The single largest resettlement of refugees in Canadian history took place in the late 1970s and early 1980s when some 60,000 Southeast Asian refugees arrived over the course of 18 months between 1979-1980. By the end of this decade, over 200,000 Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotian refugees had resettled in Canada and largely through the Canadian Government’s Private Sponsorship Program. In 1986, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) awarded the people of Canada the Nansen Medal for its exceptional contribution to refugee protection, the only time that the Nansen Medal has ever been awarded to a people of any country.
The Hearts of Freedom – Stories of Southeast Asian Refugees exhibit commemorates the lives of all those Southeast Asian refugees who resettled in Canada during the tumultuous war-torn period of the Vietnam War, the Cambodian Genocide, and the Laotian Civil War, which led to the Communist takeover of these countries. The Passage to Freedom documentary film is based on the HOF interviews of many of those who escaped the horrors in these countries and made their way, first, to refugee camps in Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines before being resettled to Canada.
The creator and curator of the Hearts of Freedom exhibit is Dr. Stephanie Phetsamay Stobbe at Canadian Mennonite University, Winnipeg, Manitoba, who is also currently the President of the Canadian Association for Refugees and Forced Migration Studies (CARFMS). Professor Stobbe has been touring her exhibit and film across Canada in places as the Senate of Canada in Ottawa, the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, the Canadian Immigration Museum at Pier 21 in Halifax, the Manitoba Museum in Winnipeg, and different university campuses and venues. The HOF – Stories of Southeast Asian Refugees exhibit will be on display at York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School Library, main entrance, from September 13th to October 14th, 2024. The Passage to Freedom documentary will be screened at the official opening of the exhibit at the Helliwell Centre, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, on Tuesday, September 24th, 10:00 am to 3:00 pm. Everyone is welcomed to attend this free event.
Professor Stobbe is herself, one of the Southeast Asian refugees who resettled in Canada, with the rest of her family when she was a young child. Like many of the other Southeast Asian refugees who resettled in Canada, she has pursued a highly distinguished and successful career as an academic and highly respected and regarded researcher and educator in the field of peace and conflict studies. She is currently a professor in Conflict Resolution Studies and the Redekop School of Business at Canadian Mennonite University. Many of the Southeast Asian refugees who were resettled in Canada have made outstanding contributions to Canadian society. They have enriched Canada’s multicultural society and have contributed to all sectors of society, whether the professions, business, education, the arts and culture, and sports.
The HOF exhibit and accompanying documentary also has close ties to York University. The late Dr. Howard Adelman, a distinguished philosopher at York University’s Department of Philosophy, was the founder and head of Operation Lifeline that brought thousands of Southeast Asians to Canada through the Canadian Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program in the 1970s and 1980s. Professor Adelman went on to establish the Centre for Refugee Studies (CRS) at York University, which is one of the world’s leading research centers of its kind. Each year the CRS holds its annual Howard Adelman Lecture in honor of its founding Director and one of the most influential and distinguished academics in the field of refugee studies. Professor Adelman was not only an early pioneer in the new discipline of refugee studies but one of its most influential scholars, activists, and policymakers. There will be an opportunity to recognize Professor Adelman’s contributions to York University and Canadian society at the official open of the Hearts of Freedom – Stories of Southeast Asian Refugees exhibit and Passage to Freedom film screening on Tuesday, September 24th, 10 am to 3 pm, Helliwell Centre, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University.
For further information on the exhibit and film documentary, please contact:
Professor Stephanie P. Stobbe, hofexhibition@gmail.com.
For further information on the logistical arrangements, please contact:
Michele Millard, Coordinator, Centre for Refugee Studies (CRS), mmillard@yorku.ca.