Almost four decades ago, Dr. Femi Ayeni and his wife Titi Ayeni made a major decision: they moved their five children from tropical Nigeria to chilly Canada.

Not just anywhere in Canada, but Kapuskasing, a timber town of fewer than 10,000 in northern Ontario, where temperatures average at minus 16 in January.

Femi had studied in Canada and saw it as a land of opportunity and a place for his children to pursue their dreams.