Rivaux Lay describes how, under Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge regime, he was only permitted to eat one teaspoon of rice daily. When soldiers were not around, he would scrounge for anything to eat. Although he could’ve been shot dead for taking things that weren’t rationed to him, he says he had to improvise to stay alive. He and his family eventually fled to Thailand. But when they arrived on a mountainside, he needed to carefully follow the footsteps left behind by others to avoid stepping on a fatal landmine. Lay now calls Ottawa home after living through the Cambodian genocide of the 1970s, which wiped out nearly a quarter of the country’s population.
Rivaux Lay, a Cambodian refugee to Canada, holds up a spoon of rice, showing how much he was permitted to eat under the Khmer Rouge regime. Still from Passage to Freedom.
However, more recently, Lay is one of 174 interviewees featured in a 2022 Canadian documentary film, Passage to Freedom. The film, directed by Sheila Petzold, examines the demanding journey of more than 100,000 refugees who fled Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia and came to Canada between 1975 and 1985. The documentary, narrated in French and English, is part of a massive oral history project from Carleton University. As part of its enormous scope, it also includes interviews with government officials, immigration officers, and Canadian sponsors. The piece’s creators say they wanted to understand what life was like for the refugees and to document an important part of history.
“The bulk of the refugees left… between 1975 and 1985, and they were known as ‘the boat people’ because many people–especially from Vietnam–got on tiny boats, whatever boat was available,” says Allan Moscovitch, Passage to Freedom‘s coordinator and producer. “And it was the impact of the images that people saw of refugees trying to escape across the open water, going long distances in tiny boats. Many people lost their lives.”
A Canadian immigration officer interviews refugees in a tent. Photo provided.
In Passage to Freedom, interviewees share a wide range of circumstances. Some people had their boats broken and floated for hours holding on to their remaining planks; some dodged landmines or ended up in camps. Some were attacked by pirates. Meanwhile, others were sent back to their country of origin after fleeing to Thailand. Others had more straightforward resettlement experiences. Ottawans can hear more of these stories directly from the film’s creators and interviewees following its screening at the Mayfair Theatre this weekend.
“As with many, many of these kinds of events that have taken place, people eventually get on with their lives, and it doesn’t mean that their family even know anything about what happened to them. This was an opportunity for people to tell their children, tell extended family about what happened to them, and to tell others about what happened to them.”
Passage to Freedom is screening at the Mayfair Theatre on May 20 at 2:30pm. The show is free to attend.
