However, Lau also said Amy Ng is so busy caring for the lone surviving son Jason, who is still in coma, that the plan may still be on hold for another while.

The Leungs are all Canadians and they were holding Canadian passport when travelling in the Philippines. Media reports say that the Canadian embassy in HK still hasn’t paid Amy Ng a visit to date.

Amy Ng has never asked for any financial assistance from the Canadian embassy.

That make me wonder, yes, Amy Ng didn’t ask for help…But when so many people in HK and Canada (Chinese and Filipinos included) are praying for the Leung’s (look at the amount of facebook pages dedicated to Amy Ng and Jason Leung), it’s very hard to imagine that no representatives from Canada even care to make a visit to the widow just out of courtesy. Perhaps it’s a true statement as many callers to recent radio phone-ins say: “Us Chinese are never seen as real Canadians by Canada and the Canadian public.”

Meanwhile, Amy Ng issued an open letter asking all of us not to cry for them any more and encourage us to live on with strength:

Amy Ng Yau-woon lost her husband and two daughters in the Manila bloodbath. Her remaining child is fighting for his life in hospital. But the tragic mom’s message to the people of Hong Kong is: “Please don’t cry for us.”

The brave woman, whose family was shattered in last week’s tragedy, said in an open letter that Hong Kong must move on despite her personal suffering.

She wants to concentrate on taking care of her 19-year-old son, Jason Leung Song-xue, heartened by the support and wishes of the Hong Kong people.

“I don’t want to see all of you crying because of our sadness,” Ng wrote. “I know the people of Hong Kong are very concerned about Jason’s condition and from the bottom of my heart I thank all of you for the gifts and your caring hearts.

“I hope to take the liberty to encourage everyone to live on with strength and to return to normal life,” she said in the letter, read out by Tuen Mun Hospital’s head of neurosurgery, Dawson Fong To-sang, who is treating Jason.

Related posts

• Donald Tsang = tour operator? (8)
• 2 heros in a family (8)
• Photos – Hijack bus becomes tourist destination? (17)
• Canadians killed in Philippine tour bus carnage — and the anti-Chinese comments (100)
• Anti-Chinese graffiti not ‘hate’? (42)

Jessie Leung peeped out from the tour bus just hours before she was killed. (cropped from TV footage)

It turns out that Ken Leung wasn’t the sole hero of his family. According to the account of a survivor-witness, Jessie Leung, 14, took two bullets for her brother Jason, 18, when the gunman aimed the gun towards Jason’s head.

All five members of the Leung’s family are Canadian citizens. Ken Leung (58), daughter Doris Leung (21) and Jessie Leung (14) were all killed on the bus. Jason (18) suffers blunt force trauma to his head and is still in ICU after a head surgery. Mother Amy Ng (53) was slightly injured.

Earlier reports say that Ken Leung bravely charged at the gunman in an attempt to save the other passengers on board. He was described as a hero by many Canadian media.

Oriental Daily of Hong Kong (story in Chinese) interviewed Chan Kwok Chu, a tourist who survived the ordeal with (only) his hand being smashed by bullets.

“He (the gunman) was shooting at people’s heads! He was determined to kill us all!” said an emotional Chan.

Chan said the HK tourist guide was the first to be shot. After that, about 5 members of the tourist group jumped at the gunman, attempting to grab his gun and point it towards the bus roof. “Two or three were killed at this instant,” Chan said.

The gunman then began shooting at people’s heads, one person at a time, consecutively.

When the gunman aimed the gun towards Jason, his 14-year-old sister Jessie threw herself over Jason and took two bullets at her back. She died instantly.

What a heart-breaking story.

