Listen to Judi Michelle Young describe her father's jobs on the CPR at the end of the 19th century.
‘China was going through a very difficult famine at the time, and consequently [my father and his brothers] all had to leave the country one way or another, and so they heard about Gold Country, they all jumped on.’
Faced with famine in China, Judi Michelle Young's father came with his brothers to Canada, where they worked on the western section of the railroad. Judi's father became a naturalized citizen in 1899, and enjoyed a privileged position among Chinese labourers because of his fluency in Chinese and English.
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