The 80-year-old Indo-Canadian man, who escaped death in Uganda in 1972, runs one of Canada’s biggest pharmacy groups called Bromed Pharmaceuticals
By our reporter
TORONTO: The word refugee generally evokes a negative response. But Ugandan-born Ramesh Chotai has changed the meaning of this word.
Indeed, he is Canada’s refugee with the golden touch.
“People look down upon refugees, but I am a living example of refugees who have created thousands of jobs and become big taxpayers,†says the 80-year-old Chotai who was born in a small town in northern Uganda in 1942.
Since landing in this country in 1972 after his expulsion from Uganda, Chotai has gone on to establish one of the largest privately owned pharmacy chains (Bromed Pharmaceuticals), create thousands of jobs, pay millions in taxes, help numerous fellow refugees settle here and donate liberally to humanitarian causes.
In fact, his Bromed Pharmaceuticals has become one of the biggest importers of raw materials into Canada.
Not surprisingly, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau thanked Chotai and other Ugandan refugees for their huge contribution at a dinner at Liberty Grand in Toronto on October 12, 2022.
“The Prime Minister praised us, calling us the best and admiring our determination and resilience,†says Chotai, adding, “This country has been great to me. Canada offers limitless opportunities. If you are determined and honest, nothing can stop you from succeeding here.â€
But this generous man’s life would have been over 50 years ago when Asians were thrown out of Uganda by Idi Amin.
“I could be dead at 28. Idi Amin arrested me, put me in jail and threatened to execute me,†he says, recalling the day – August 4, 1972 – when Asians were told to leave his country within 90 days.
Chotai, 28 then, was the CEO of Britain’s Imperial Chemical Industries Pharmaceuticals (now AstraZeneca) when he had to flee that country to save his life.
Recalling the horror of 1972, he says, “After ordering the expulsion of all Asians, President Idi Amin called me into his office in Kampala. I knew him well. He told me: You have stopped supplying medicines to the Ministry of Health and hospitals and you are sabotaging the economy of the country. I said we don’t have foreign exchange to import vital drugs. My reply angered him and he said: But we have foreign exchange for imports. Then he stood up, shook my hand and said: You watch out! and left.â€
Young Chotai went home. His horror was about to begin
“Next day, I was in my office when at about 12.30 pm around 20 armed men came with machine guns and started firing into the windows of my office.They arrested me, took off my shirt, put me in an army truck and started parading me on the main road of Kampala to make me an example for other Asians,†recalls Chotai.
With tears welling up in his eyes, he adds, “After parading me in Kampala, they threw me in jail. I was now a prisoner facing execution I still have nightmares about it. That was the most horrible day of my life.â€
After a night in jail and some negotiations with jail authorities, Chotai was allowed to go home.
Desperate to get out of Uganda, he approached the Indian embassy in Kampala for help.
“But the Indian embassy refused to help. They said I was not born in India and they stamped my passport: Prohibited Immigrant.â€
However, help came from an unexpected quarter – Canada.
“The then Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau sent 32 planes to evacuate Asian refugees from Uganda. My wife Krishna got in touch with the Canadian High Commission and they helped us get out of Uganda. I will never be able to thank the late Pierre Trudeau enough for what he did for us – Indians in Uganda. But for him we would have never been here. That’s why I am a lifelong Liberal. Pierre Trudeau saved us,†says a visibly shaken Chotai.
“This was the largest peacetime evacuation of refugees mission carried out by brave soldiers of the Canadian Armed Forces.â€
He says he and his wife slipped out of their big mansion in Kampala to the airport, lying to their driver that they will be back tomorrow.
“We were having tea when the word came that we must leave immediately for the airport. I left our tea cups on the table and drove to the airport. We didn’t want to take chances by telling our driver that we were leaving the country.â€
On his landing in Canada on October 12, 1972, he says they were warmly welcomed by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. “I had only a shirt on me when we landed in the chilly weather. A kind Canadian officer gave me his coat to keep warm. I have kept that coat and I will never forget that gesture,†he says.
Then a friend from his student days in England came to extend a helping hand to Chotai and Krishna in restarting their life here.
“Mike Riddle, a pharmacist, was my friend from our student days in England. He helped me find a pharmacy job in Oshawa. So virtually from my second day after arrival in Canada I became a taxpayer,†he says.
Quickly, Chotai and Krishna went on to establish their own pharma company called Bromed Pharmaceuticals in 1973. Bromed is a short form of Brothers Medical.
Over the years, their business boomed as their pharma company expanded across Canada and the US and became a big importer of raw materials from India.
In 2019, India, which denied him help in his darkest hour in 1972, honoured him with the prestigious Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award in recognition of his tireless efforts in improving the Canada-India bilateral relationship.
“What a change for you! Not only the award, but I also got the OCI card from the Modi government. I really don’t bear any grudge against India because 1972 was another time and another government. India is still my mother country. Today my big business is with India as we import most of our pharma raw material from there,†says Chotai who has been a past chair of the Canada-India Foundation.
As his businesses have flourished, Chotai has always shared his good fortune with others. When the second wave of the COVID pandemic hit India, he rushed oxygen concentrators there. When a huge quake devastated his native Gujarat in 2001, he rushed there with relief funds and material.
Deeply committed to Indian values, Chotai has been a big supporter of Indian religious and cultural organizations in the Greater Toronto Area as he has headed the Hindu Temple and Cultural Centre in Mississauga and the Vraj Canada Community Centre.
Chotai traces his roots to Porbander in Gujarat, from where his father Amarshi Bhanji went to Uganda in 1920.
“My father was 22 when he joined some Gujarati people already settled in the small town of Gulu in northern Uganda. Initially, he worked for the Madhvani Group (in-laws of actress Mumtaz). Later, my father called his brothers to Uganda and they started their own cotton ginning mills.â€
At their peak, his family had five cotton ginning mills and interests in real estate, employing over 5,000 people.
“Growing up in Uganda was a great experience as my family was wealthy, progressive and forward-looking. Initially, I did schooling in the town of Mbale, and then I went to England. Later I did my pharmacy degree from Sunderland University in north-east England and got further training in Switzerland,†he says.
Why did he choose pharmacy when his family had great businesses?
“Health care looked a promising field in those days and my decision proved to be right.â€
Indeed, very right.
Returning to Uganda after his pharmacy degree, young Chotai was hired by the country’s top Imperial Chemical Industries Pharmaceuticals. “I became its youngest CEO within two and a half years and grew it to over 1,500 employees. I also set up the largest fertilizer plant in Africa for our company in the town of Tororo. Life looked very promising.â€
Then came Idi Amin’s order to expel them.
“Yes, the expulsion from Uganda still rankles. That bitterness will never go away, especially with the soldiers putting a gun to your head. Uganda was a beautiful country. I still love that country as I supplied 110 beds and medical equipment to Gulu General Hospital in northern Uganda, the place of my birth,†says Chotai.
“You don’t choose to be a refugee. It is the hardest thing to happen to anyone. Nobody wants to leave everything behind,†adds the man who recently sponsored four Syrian refugees and helped them settle in Canada.
Never the one to slow down, Chotai is in the process of handing over his business operations to his daughter Anjali who serves as vice-president (operations) of Bromed Pharmaceuticals.
There is also a Lalji family who were driven out of Uganda and is one of the billionaire families in canada today.
great story. many refugees from uganda made it here in canada.