Related posts

• The Leungs may be laid to rest in Vancouver (1)
• Donald Tsang = tour operator? (8)
• Photos – Hijack bus becomes tourist destination? (17)
• Canadians killed in Philippine tour bus carnage — and the anti-Chinese comments (100)
• Anti-Chinese graffiti not ‘hate’? (42)

A new anti-Chinese graffiti was left in the men's room yesterday (July 28, 2010)

Cop left at 15:00:28

Alvin ran after a suspect at 15:01:35

Two suspects ran away at 15:01:00

Cop arrived at 15:01:14

Alvin ran after the alleged vandalist and received some scratches during an encounter.

Merchants and security manager of the Empire Centre were amazed by the lax attitude of the RCMP toward their racist graffiti reports. While the police said they only received one call on this file in yesterday’s press conference, Paul Kung, security manager of the centre, claimed that he had at least made 5 calls in the last two weeks. Two were made yesterday in front of a group of reporters.

Kung called the police yesterday when he saw the gang of alleged vandalists entered the centre at around 2:40pm. He had to convince the cops to come. Three bike cops arrived within 5 minutes.

Surveillance footage shows that two of those kids ran away from the alley at 15:01:00, a bike cop checked the alley 14 seconds later at 15:01:14. Another kid was spotted by a good sumaritan Alvin, whose dad opens a store in the centre, who took the matter in his own hand. Alvin tried to grab that kid when he was escaping the mall at 15:01:35. Indoor surveillance footage shows that as a cop walked away at 15:00:28. Again, the cops barely missed the kids.

According to Kung, the cops asked him in a not-so-friendly tone yesterday that why he called the police, and if the kids “had done anything yet today?” Kung had the impression that the cops accused him of calling the police BEFORE the kids had started to do anything “TODAY”.

In fact, even after so much media exposure and the presence of the police, a new graffiti was painted in the men’s washroom yesterday after lunch time. This time, it’s all about anti-Chinese. (1st photo above)

A few merchants said the kids knew that the cops aren’t normally interested in investigating such “mischief” behaviours and that’s why the kids have been escalating in their wordings of their hate graffiti.

A Chinese cop went to the Empire Centre this morning (Thursday July 29) and talked to Kung. The cop wasn’t happy that Kung released so much video footage to the media. Kung said if he hadn’t done that, the cops wouldn’t have even taken the case seriously.

The Richmond RCMP did arrest a kid today, charging him of mischief. Here’s the RCMP’s press release:

Richmond RCMP is pleased to announce that an 18 year old male has been arrested in relation to the graffiti found at Empire Center.

At the onset of this investigation still photos were produced from the video obtained. From the still photos investigators identified the suspect.

Yesterday afternoon at 3 p.m. during the course of the investigation members of Richmond RCMP’s Bike Section located the male during their patrols of the Empire Center parkade. The male was positively identified by officers & was arrested as he tried to flee the parkade. The male was released from custody & will face his first court appearance on September 14th. A charge of Mischief has been forwarded to Crown.

Richmond RCMP would like to stress that the graffiti found recently is an isolated incident involving a single group of individuals that are known to police. The investigation is continuing with efforts focused on identifying the other suspects involved.

Cpl. Turley says “What’s very unfortunate in this case is that the photos that were released to the media without police knowledge has hindered our ability to locate independent witnesses which would have been very beneficial to this investigation. We strongly discourage the public from disclosing any material without consultation with the police”.

We are also seeing politicians cashing in too. NDP’s Mike Farnworth visited the centre this morning in a much advertised photo op, though he seems to be reluctant in criticizing anyone except the culprits.

Mayor Malcom Brodie made a release this afternoon:

Empire Centre vandalism hurtful to community

There has been much public outcry over recent acts of vandalism at Empire Center in Richmond. The Richmond RCMP is currently investigating the incident and has arrested one of the suspects.

“I am pleased the Richmond RCMP has proceeded quickly to apprehend one of the suspects in this disgraceful act of vandalism,” says Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie. “The messages contained in the vandalism are hurtful and disrespectful to all members of the community. It goes against our community values of respecting all individuals equally.”

