Countless Journeys

Montreal-born Angelo Tsarouchas is known as The Funny Greek. He cut his teeth in the comedy clubs of Ottawa and Toronto before heading to the United States, where he now lives. And his Greek heritage has been centre-stage in his comedy for over three decades. In this conversation with Philip Moscovitch, host of Countless Journey’s companion French podcast, D'innombrables Voyages, Angelo talks about how he draws on themes of home and heritage to hilarious effect.

There’s nothing like food and friendship to warm up a cold night. On this episode, host Tina Pittaway heads to Antigonish Nova Scotia to drop in on a potluck dinner organized by the cast of New in Town, a recently staged community theatre show. Equal parts comedy and variety show, it brought together about a dozen recent immigrants from countries including Iran, Afghanistan, China and the United States. They formed strong bonds over the months of writing and rehearsing the show. Cast members and organizers pull back the curtain to share the experiences, stories and ideas that inspired the show and how they are creating new lives here in Canada.

When Jordanian-born Nour Hadidi arrived in Canada to study commerce at McGill, a roommate introduced her to the world of stand-up comedy via YouTube. From that moment, Nour knew comedy was something she wanted to pursue. She finished her degree and worked for a few years in finance before taking the leap and working in comedy full-time as a television writer and stand-up comic. Brutally honest in her routines, Nour draws on her experience as a Muslim woman of colour making her own way on a career path that can sometimes be unwelcoming. “You know, it kind of takes over your life. There’s a rush when you do stand-up comedy that's unlike anything else. To get up there the adrenaline is, you know, pumping through your body. And to make people laugh, it feels like acceptance.”

Sandy El-Bitar knows a thing or two about not doing OK. Her father died on the eve of her family’s immigration from Lebanon, she’s worked in palliative care, and, as a drama therapist, she spends her days helping people deal with emotional problems. But Sandy is also a comic — and instead of running away from the pain in life, she thinks there is something beautiful about finding the humour in it.

Toronto-born Hoodo Hersi knew the moment she made an elevator full of adults break out in laughter that she wanted to learn more about this thing called comedy. Born to a mother from Djibouti and a father from Somalia, Hoodo has pursued her dream of making it big in stand-up to New York City, where she lives now, making a living in one of the world’s toughest comedy markets. She tells how she landed a coveted spot on Late Night with Seth Myers on her second night in town, writing for television with Rami Youssef and opening for Hassan Minaj. She also discusses how she continues to hone her craft, putting race, religion and privilege at centre stage.

A bonus episode recorded at the Dumpling Summit at the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21.

It’s been a tumultuous couple of years inside Iran, with protests over the killing of 22-year-old Masha Amini taking place in dozens of towns and cities around the world. In Toronto, which is home to the second-highest concentration of Iranians immigrants outside of Iran, the Mohyeddin siblings, Sally, Samira and Amir, have run Banu for eighteen years. Banu is an Iranian restaurant that blends political activism and delicious food. Alongside the heaping plates of pomegranate beef tenderloin and okra and eggplant stew are reminders of the politics of the home they left behind. Photos of Iranian political prisoners line the walls at the front entrance. There's a memorial to the victims of flight 752 shot down by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard with 176 passengers aboard, 138 of them destined for Canada. And amidst the protests of the last year and a half inside Iran and beyond, that sense of community support has swelled. “People have been coming in the restaurant and saying, Hey, we support you. And I'm usually in the kitchen so my sister's in the front, and then hug my sister and then just leave.,” says Banu head chef Amir Mohyeddin. “So I find a lot of non- Iranians are now getting it. And even Iranians, there's some Iranians who come in there who's never been political and they're like, wow. Thank you so much for doing this.”  This episode of Countless Journeys takes you inside the history of Banu, as we hear what the Mohyeddins wanted to create through Banu that they couldn’t find anywhere else in Toronto, and their hopes for their homeland in a time of incredible change.

Apple and pear trees are common sights along the South Shore of Nova Scotia, but a new nursery just outside Lunenburg is bringing a vast array of new species of fruit trees to the area. Originally from Germany, Annette Clarke moved to British Columbia in the early 2000’s to study the ecosystems within the old growth forests of the West Coast. Her love of trees is a life-long one, and it eventually led her to open a nursery in that province. But when climate change brought the threat of intensified forest fires and longer-than-usual droughts, Annette began to look for a new home that would be suitable for herself, her son, and the 65 varieties of exotic fruit trees she has nurtured and experimented with, including guavas, figs and persimmons. Countless Journeys host Tina Pittaway visits the Exotic Fruit Nursery to hear more about Annette’s obsession with fruit trees, and what she has planned for her new life in Lunenburg County.

