The Ben Mulroney Show - The newest Canadian. A conversation on what it means to Martha Gai

Episode Date: June 30, 2025

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Welcome back to the Ben Mulrooney Show and tomorrow is Canada Day and you know there are a lot of people in this country that if given the chance would want to dismantle this country, one institution by after another. There are some who believe we are irredeemably lost. We are a net negative in the world. We are a cancer. We are a blight. We are a tumor. We need to be excised. And we start with our history and we move through our institutions until there is and then our identity and then we have nothing left. I don't know how many of those people there are, but even if there's a few of them, they're just very loud and they crowd out the more rational positive voices.

So here on the show today, we are going to welcome one of those positive voices into the conversation. A few weeks ago, we were joined here at our radio station by a new face and a light in the hallways. I have not had a chance to work with our intern, but I'm so glad to spend some time with her today. Martha Guy, she was a South Sudanese student

and as of the 18th of this month, she is a Canadian citizen. Martha, welcome to the show. Thank you, Ben. I'm happy to be here. Well, listen, like I said, we haven't worked together, but I've always loved spending time with you and I know that everybody here loves spending time with you.

So seriously, welcome and talk to me. Let's let's start with the day you became a Canadian citizen. So what was that like? Oh, the day I became Canadian. What a great day. It rained on that day. And I was like, maybe it was just like the very beginning of like new experiences. But it was so patriotic, I I would say because they played this video

and then I was seeing these great parts of Canada and I was like oh my god I want to travel all these parts I want to go and see the aurora lights yeah the northern terraria I want to go there those ones I want to see them because they look so pretty and I was like this always just look like one of those things that you know that in animations the things just they just appear as like yeah But these are real things that I wanted. I was like, I'll have to travel one day just to be able to experience this. So it's just a lot.

I'm just like, I love this and I'm excited for a lot of things. So you felt, is it fair to say that in that moment when you took the citizenship oath, that you felt the pride of being Canadian? Oh my God. It was like it was jumping out of my heart. I was like, yes. And It was like, it was jumping out of my heart. I was like, yes.

And I was like, it felt like, it just felt like this new community, these new people and the way they said welcome, I was like, yes, I'm happy to be here. Okay, so now let's go back to the beginning of the story. Let's tell me about your childhood. Tell me about where you grew up and tell me about your family.

I grew up in South, I was born in South Sudan and I grew up there. I used to go to Uganda for the education because the education assistant was lacking. So I would travel to Uganda, come back home, but then when the civil conflict happened in my country in 2013, my entire family had to travel, had to move to Uganda. And how old were you? I tried, how old was I? In 20? I was 16. Okay. I was 16. Okay. Yeah. So you were, you're old enough to know exactly what was going on. Oh, I was old enough. I was already in high school by then. And then, but I had so many younger siblings because I can't... How many? I feel like we're still counting, but at this point... You're still counting? Yes.

We're on 20 something right now. Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold the whole timeout. Flag on the play. Okay, so we got to take a minute here. You have how many siblings? I have around 20 right now. And I say around 20 because I don't have like an exact number because some we are in different countries. So others I'm yet to meet. I come from a polygamous family.

Okay, there we go. That is how that happens. I see. Okay, fair enough. Just needed to know. Your dad, they should study your dad. Honestly, he's the better one if you come from there. The big pharma company should be studying your dad for the next virility breakthrough. Okay, so now you're in Uganda and you're 16-ish. Tell me about what life was like there.

The very first time, like it was obvious, like we had a great time. My dad had a great career. We had money by then, but then the war happens and then we become refugees and then there's no money coming in and then we're living in tents at a camp. So it was like a whole other experience and I had to take time off from school for a while

because well adjusting getting to like we didn't have homes at that point right because when the camp was setting everything up so school was like at the very back and it was like a new experience something that you don't wish on anyone. So you're in your late teens at this point like there's a lot I mean I remember when I was that age, living here, I was planning for the future. I had ambitions. I knew that there was a path that would take me from where I was to a different, probably better place

if I worked at it. I have to think that in that refugee camp, you're sort of in a limbo where you can't allow yourself to think that way, or did you? I felt like it was much more frustrating because I had had this chance to have all these dreams, all these things that I knew my life is going to be like this. I'm going to be I'm going to be done with like university when I'm like 22 and then I'm going to be married when I'm 25, you know, and then I'm going to have my first kid. So I had all this like this everything laid out and then that happened and it just felt

like it was one of those where we just care that if this becomes your life, that means you're going to get married as soon as possible. Yeah, because that's like the culture there. And then you're going to become a mom and then that becomes your life. And then you get everybody's life around you. Like, is this what I'm what my life is going to be? And you want more. They'll have to be more.

