Roy Ratnavel has spent a lifetime defying expectations. One might think that such a successful businessman would emphasize his own accomplishments. Instead, he talks only of gratitude to his father, to his family and to his adopted homeland of Canada, which he chose long ago and continues to choose every day.
“Canada gave me a second chance at life. I owe this country everything,” Ratnavel says. “Every immigrant has rights but also responsibilities: to obey the law, contribute to the economy and build stronger communities.”
Ratnavel’s best-selling memoir, Prisoner #1056, recounts his improbable journey from military dungeons to the highest heights of Bay Street. He was imprisoned and tortured as a teenager in his native Sri Lanka during that country’s civil war for the crime of being born Tamil. Recognizing the limited future for a Tamil boy during the ongoing Sri Lankan Civil War, his father told him to leave as soon as he got out of prison, thinking, “Canada might be the land of opportunity.”
“I landed here on April 19, 1988,” he says. “Eighteen years old, alone, with little money and big dreams, and I committed right away to make this country home.”
The early years in Canada were tough: trudging through deep snow to the bus stop, long factory shifts and ever-present survivor’s guilt for having escaped the death and suffering that so many of his family and friends could not. Just days after arriving in Canada, Ratnavel learned his father had been shot in an act of pointless sectarian violence.
He resolved to make the very most of his precious life and was grateful to be in Canada, where he could follow his father’s advice to not just survive, but live.
An act of heroic perseverance landed him a job in the mailroom at CI Asset Management. He retired as Vice Chairman. Yet despite his success, Ratnavel is never triumphal. His memoir catalogues the many generous Canadians who helped him immensely along the way, people who admired and rewarded his hard work but also taught him that there’s more to life than money – that helping others is the greatest of joys.
“Canada gave me freedom. It gave me an opportunity. Where I came from, you had neither,” Ratnavel says.
Today, he’s paying it forward through philanthropy and any other form of giving he can do.
“There are three phases in life,” he says. “Learn, earn and return. I’m in the return phase now.”
Ratnavel and his wife, Sue, just made a million dollar gift to the Scarborough Health Network, where he now sits on the board and leads efforts to improve mental health services for immigrant communities, particularly those affected by the trauma of war, which he knows all too well. A person doesn’t need millions to be generous. Even those in their learning and earning phases of life can still make a difference.
“Give $50. Give time. Share your expertise. The joy you get from giving is worth so much more,” he says. “It’s about showing others in your community that giving back is possible. When people see someone like them step up, they feel inspired to do the same.”
To those who think immigrants are a drain on Canada, Ratnavel has a plain message: “Immigrants are here to build.”
“People born into freedom often don’t appreciate it. But those of us who choose freedom never take it for granted. I give to say thank you to this nation, which has given me everything,” he says.
Ratnavel’s love of Canada is a calling that cannot be silenced.
“Until the day I die, I will continue to contribute in any way I can to give back to a nation that opened the doors to people like me,” he says. “Canada gave me a life. I’ll spend the rest of it giving back.”
And to new immigrants just starting out on their journey, Ratnavel has just one request: “Leave this place better than you found it.”
He believes it’s a simple maxim that says a lot about expectations – not the ones others have of us, but the ones we hold for ourselves.
Mojoyin Adigun
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