For many people who are uprooted from their lives in their homeland, the foods of home are often the first things they want to share, and the last connection to home that they hang onto. That’s certainly true for Edmonton’s Reichert family. Saul Reichert was the sole surviving member of his immediate family when he arrived in Canada as a Jewish war orphan aboard the SS Sturgis in 1948. He was one of 1,123 orphans brought to Canada through the Jewish War Orphans Project, spearheaded by the Canadian Jewish Congress. Saul soon found work at a diner called Teddy’s Restaurant, and would go on to become owner of Teddy’s as well as many others over the years. In her upcoming book, How to Share An Egg, A True Story of Love, Hunger, and Plenty, Saul’s daughter Bonny explores what she considers the guiding principle of her life: that food equals life. Through family stories as well as her own experiences Bonny weaves her family's devastating losses in the Holocaust with her own coming of age story.  “When I was a child, there was always the idea that I would write my dad's story, that I would write the story of his survival and the things that had happened to him. And I wanted to do it, but I couldn't do it. I didn't think I was worthy of it,” says Bonny. It wasn't until Bonny visited Poland where she saw the sights of the horrors her family experienced that she felt she could find a way into these stories. “And I started to see that maybe instead of writing my father's story, I could write my story of being my father's daughter. And a little later I started to realize that maybe I could tell that story through food, which was this theme that came up again and again and again throughout not just my life, but my father's life too.” In this episode we join Bonny as she prepares a dish Saul remembers his mother cooking for Shabbat, and hear Saul recount his harrowing story of surviving the Polish ghettos of Pabianice and Lodz that he and his beloved family were forced into in Poland, and his ultimate survival of Birkenau.

Growing up, celebrated chef and entrepreneur Vikram Vij wanted to be an actor, but his business-minded father had other ideas. At nineteen, Vij left India for Austria, where he studied hotel management, and landed his first restaurant job at the famed Michelin-starred Post-Stuben restaurant. It was there that a chance encounter with the head of CP Hotels led to a job offer at the Banff Springs Hotel. And so began Vikram Vij’s life in his adopted country of Canada. “I fell in love with Canada. I fell in love with Banff. And I always tell people I come from one of the largest democracies in the world called India, but I actually live in the best democracy in the world called Canada,” Vij says. From Banff, it was on to Vancouver, where Vij would build a network of restaurants with his former wife and business partner Meeru Dhalwala, and satisfy the entertainer in his soul with appearances on shows like Dragons’ Den, Top Chef Canada and Recipe to Riches. Countless Journeys is brought to you by the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21, located at the Halifax Seaport.

Growing up in Vancouver as the child of immigrants from China and Hong Kong, journalist Ann Hui had a very specific idea of what so-called authentic Chinese food was. “We would go eat in Chinatown. We would have wonton noodles, we would have dim sum, you know, really elaborate banquets. There were so many different ways of eating Chinese food, in my understanding of that kind of cuisine,” Ann tells host Tina Pittaway in the season premiere of season four of Countless Journeys. But on the occasions that Ann got outside of the urban setting of Vancouver, she was fascinated by the small town Chinese restaurants that are common across the country. “There would always be that one restaurant on the main street. It was always called Fortune something or Garden or Panda or Jade, something.” Similar in décor, and with menu items that were a mystery to Ann – things like moo goo gai pan, chicken balls, and almond chicken, dishes that were created for local tastes – she wanted to learn why, in pre-internet days, so many of these restaurants were so similar to one another. So when Ann was hired as a food writer for the Globe and Mail back in 2016, she set out on a road trip that took her from Victoria to Fogo Island in search of answers. Her series eventually became the subject of her book, Chop Suey Nation: The Legion Café and Other Stories from Canada’s Chinese Restaurants. Part personal memoir, and part cultural history, Ann shares not only the stories of the people who own these businesses, but also the stories of the historical forces that in part led to these Chinese restaurants' creation, including an infamous piece of legislation, commonly referred to as the Chinese Exclusion Act, which became law 100 years ago in 1923. Countless Journeys is brought to you by the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21, located at the Halifax Seaport.

