Obituary: Ottawa's Peter Pay was a war refugee, civil engineer, political activist

As a boy growing up in Jinan, China, Peter Pay suffered the pain and tumult of his country’s searing experience with war.

Pay’s father, a schoolteacher and soldier, was imprisoned by the Japanese after their 1937 invasion of China, an event many historians regard as a prelude to the Second World War. He was never seen again.

Peter Pay fled from his village near Jinan, China, and walked to the city of Nanjing, where he attended a school for war orphans and other displaced boys. But China’s civil war reignited following the defeat of the Japanese.

The civil war pitted Nationalist government forces led by Chiang Kai-shek against Mao Zedong’s communists. In its wake, Peter Pay was again forced to flee, this time as a refugee alongside about 200 classmates. He led the boys by foot, rail and boat on a 900-kilometre escape to Taiwan.

“He was a natural leader,” said daughter Susan Pay, one of his six children.

“Self-reliance was quite central to his character,” said another daughter, Joanna Pay. “He could be quite stubborn, too.”

Pay would go on to earn a civil engineering degree in Taiwan and a master’s degree from the University of Toronto. He helped to design dams in northern Manitoba, locks in the St. Lawrence Seaway and icebreakers to defend the Canadian Arctic.

Thankful for the peace and freedom offered by his adopted country, he was active in Ottawa politics and sought to help build ties between Canada and China.

Pay died earlier this month at the age of 90. Mayor Jim Watson and former mayor Jacquie Holzman both attended his funeral.

Watson said Pay supported his political career from the time Watson first ran for city council in 1991.

“He was a very humble man who came into my campaign office on Bank Street and made a financial contribution of $200, which, for a first-time candidate, was a really big deal,” Watson remembered.

“He told me he was impressed that I was going door-to-door to seek support, and he wanted to help. Over the years and elections, Peter would always support my various campaigns without seeking anything in return. He was a great defender of democracy and free elections.”

Peter Wensheng Pay was born into turbulent times on Oct. 16, 1931. China’s nationalists and communists were then waging civil war, while Japan was making aggressive territorial claims in China’s north. When the Imperial Japanese Army launched a full-scale invasion in July 1937, China’s warring nationalists and communists formed an uneasy alliance to defend the country.

It’s estimated that as many as 20 million Chinese died during the next eight years, a Second World War death toll second only to Russia’s. Another 100 million Chinese became refugees in their own country.

Peter Pay became a refugee as the frontlines of China’s renewed civil war approached Nanjing.

In Taiwan, he worked hard in high school to make up for the schooling he had missed and earned a place in the country’s best university. After graduating with a civil engineering degree, Pay explored graduate schools in the United States, but ultimately decided on Canada after examining the country on a map: He was impressed by its lakes.

“He loved a place with a lot of water, so he said, ‘That’s the place I want to be,’” Susan Pay said.

Pay worked in Winnipeg and Montreal, married, and settled in Ottawa, where he was a senior engineer for Transport Canada. He adopted three of his brother’s children from China.

He also began to buy real estate and steadily built a property management business. Pay always sent money back to his relatives in China and became known in Ottawa for assisting Chinese and Vietnamese immigrants in need of affordable places to stay.

Pay became a fixture on the city’s political scene, too. He met Mayor Jacquelin Holzman’s city delegation when they made an official visit to Beijing in November 1994 and actively supported many politicians, including Holzman and Watson. He was active in local Chinese-Canadian community organizations and encouraged his colleagues to get involved in politics.

“He thought the Chinese community’s voice should be heard,” said his son, George Pay.

Joanna Pay said her father liked the sense of community that came with politics. “He liked to be involved, and being part of what was happening,” she said. He did not define himself as Liberal or Conservative, but talked to everyone.

George Pay said his father continued to work well into his 80s: “He worked very hard, seven days a week, and always had something to do every day.”

Pay loved spending time with his many grandchildren, along with travelling, fishing and walking along the canal.

“He was very open minded, very optimist,” Susan Pay said. “He loved people, and loved to talk to people.”