Annual Public Meeting 2024

Hello. I'm Michele McKenzie, Interim CEO of the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21. The Museum shares stories of people coming to Canada – why they came, what barriers they faced, and how they contributed to this society.

One of the things that is common to almost all stories of immigration is hope. 

(Translated from French)
Canada has represented hope for a better life for most of those who have come here.

The Museum is a symbol of that hopefulness. Not because it focuses on positive stories; its job is to tell the story of Canadian immigration history, warts and all. But hope is always part of that story. It is reflected in everything the Museum does. And it does a lot.

(Translated from French)
Here are some of the things the Museum did in 2024-2025.

During this period, a new large-scale travelling exhibition called eat make share: a taste of immigration was in the final stages of development. The exhibition concluded its run here at the Museum in January, and in April of 2026, travels to the Joseph Brandt Museum in Burlington, Ontario, the first stop of a five-year journey that will take it to locations across Canada.

The exhibition is all about the relationship between food and immigration in Canada, including how food insecurity causes people to leave their homes, and how indigenous foodways and culinary traditions from around the world have shaped how and what we eat here today.

(Translated from French)
Here are the Museum’s curators to tell us about some of the artifacts in the exhibition.

Sara England, Curator, Temporary and Travelling Exhibitions

People's connection to food runs deep. It's tied to memory, to home, and even to freedom and safety.

That was the case for Rebecca Teitelbaum, a Jewish woman from Belgium who was sent to a concentration camp during the Holocaust. We're here inside the exhibition eat make share: a taste of immigration with a really special book, handmade by Rebecca almost 80 years ago.

In secret and at great risk, Rebecca stole paper and a pencil from the office of Ravensbrück concentration camp. At night, the woman prisoners would talk about their favorite recipes from home, and Rebecca would record them in a book she had hand stitched together. She wrote down over 200 recipes.

Her camp was eventually liberated and Rebecca survived and immigrated to Canada, bringing the recipe book with her. Her recipe for orange cake, included in the book is fondly remembered by her son as something she made weekly throughout her life in Canada, and it's also one of the many recipes available in the exhibition for visitors to make at home.

Kristine Kovačević, Curator, Core Exhibitions

(Translated from French)
Hi, my name is Kristine Kovačević, and I'm the Curator of Core Exhibitions at the Museum. I'm so lucky to have been on the team creating this exciting exhibition.

(Translated from French)
For centuries now, newcomers have adapted recipes and ingredients to their new situation in Canada to some very delicious results. Did you know the California roll was invented in Canada?

(Translated from French)
In 1971, a Japanese sushi chef named Hidekazu Tojo came from Japan and found that most Canadians were wary of eating sushi with its raw fish and seaweed. To suit Canadian tastes, he adapted the traditional sushi roll by hiding the seaweed inside a layer of rice and by using cooked crab. Today, the California roll is considered to be one of the most popular styles of sushi in North America.

(Translated from French)
Discover the surprising histories behind the Canadian foods we love. Experience eat make share: a taste of immigration today, created by the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21. Open until January 18th, 2026.

Michele McKenzie, Interim CEO

(Translated from French)
Travelling exhibitions are an important way that the Museum fulfills its national mandate.

Another major travelling exhibition, "Refuge Canada", which launched 7 years ago, continued to travel around the country in both a large format, and smaller ones that help us to reach Canadians in smaller communities or non-traditional spaces like shopping malls and libraries. With the worldwide refugee crisis continuing and growing, Refuge Canada is sadly more relevant than ever.

The Museum launched a new exhibition called A History Exposed: The Enslavement of Black People in Canada. This exhibition was created with guest curator Dr. Afua Cooper and in partnership with the Black Cultural Centre for Nova Scotia. It is also slated to travel extensively over the coming years. 

(Translated from French)
A smaller exhibition called Operation Parasol, was developed to mark the 25th anniversary of the resettlement and repatriation of thousands of Kosovar refugees fleeing conflict in the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

On September 30th of 2024, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, the Museum launched the digital Timeline, Immigration and Impact. The timeline features different lenses on the history of the land now known as Canada, including a lens about Indigenous history created by Indigenous scholars. In its first five months, the timeline received over 125,000 views. 