Season 4 trailer

Gander, Newfoundland was made famous internationally with the hit Broadway musical Come From Away. The Tony Award-winning blockbuster centered around how the town handled the massive influx of stranded airline passengers impacted by the grounding of flights after the September 11th terrorist attacks in the United States in 2001. What a lot of people don’t realize is that Gander was able to handle that crisis in part because of its experience as the site of defections of tens of thousands of refugees from Eastern Bloc countries during the Soviet era. Some days more than 300 people would claim refugee status in Gander. More than 3000 Bulgarian refugees defected while they were en route through the Gander International Airport. And among them were artists Luben Boykov and Elena Popova. In 1990 the young couple was just starting a family in Sophia, Bulgaria when they made the life-changing decision to board a plane for Cuba under the guise of going there to a holiday. But their real plan was to defect once the plane landed in Gander to refuel. In this final episode of season three of Countless Journeys, Luben and Elena share their harrowing tale of fighting their way off that flight, uncertain of what lay ahead. “The plane started descending,” says Luben Boykov. “We had no idea where we were. Because no information was given, no PA announcements, nothing.” “I was choking. I had tears in my eyes. I couldn't breathe,” recalls Elena Popova. “I was trying desperately to take a breath of air and I did, and it was minus 20. I could feel the cold air, but it was the freshest breath of air I ever took.” The couple would go on to make Newfoundland their home for close to thirty years, where they raised their daughters and created art that is among gallery and private collections throughout the world.

Rey Tatad moved from the Philippines to Tisdale, Saskatchewan when he was 16 years old. Growing up, he loved illustration, and when it came time to decide on what to major in at University, Rey knew that art was what he wanted to pursue as his life’s work. In 2021 he graduated from the University of Regina with a degree in Fine Arts, picking up a national award for best emerging artist along the way. Rey Tatad’s art explores themes of colonization and identity, and the overlaps between the culture that he came from, and the culture he is contributing to now here in Canada. “I am definitely on a, on a journey on learning both of the histories and the cultures of the two countries - their differences, their similarities,” Rey says. “But the more that I learn, the more convoluted it gets. As an immigrant, you're neither really authentically Filipino nor authentically Canadian anymore. You're kind of in between.” Rey Tatad shares more of his ideas around identity, and his plans and dreams for his future. Leya Evelyn’s career as an abstract expressionist painter has spanned six decades, throughout which she has witnessed the acceptance of the art form as the dominant form of painting, placing New York City at the epicenter of the modern art world. Leya spent more than twenty years in New York City, and moved to Nova Scotia in the mid-nineteen-eighties where her art and teaching careers flourished. Now, at 85, Leya looks back at her influences and approach to painting. Sean Kennedy, professor of English at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, describes her painting as controlled explosions of colour and light. He says Leya’s paintings matter as much for what they do as what they refuse to do. “I was just born to paint. It's like, I don't feel like it's a choice. You know, it's one of those things that you just, I'm so glad that I found it early enough,” Leya says. “But once I found how much I loved painting, there was no question ever. I have never questioned it.”

The desire to give children a better life. That’s one of the big, enduring themes in stories about why people leave everything they know behind, to immigrate to another country. And it’s what inspired Ida Beltran Lucila and Jojo Lucila to leave thriving careers in the dance world in the Philippines to start over in Canada. The two met at Ballet Philippines in the early 1980s, where Ida would go on to become a principal ballerina. Jojo’s career as a dancer would end with an injury in his early twenties, but he continued as a choreographer for the Filipino military, whose musical productions routinely involved many hundreds of dancers. But widespread corruption and a political scandal that brought down a president left the couple despairing for the kind of futures their three children faced in a country where patronage seemed to rule the day. “We wanted to raise our children in a society of meritocracy so that they grew up knowing that the work that they invested in would yield something other than patronage,” says Ida Beltran Lucilla. But the sacrifices would be huge along the way. Settling in Edmonton, it was tough going at first, as the couple realized that their lack of contacts in the dance world in a new country would challenge their ability to make a living doing what they not only loved, but excelled at back home. “So in the early years I worked in the call centre for Pizza Hut and my husband was working at Sobey's. I think at that time I sort of lost my identity. Because my identity was so tied with my artistic achievements and not being able to do that here. I know now I can say that I sort of lost myself.” Listen as Ida and Jojo share their inspiring story of rebuilding their lives in Canada, creating opportunities for themselves and others in the Filipino community in Edmonton along the way.

