By Pepper Parr
March 13th, 2021
BURLINGTON, ON
I was looking for a way to close out a week in which we celebrated women.
A colleague sent me a link to a Facebook page that had Burlington MP Karina Gould talking to Ancilla Ho-Young, and the work she has done from the day she arrived in Canada in 1970.
Her first job was as a nurse at the Joseph Brant Hospital – it turned out to be her only job. During the 40 years she worked as a nurse she broke a lot of barriers and did a lot of pioneering work.
It was a treat, a real treat, to listen to Ancilla talk about the trials she experienced as a woman of colour. She saw it all and experienced much of it – some of it is still taking place, as she noted during a virtual conversation with MP Gould.
Ancilla Ho Young in a virtual conversation with Burlington MP Karina Gould
The last ten years of her career at Joseph Brant Hospital were spent as the lead in the sexual assault victims unit where she put in a full shift each day and was on the phone many evenings making sure that a victim who walked into emergency didn’t get shipped off to some other institution.
Ancilla developed strong working relationships with the police, which she still maintains.
She is one of these people you have to meet and experience. More often than not, at least in my experience, she would look at you with one eyebrow raised – and that sort of yeah? look on her face.
Ancilla Ho-Young was not a woman to trifle with.
Firm in her responses, which she will tell you “got me in trouble sometimes” she adds that, “There is still quite a bit of racism in Burlington but it has changed” remembering “there were times when I would be followed in a store by people thinking I was going to steal something”.
Retirement wasn’t an opportunity to do a little less – the week it became known that she had retired, the invitations to sit on different boards came flooding in.
Karina Gould asked Ancilla how she handled the transition from being a nurse with front line responsibilities within an organization that had both structure and hierarchy to being to be an activist and now able to put her views, beliefs and convictions into practice at a grass roots level.
A deep smile comes across her face as she respond “there is more work to be done”.
Dear Burlington Gazette,
Ancilla is a friend. She cares deeply for her friends and others. She is motivated to remedy the conditions that lead to injustice and help those who are affected by injustice. She has a mighty heart that can be relied on to effect positive change in all areas of her influence. She is to be taken seriously and expects you to do so because she has a true heart for her community.
Your article is an accurate portrayal of this important leader and trailblazer in the Burlington community.
John R Theriault