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Trudeau's Other Children

2005 1 h 7 min
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Musicians Vineet Vyas, Mei Han and Asif Illyas are part of one of the greatest social experiments the world has seen: multiculturalism. Nearly 40 years ago, under the eye of visionary prime minister Pierre Trudeau, Canada began turning itself into the world's first truly multicultural state--a place where people from all nations could be at home. But the genesis for Trudeau's idea came decades earlier, when he was a young man travelling through the chaos of the post-war Middle East and Asia. Vineet Vyas is a renowned tabla player who splits his time between Canada and India. An accomplished traditional …

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Trudeau's Other Children

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Musicians Vineet Vyas, Mei Han and Asif Illyas are part of one of the greatest social experiments the world has seen: multiculturalism. Nearly 40 years ago, under the eye of visionary prime minister Pierre Trudeau, Canada began turning itself into the world's first truly multicultural state--a place where people from all nations could be at home. But the genesis for Trudeau's idea came decades earlier, when he was a young man travelling through the chaos of the post-war Middle East and Asia.



Vineet Vyas is a renowned tabla player who splits his time between Canada and India. An accomplished traditional musician, zheng player Mei Han is also an audacious innovator and improviser. And Asif Illyas--born in Sri Lanka, raised in England, and living in Halifax--is frontman for boundary-breaking contemporary pop band Mir.



In Trudeau's Other Children, award-winning filmmaker Rohan Fernando places the stories of Mei, Vineet and Asif in juxtaposition with archival footage and excerpts from Trudeau's journals. The result offers unique insights into the origins and practice of Canada's multicultural policy--and a film as powerful, layered and subtle as the best of their music.

  • participant
    Mei Han
    Vineet Vyas
    Asif Illyas
    Pierre Elliott Trudeau
  • writer
    Rohan Fernando
  • director
    Rohan Fernando
  • producer
    Kent Martin
  • cinematography
    Russell Gienapp
    Kent Nason
  • editor
    Hannele Halm
  • sound
    Paul Adlaf
    Stéphane Barsalou
    Bruce Gordon Thomsen
    Jane Porter
    Alex Salter
  • additional sound
    Laurence Currie
  • production supervisor
    Patricia Coughran
  • additional photography
    Dominique Gusset
  • production manager
    Susanne Lively
  • voice
    Yanik Bousquet
  • camera assistant
    Patrick Joseph Jordan
  • original music composer
    Asif Illyas
  • additional music performance
    Mir
    Mei Han
    Randy Raine-Reusch
    Orchid Ensemble
    Vineet Vyas
  • research
    Rohan Fernando
  • archival research
    Elizabeth Klinck
  • technical coordinator
    Patricia Coughran
  • sound editor
    Paul Steffler
  • re-recording
    Serge Boivin
  • video mastering
    Steve Cook
  • on-line
    Steve Cook
  • titles
    Chris Darlington
  • studio clerk
    Stephanie Coolen
    Vanessa Larsen
  • marketing manager
    Amy Stewart Gallant
    Philip Moscovitch
  • centre administrator
    John William Lutz

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Education

Ages 14 to 18
School subjects

Locate the countries that Pierre Trudeau travelled to during his youth and map out his route and mode of transportation. Compare Pierre Trudeau’s multicultural policy to his son’s current work in resettling Syrian refugees in Canada. Address the difference between patriotism and nationalism; discuss how the individuals featured in this documentary embrace their ancestral culture while still remaining authentically Canadian.

Trudeau's Other Children
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