Richmond RCMP is continuing its investigation. Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to contact Richmond RCMP at (604)278-1212 or if you wish to remain anonymous, please call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

A city representative appeared at the RCMP’s press conference 30 minutes ago, emphasizing that the cops have made an arrest within 24 hours. Yes, 24 hours AFTER media reports. Not 24 hours after the compliant was reported to the police.

RCMP’s spokesperson said:

“What’s very unfortunate in this case is that the photos that were released to the media without police knowledge has hindered our ability to locate independent witnesses which would have been very beneficial to this investigation,” Turley says. “We strongly discourage the public from disclosing any material without consultation with the police.”

The problem is, the Empire Centre has reported this to the police 3 times in the last week. But did the police respond? It REALLY wasn’t until the incident was made public that the police made a quick arrest.

Until now, neither the police or the politicians are willing to describe this as “hate crime”, while all of them emphasize it “an isolated incident”. Just by looking at the content of all those graffiti, I don’t know what it is if it isn’t “hate”.

I have to ask, if such hate messages were left on a Jewish temple, will the cops respond differently?

Related: http://www.chineseinvancouver.ca/2010/07/disturbing-anti-chinese-racist-graffiti-appears-in-richmonds-empire-centre/

Related posts

• The Leungs may be laid to rest in Vancouver (1)
• 2 heros in a family (8)
• Canadians killed in Philippine tour bus carnage — and the anti-Chinese comments (100)
• Chinese Canadian community to respond to CSIS head’s comments (1)
• We are all spies? (13)

Chinese-Canadian Community Responds to CSIS Director’s Recent Comments

VANCOUVER, B.C. – Representatives of Chinese Benevolent Association of Vancouver (CBA) and National Congress of Chinese-Canadians Pacific Region (NCCC) will present their responses to the recent comments made by the Director of CSIS in the media. Local politicians will also be present to make their views known.

Mr. Fadden’s comments have received a lot of media attention. CBA Vancouver, a long-established Chinese-Canadian organization, and NCCC Pacific Region, a national organization, feel it is necessary to provide a response to Mr. Fadden’s outrageous and irresponsible comments that calls to question the loyalty of all Canadians of Chinese heritage.

CBA was founded in 1895 in Vancouver by 6 pioneers who saw a need to establish an organization that would provide leadership and coordination within the Chinese Canadian community, and was formally registered as a non-profit organization in British Columbia in 1906.

The NCCC Pacific Region was established in 1993 as part of the umbrella organization, National Congress of Chinese Canadians that represents hundreds of Chinese Canadian organizations nationally.

And I got this message from CCNC today:

Please be advised that CCNC will be participating at the news conference tomorrow

Related posts

• The Leungs may be laid to rest in Vancouver (1)
• 2 heros in a family (8)
• Fadden’s problem now a PM’s (12)
• [GB] How can a columnist use fabrications to support Fadden? (101)
• Anti-Chinese graffiti not ‘hate’? (42)

Please also note that ALPHA, an NGO which fights for ratifying history of atrocities of the Japanese army during WWII, was recently painted by a former CSIS official as being funded and supported by the Chinese government. As someone very close to ALPHA and has witnessed how and why ALPHA was set up more than a decade ago, I could only laugh to death about this accusation. People at ALPHA are activists in democratic movements. They raise money very hard by themselves. If ALPHA was a spy for PRC because it pushed for the comfort women motion to pass in Ottawa 2 years ago, then I must also be a spy as I was pushing politicians very hard on this motion too. I raised the question face to face with Jason Kenney when he visited our office before he finally met with ALPHA. I told him it was important for the Chinese Canadian community to see Canada on the side of justice. Kenney was a little concerned about the comfort women motion, saying Japan was Canada’s traditional ally. Well, I guess it may not be surprised to see such accusations by a former CSIS official with a seemingly Japanese last name. This also shows how shallow, ignorant and irresponsible of CSIS as a whole.