OK, that was always the plan. There has to be more in life. So at what point did Martha and the idea of Canada collide? Oh, Canada. When I finished high school, because eventually I got the chance to be able to go back to high school within the camp, and then I finished high school and I was out of school for like one year because I couldn't afford university. And they just wasn't like, I didn't know what was going to come. Right. And then there is WUSC. it's like World University Service Canada. So they have like a merit-based whereby if you get a certain grade, you can be able to apply. And then if you get that, then you're

going to get a chance to come to a university in Canada, you can replace anywhere in Canada, and then you'd be able to pursue, like you come as a permanent resident, so that you have like the full opportunity to be able to work here and start a new life in Canada. And once I learned about that scholarship, I applied and I would say I got in. And what I am today. What did you know about Canada when you applied? Yeah, geography, I knew about BC. I knew about the Canadian prairies because we're like, we studied that.

And then lumbering. That was and it's very, very cold. It's a very, very cold country. It's very, very cold. It's a very, very cold country. It's very big. But then that wasn't much about who Canadians were, but it was more about the geography of Canada. So that was as much information as I had. And listen, a lot of people get scholarships

or come to Canada to study, and that's the end of their time here. What was it about your experience that you decided that you wanted to go for citizenship? Canada from the very first moment when I came here I met like great people from the very beginning. I always had like a very strong community in school because everything was new by then I had like a very strong accent. I still have an accent but like by then if I said

something you'd ask can you come again? Yeah. So I had so much of much of that. But then there were so many people who were willing to help me. I felt I was here alone. I didn't have my family. So it was just me. And then I had so many professors. I had very many classmates. It was just such a great community that I felt like I had been in Canada for way longer than I had been.

And I was like, this has become my new home, my new friends. I would call them found family. Yeah. And there just wasn't much thinking to it. It was just like, I am happy to be here. I have these great people and I would want my family to be able to experience my future family because I feel like I'm going to settle here

and have children, everything. And I would want them to be able to experience this great family that I found here. So, you know, there's a big debate going on in Canada about, I think by and large, a lot of people believe that the path that we've gone down in terms of immigration has not served us, has not served the country as well as it used to.

But the conversation about the value of multiculturalism, I think is a different conversation. Like the immigration system is broken, but my belief in multiculturalism still exists. Now, as somebody who comes from a completely different culture, who is proud to now be a Canadian, talk to me about the balancing act that you're going to do as a new Canadian of preserving your culture, but finding a way to build a life within a Canadian identity. What do I think about like my culture, where I come from, the biggest thing was always about like community.

We grew up with our cousins in the same house. We have like this really, really big families. So there wasn't ever really like a moment to feel lonely or something like that. There was just always somebody there. Right. And then I came to Canada. There was just a lot of like in like people are just themselves but then I also really liked that because I had never had a moment to just be me and not having to think about my entire community so that was a great that was a great thing to learn just that whole being yourself being adequate alone and being independent in a sense that was very nice and then the people are very considerate here and I didn't know how people maybe from my culture you don't consider it like there's not that sense of consideration just do things

because that's what I do but that people here are gonna ask you is it okay if I do this and I'm just like no never ask yeah just do it just do right yeah I'm like that's just one of those two but you might take it for granted but it's so good to feel like somebody is gonna be able to respect you like your your boundaries if you say no somebody's gonna actually hear no one they're gonna say okay but something just bulldozed into your life and this, this, what is that? Like, so I'm like, Canadians are very, very nice and very considerate people.

That is something that I feel everybody should be able to adopt. Because it's a great thing that in case like I just, wherever you go, you just have to think about the other person. And from my side, what I would want for you to get is the fact that let's always be there for each other. I would say it's let's not be alone. I feel like there's just so many people, but people are very much alone at the same time. So yeah, so I would say maybe let's always reach out to others. Martha, thank you so much for joining us and sharing your story. Welcome to Canada.

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