister was born in 1982, and you were born 7 years later.
After I graduated, I got offered a job with Nortel Networks in Calgary, which is the reason our family moved here.