downtown Toronto. The contrast with the vacant streets of Detroit after dark and our recent images of neon lights and empty streets in the city after the 8 pm curfew, gave us a euphoric feeling as we moved through the streets of Toronto. To us it felt like all of Toronto was on carnival time, Saturday night and worlds away from home.
We ate dinner that night in a small restaurant. In the background; both the hockey game and the liberal party nominations for Prime Minister in the coming elections, Pierre Trudeau. The liberals won in June and Trudeau would serve his party and Canada for nearly sixteen years. But tonight, not lost on us, for at least one Canadian the Stanley Cup play was more important. After dinner and more walking we returned to the YMCA.
Sunday morning in the lobby of the Y reading the newspaper and of Trudeau’s victory to lead his party and of the violence, cities burning and curfews in different cities in America. We had breakfast at a dinner not far from the University of Toronto, the campus was groomed for spring, but the air still had a chill. The sun was bright and sky blue. John and I walked all afternoon through the city, to the waterfront back to the bus station, our entry point to this different land.
Neither of us could believe it was just hours since we came through the tunnel separating these two countries. One at war in Vietnam and in the streets of it’s cities and the other peacefully breathing the spring air. Exhausted that night we slept ‘till Monday.
Our wait ended, we entered the interior office. There were two fellows in the room, both immigrants from the United States. They gave us the phone number of N. Wall. She was the person who tried to help people find work in Canada. We spoke with N. by telephone from the office and we made an appointment to see her on Monday at 11 am. After the telephone call we spoke with the two fellows in the office. They showed us samples of the papers we were to fill out at the border. Their demonstration of the “usual” procedure was so that a hostile immigration official couldn’t trick us into legally forfeiting our chance to immigrate. Being familiar with the process would help us successfully reach our goal and not make the mistakes others had made. We also talked to them about how much money we had and how much was needed at the border to enter Canada. We left the office about 3 pm.
There are several methods for immigrating to Canada. Some take six month to a year. The method we were using was the fastest as our resources were very limited. Gaining landed immigrant status was fast. It was all done at the border and once immigrant status is received you may immediately legally work in Canada. The process was determined by a point system: 65 points and you are accepted as an immigrant. Points are awarded based upon education, age, appearance, languages spoken, skills you may have, if you have relatives in Canada and if you have a job offer in Canada. If you are accepted for immigrant status, you sign the necessary papers and supply a passport photo. The apply at the border method, if completed allows you to return to Canada and begin work the next day. For a young person like me, with no specialized skills it was almost mandatory for me to have the promise of a job in order to score enough points and be accepted for immigrant status. N. Wall was the person who was offered to help us get the job offer that we needed in order to complete this border process.
After our meeting at the Anti-Draft League office we were free until Monday! We stopped at Eaton’s ( a large department store ) for lunch, a little shopping and exchanging American dollar for Canadian dollars. Both John and I were fascinated by the crowds of people in
Pierre Trudeau
