Pon, Vera
Vera Pon (née Wong) was born in 1923 in Vernon, British Columbia. She recalls her mother, Ho See, juggling many responsibilities, including raising Vera and her eleven siblings and looking after the family’s grocery store. Vera’s family experienced some discrimination in Vernon, but they banded together with the four other large Chinese families in the town. Vera’s two eldest sisters worked as housemaids for wealthy estate owners and Vera helped her mother in the grocery store by preparing vegetables, taking orders, and making deliveries to shops around town. After graduating from high school, she moved to Toronto, Ontario to work at a friend’s grocery store. She later trained in accounting and shorthand, and worked for a wholesaler/distributor with these skills. She was introduced to James Pon through mutual friends, and the two married in 1943. She raised three children, in addition to looking after her husband’s family. In the 1970s, Vera took a Computer Programming course and re-entered the work force. She worked for a number of years at the Ontario Ministry of Government Services and the City of Toronto. In 2006, Vera accompanied James Pon, a head tax payer, on the ‘Redress Express’ train to Ottawa to hear Stephen Harper’s apology for the head tax and Chinese Immigration Act. The Pons are the founders of the Foundation to Commemorate Chinese Railway Workers in Canada and the Mon Sheong Foundation.
In this interview, Vera Pon talks about growing up in a large Chinese Canadian family in Vernon, British Columbia. She reminisces about her mother’s important role in the large family, outlining some of her daily tasks. She describes working conditions at her grocery store jobs in Toronto, Ontario. She also discusses an experience of discrimination at Humber College of Applied Arts and Technology, where she completed a program in computer programming in the 1970s. She addresses racial discrimination more generally, and comments on changing attitudes towards Chinese Canadians. She emphasizes the importance of the 2006 head tax apology by Prime Minister Harper.
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