‘I swear I will not be fooled by irresponsible Canadian politicans again’
As promised, Yang Baoying has spoken up.
Yang Baoying, Amanda Zhao’s mother, criticized foreign minister David Emerson for being insincere and arrogant in previous correspondence with the Zhao family. MLAs Jenny Kwan, Mike Farnworth and MP Bill Siksay held a press conference for Yang and Zhao Zisheng, the father, yesterday.
Yang also swears that she will not allow irresponsible Canadian officials to fool and play her like she came to Vancouver six years ago to deal with Amanda’s funeral.
Under the arrangment, the Zhao family will be meeting with foreign minister David Emerson, justice minister Rob Nicholson, minister of state for multiculturalism Jason Kenney and the RCMP in the coming days. A meeting with Emerson has been scheduled for Friday.
However, Yang was already criticizing Emerson yesterday. In an earlier letter Emerson sent to the Zhao’s, the family was told that they cannot bring other people to the meeting other than a translator appointed by Emerson. Yang said such request prompted her to question Emerson’s sincerity in trying to solve anything. She also criticized Emerson’s tone in the letter as being insincere and pointless.
Yang first came to Canada in November 2002. She then believed that a world’s esteemed country like Canada would deal with the case expeditiously and professionally under the rule of law. She was shocked at the inaction lasted for 6 years. Looking back, she saw Canadian officials as being sloppy and were only putting off with her. She said she has a deep sense of being fooled.
“I will insist that the Canadian government to give us some clear answers this time,” Yang swears. “I will never believe another word of their beautiful sayings.”
Yang also said it’s the Canadian government who “forced them” to talk to the media. In 2002, she said she chose not to talk too much to the media because she didn’t want to stir up big time on an “ordinary criminal case like this.”
Yang said she was very touched when she was met with a lot of reporters the minute she stepped out of the airport this week. She deeply believes that with the help of the media, the case will eventually “have good results.”
Yang Baoying was wearing sunglasses because of an eye problem. She tried to stay calm throughout the press conference.
However, father Zhao Zisheng broke down when speaking about the death of his only daughter.
Zhao Zisheng said he has a late marriage. Amanda was born when he was in his 30s, and was his most loved babie. He said Amanda had been a good student as young as 6 years old. She was once crowned one of “Beijing’s Best Three Students”.
“I still think of her every night,” Zhao Zisheng said. “How could a nice girl like her would die so young? If my child was still alive, she would be 29 years old and might be married and have her own children.”
He directed much of his anger towards the Canadian government, saying the Canadian system “protects the bad guy”.
“Canada bullies helpless old people like us,” Zhao Zisheng cried. “All I want is to see the killer being punished by the law so that I can die with my eyes closed.”
He said Canada has been irresponsible and irresponsive. “I still don’t know how my daughter died.”
Zhao Zisheng said the police never told them how exactly Amanda died. He only learnt from the media that Amanda, at 1.68m tall, was stuffed in a small suit case which was then abandoned in the wild. Imagining how pity Amanda was when she died, Zhao Zisheng lost control of his emotions and broke down in tears. A reporter handed over some paper tissues to him.
Emotionally broken down, Zhao Zisheng began to scold Amanda for picking Ang Li as her boyfriend. “I told her to be extremely careful alone in a foreign place,” he cried. “She replied ‘how could there be so many bad guys out there and how could I be so lucky to bump into all of them?’”
“She did, she just did,” Zhao Zisheng said. “We thought she could earn some money for her old folks, what can we do now?”
In fact, Amanda had always wanted to bring her parents out of poverty. There was a piece of paper stuck on the headboard of her bed in her Burnaby basement, saying: “I should work hard and earn more money so that mom can have a better life.”
Other recent media reports:
Visiting parents demand justice in Zhao’s slaying (Oct 8, 2008 CBC)
Parents of slain Chinese girl slam Canada for inaction (Oct 8, 2008 Globe and Mail)
Parents of murdered Chinese girl visit BC to press politicians to act (Oct 8, 2008 The Canadian Press)
Family of murdered student Amanda Zhao arrives in Vancouver (Oct 8, 2008 Georgia Straight)
Parents seek justice for daughter (Oct 8, 2008 Toronto Star)
A father’s plea for justice (Oct 8, 2008 24 Hours)
‘I think about my daughter every night’ (Oct 8. 2008 The Province)
Student’s family seeks justice (Oct 8, 2008 Metro)
Family of murdered Chinese student wants justice
Chinese couple to visit B.C. to seek answers in daughter’s death (Sep 22, 2008 Globe and Mail)
Family of Chinese student murdered in Burnaby still seeking justice (Sep 11, 2008 Canada.com)
Family of murdered student Zhao coming to BC (Sep 11, 2008 CTV)
Slain student’s parents to meet MPs (Sep 12, 2008 The Province)
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“He directed much of his anger towards the Canadian government, saying the Canadian system “protects the bad guy”.”
Its a sad day when people from outside of Canada can see how disgraceful our ‘justice’ system is. We are far too focused on the ‘rights’ of the criminals and far too little on the rights of the victims. The Zhao family deserves to be upset by the travesty of justice.
However it seems the situation is far more complicated because Canada is unwilling to co-operate with China because of the refusal of the Chinese authorities to not rule out the death penalty. Quite frankly, I don’t think Canada should sit on its high horse on this one.
Ang Li fled to China expecting to take advantage of China’s usual pattern of refusal to extradite its citizens to foreign nations for trials. It would be ironic for him to receive the death penalty in his home country after fleeing there for safety.
Now that would be justice.