(Translated from French)
You can view the timeline at timeline.pier21.ca.

The Museum's collection focuses on notable objects, accounts and images that tell important and often fascinating stories about immigration to Canada. Collecting is targeted, and some of the items in our collection are very special. 

This heart-shaped glass pendant was whittled by a Canadian soldier, Frank Englehart, during the Second World War. The glass was debris from a Nazi airplane shot down near him. He took the brass maple leaf from his uniform and added it to the pendant, and sent it to his wife, Marjorie. Marjorie was one of the tens of thousands of war brides who came to Canada during and after the war.

(Translated from French)
The Collection Development Plan helps the team to decide which items to acquire and preserve. It focuses on material that fills gaps in the collection. In 2024-25, the team targeted items that reflect the experiences of people arriving from India, China, the Philippines, Nigeria and France. 

Material was collected from refugee movements including from Syria a decade ago, Somalia in the 1980s, and Chile in the 70s. The team also collected items from immigrant-owned businesses and those that employ a lot of immigrant workers.

The Museum has a rich collection of Oral Histories. In collaboration with Qissa, an organization that documents, archives, and exhibits oral histories of immigrants to Canada, it undertook a project called Driving Canada: A Front Seat View of Immigration through Uber. The collaboration resulted in 7 oral history interviews with recent immigrants from India, Pakistan, and Syria.

This Museum is for everyone. The team continued to make the building and the experiences the Museum offers more accessible. The Museum's first Accessibility Plan began its third year on January 1st, 2025. And as it concluded, all 131 of the action items listed in the plan were complete. 

Partnerships help amplify the Museum's mandate in collaboration with other organizations. Partnerships included Concordia University, Neptune Theatre, Taste Canada, Devour Film Festival, Halifax Comedy Festival, Taste Asia, the Black Cultural Centre for Nova Scotia, and others.

The Museum has two podcasts. One in English, "Countless Journeys", and one in French, "D'innombrables voyages". Season 5, which dropped in May of 2024, was centred on the theme Humour and Immigration. This was a breakthrough year; the cumulative number of downloads surpassed 100,000 with listeners all across Canada and, in fact, around the world.

Fundraising is critical to this museum. Without it, the Museum would not be able to offer such a wide range of programs and events. Cynthia mentioned some of our sponsors and major donors earlier. I want to reiterate my thanks to them, as well as to the people who donate at any level. It all makes a big difference. 

In Halifax, in November of 2024, the annual Luncheon with a Fascinating Canadian event featured keynote speaker Sherry Porter. Sherry has been a long-time champion and friend of the Museum. The event chair was Karen Hutt. A second Fascinating Canadian event, held in Toronto, featured Ajay Virmani, Executive Chairman & Founder of Cargojet. The Toronto event was co-chaired by Calin Rovinescu and Annette Verschuren. 

(Translated from French)
And a Museum event in Montreal featured a conversation with power-couple Andrew Molson and Helen Antoniou. 

Events like these build awareness and support for the Museum's important mandate.

The Museum developed new education programs and experiences, and hosted two playwrights as artists in residence, both immigrants to Canada working on plays with immigration-related themes. 

Public programs bring different communities into the building for many events during the year. This includes film screenings, encounters with authors, concerts, and more. March Break this year featured hugely popular cooking workshops. The Canada's Storytellers series included encounters with Kim Thuy for the screening of Ru, a film based on her book, Jeanne Beker, who discussed her new book Heart on My Sleeve, and Mi'kmaw artist shalan joudry, whose artist's residency was capped with a dance performance inspired by her poetry. 

There were also performances by Julian Taylor to celebrate African Heritage Month and Toronto's renowned ARC ensemble, and a lecture held online from African American scholar Alphonso Saville about 18th-century Black Methodist preacher John Murrant, who established a church in Birchtown, Nova Scotia.

(Translated from French)
And on Canada Day, as always, the Museum was open, free of charge to the public for a special day full of performances and activities.

Countless immigrants have brought their hopes with them to this country. This hope fuelled them as they began the work of building a new life in a new place. And it fuels the team here at the Museum. 

Thank you for joining us today, and we hope to see you at the Museum soon.

(Translated from French)
Goodbye.