The search for justice in an unjust world is a theme that never gets old. And it’s the search for justice that inspires Jorge Requena Ramos and Rafael Reyes in the music they create, along with their bandmates, in The Mariachi Ghost. “The Mariachi Ghost is a man who does not know if he's dead or alive,” explains Ramos. “A rider that comes in the night and finds people who are unjust, who are unfair, who are criminals, who are sinners.” The band mixes the sounds of traditional Mexican music with searing rock and four-part harmonies inspired by Mennonite choirs. In this conversation with Countless Journeys host Paolo Pietropaolo, Ramos, who was born in Mexico, and Reyes, who was born in El Salvador, talk with host Paolo Pietropaolo about their experiences as newcomers to Canada, trying to navigate a music industry that often routinely pigeon-holes non-white artists. “The Mariachi Ghost is an entirely Canadian experiment. We were able to create something that was multicultural, a reflection of the city that we live in with influences from Mennonite four-part choir singing to Chicha and Francophone songwriter influences, and Jamaica influences all happening in one place in one band in the basement, in a minus 48 winter day in Winnipeg, Manitoba in the suburbs,” says Ramos. “It's a very, very Canadian experience and we're very proud about that.”

Season 3 of Countless Journeys from the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 celebrates the contributions of Canadian immigrants to the performing and visual arts. We begin with a celebration of the life and work of legendary photographer Yousuf Karsh. Karsh was 13 years old when his family fled the Armenian Genocide, escaping to Syria. Two years later, his family sent Karsh, alone, to Halifax, where he was met by an uncle who brought him to his home in Sherbrooke Quebec. Karsh’s life story, from refugee to world-class photographer, unfolds, along with more than 100 of his portraits, in a wonderful exhibit featured at the Canadian Museum of Immigration, The World of Yousuf Karsh: A Private Essence. We speak with Dr. Hilliard Goldfarb, who is senior curator emeritus with the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, and the lead curator of the exhibit. “By the time of his closing the studio in Ottawa in 1993, he had literally photographed most of the famous people in the world: Churchill, Castro, Trudeau, Khrushchev, Jacqueline and John Kennedy, Nelson Mandela, Eleanor Roosevelt, Einstein, Picasso,” says Goldfarb. And Dinuk Wijeratne is a Juno award winning composer and performer whose music blurs boundaries and shakes up traditional approaches to classical music. Born in Sri Lanka, raised in Dubai, Dinuk came to Canada in 2004 after landing a job with Symphony Nova Scotia. Dinuk has performed on the biggest stages, like Carnegie Hall, the Lincoln Centre and the Opera Bastille, alongside musical luminaries like Yo Yo Ma and Zakir Hussain. Dinuk Wijeratne speaks with host Paolo Pietropaolo about his life and musical journey, and his devotion to eliminating barriers in the world of classical music. “Classical music has a very traditional past, it has a very centralised past, but I firmly believe that it should be accessible to everyone. I think that everyone, every single artist who says they engage with classical music should feel totally free to express and explore their own identity.”

Devoting your life to making art takes guts. Many newcomers have, and Canada as a country is richer for it. Join host Paolo Pietropaolo and many incredibly talented artists in the creative and performing arts who also happen to be immigrants to Canada in Season 3 of Countless Journeys. People like The Mariachi Ghost band lead singer Jorge Requina Ramos born in Mexico City but has called Winnipeg home for more than twenty years, famed photographer and Armenian refugee Yousuf Karsh and dancer Ida Beltran Lucilla, former principal ballerina with Ballet Philippines. This is Countless Journeys. Listen now on your preferred podcast streaming platform.

The Game Changers brings us the stories of two men, born just a few years apart, who came to Canada under very different circumstances and who both built hugely successful business empires, starting from scratch. First we hear from legendary broadcaster and publisher Moses Znaimer. The man who brought the music video to Canada. Along with so many more media innovations. Back when most Canadians had access to only a couple of TV channels, Moses Znaimer saw a future filled with channels--each catering to a small slice of the market. And he began launching networks that would do just that. He founded CityTV, and then MuchMusic, Fashion Television, Bravo, and many other networks too. “I always, always preferred being intensely relevant in the lives of two percent than being vaguely of interest in the lives of twenty percent.” Narinder Dhir was a successful young businessman in Punjab who gave it all up to come to Canada in 1969, where he started over and met with more success than he could have imagined. Narinder founded a company called Twin Brooks Developments, which has been the foundation of his success. “My first job I got on Burrard, Vancouver—Burrard Street. They were opening Vancouver Auto. They asked me to wash cars, clean floors, but I have a feeling inside, very much ashamed that I belonged to a very good family. What is happening? But the owner advised me, he say, “I came to this country. My wife was working in a rich man’s house, I was going to university, I’m a German, I learn lots of English here, and I work hard. I’m a mechanic, now I’m a partner of this company. If you want to succeed in Canada, everybody’s equal, you are to set your own goal. You have to work hard and no shame, nothing.” So I took a lesson from him.”