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8. What did your parents give up when they left Dominica?

KL: Oh, my parents gave up everything. My dad had a great job. He was the GM of a bank, and he was also on a couple of boards. My mother was a grammar teacher and a mentor to so many people … they sacrificed everything for us, to give us the opportunity to be able to come to Canada so that we could have opportunity.

9. You studied English at a high level in Dominica, and you were eight when your family moved to Canada. So why did your school send you to ESL classes?

KL: I was this shy, quiet kid, so you barely got me to speak. And then, my accent was so thick. People didn’t quite understand me. You have to understand, there weren’t many people coming from the Caribbean to live in Maple Ridge. So when I did speak, it just didn’t come across correct. I would have to say that’s why.

10. I’ve read you were bullied in those early days.

KL: Yes. I didn’t fit in. I was taller than other kids. Obviously, there were only a few — not in my class — but in my school, there were maybe two or three black kids. So I was different. I didn’t speak. I had a firecracker put in my hand in the first couple days I was at school. The kids laughed. I mean, I’d never seen a firecracker before, so it went off in my hand and all the kids laughed at me. I was an outsider. I actually hated it. I remember going home and telling my mom how much I hated them for bringing us here. Because my dad worked five hours away, so we only saw him on the weekends. That was the only job he could get. And my mother, because her accent was so thick, she couldn’t even get a good substitute-teaching job. So it was a struggle. We had our home in the city in Dominica, which was on one acre of land, and then our country home, which was on 10 acres of land. And then we were living in two-bedroom apartment. We went from comfortable to uncomfortable very quickly.