Justin Roy was born August 19, 1924; he grew up in M’Chigeeng First Nation, an Ojibwe band government in the Manitoulin District of Ontario.  He attended the Jesuit-run St. Peter Claver residential school but left at age 13 to find his own way in the world after his father passed away. He first worked at a lumber camp in Whitefish Falls, and later he found himself in Sault Ste. Marie, working at a steel mill.  In 1943, Mr. Roy travelled to Toronto to enlist in the Canadian army, spending some time at the CNE’s Horse Palace before being shipped off to Petawawa for basic training.  He wanted to join the paratroopers or the air force, but was denied due to a lack of education, so Mr. Roy settled into his role in the 3rd Division. After landing in England, the young soldier and his unit spent more time in advanced training, and then it was time to cross the Channel and join in the D-Day invasion. He was part of the second wave, and their objective was a point of land seven miles inland, which he and his companions  succeeded in reaching. He was wounded in Normandy and had to have surgery in England, where he was in the hospital for two months,  followed by three months of recuperation. The doctors would not let him return to the front, so he  ended up becoming a driver. He spent the months following the war as part of the occupation forces, but as a young man from M’Chigeeng eager to see the world, Mr. Roy requested a one-year leave of absence from the army and visited countries across Europe, finding work in restaurants, shipyards, and hospitals to see him through. In 1946, Mr. Roy reported back to the Canadian embassy in London and asked to be sent home. Sailing aboard the Queen Mary, Mr. Roy arrived in New York City and then hopped a train to Toronto, then on to Sault Ste. Marie, where he felt the sting of racism. He tried his hand at farming in M’Chigeeng for a while, but  it didn’t work out, for which he blames Indian Affairs. Mr. Roy then worked at Falconbridge in Sudbury for seven years, again experiencing racism. Mr. Roy and his late wife Joyce, also of M’Chigeeng, eventually moved to the United States, where he worked more mining jobs before he went to school to become an air conditioner repair person and sheet metal contractor. He went on to live in Arizona for 50 years before returning to Canada with his second wife.  Justin Roy was interviewed in Arizona by Steven Sidebotham, who shared this interview with Crestwood.