(A note: speaking of the meeting with Kenney, I need to show my appreciation for Kenney once again for his hardwork on finally bringing some closure to the Amanda Zhao case. He didn’t know anything about Amanda Zhao before I told him the story.)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JUNE 24, 2010

CHOW AND ALPHA CALL FOR END TO RECKLESS CSIS CLAIMS

TORONTO – New Democrat MP Olivia Chow (Trinity-Spadina) and representatives from the Toronto Association for Learning and Preserving the History of WWII in Asia (Toronto ALPHA) will discuss recent irresponsible and damaging allegations about foreign interference in Canadian politics.
CSIS Director Richard Fadden and former CSIS Asia-Pacific Bureau Chief Mr. Juneau-Katsuya have cast a shadow over provincial and municipal politicians by making spurious allegations suggesting Chinese Canadians are linked to foreign spy agencies.

THURSDAY JUNE 24
Scarborough
2:30 PM
Press Conference
Yee Hong Centre
60 Scottfield Drive

CHOW RESPONDS TO SPECIOUS CSIS CLAIMS

TORONTO – Today, New Democrat Olivia Chow (Trinity Spadina) spoke-out to address the recent irresponsible and damaging allegations by current and former senior members of the Canadian Secret Intelligence Service about foreign interference in Canadian politics.

Chow read the following statement:

“As the leaders of the G20 start arriving in Canada, let us not give in to the politics of fear being peddled by former or current CSIS officials.

Canadians are proud of our diversity. It is our strength. Multiculturalism is worthy of celebration, and immigrants helped build our nation.

Repeating discredited statements, innuendo and accusations heightens paranoia and is destructive to an open and democratic society.

Let me give one glaring example of just such an error:

The CSIS Director, Richard Fadden, recently made public comments which are entirely unacceptable, casting a broad shadow of suspicion over individuals without foundation. His remarks need to be condemned by the Prime Minster on behalf of all Canadians and our democracy.

Another example is the former head of the CSIS Asia desk, Michel Juneau-Katsuya, who was forced to back down on recent baseless allegations made in his book ‘Nest of Spies’.

In his book, he stated my Motion 291 passed through the Parliament of Canada asking for Japan to apologise for sexual slavery of comfort women during the second world war was backed by an organisation influenced and funded by the Chinese government. Harper Collins, the publisher of the book has since removed these offending pages.

Mr. Juneau-Katsuya was also involved in the Sidewinder Affair, a report on Chinese spies that was deep-sixed by CSIS after the intervention of the Security Intelligence Review Committee.

How does CSIS know that certain elected representatives are under influence by spies? Is CSIS keeping files on elected representatives now. If so, who, and why? CSIS must come clean and explain itself.

We know that Tommy Douglas, the greatest Canadian, was investigated. His file is still not made public. If CSIS has nothing to hide, then make the file on Tommy Douglas public.

Make public the files on all elected officials, name names, and give evidence. Hiding in the shadows and and making blanket statements is harmful and destructive.

Baseless spy stories belong in novels and movie theatres. Let’s not allow them to damage friendships between countries and tar the reputations of elected representatives and other Canadians.

Let us not get distracted by these sideshows and focus our energy on making poverty history and taking concrete actions to tackle climate change.”

Related posts

• The Leungs may be laid to rest in Vancouver (1)
• 2 heros in a family (8)
• Fadden’s problem now a PM’s (12)
• [GB] How can a columnist use fabrications to support Fadden? (101)
• Anti-Chinese graffiti not ‘hate’? (42)

To clearly stand out a guest blogger entry, all such headlines will begin with [GB]

Media and how Chinese Canadian history will be understood cannot be understated, particularly if we accept history is gleaned from archives of newspapers, radio and television. What are the implications of today’s new media archives to how our life and times will be understood a year, decade or hundred years from now?

This is a concern raised by my recently concluded public exchange chat thread on www.ChineseInVancouver.ca website on a Guest Blog titled “Why Chinese Canadian History Matters?” I responded to the writer’s inaccuracies and omissions of fact in his interpretation of the history of the redress movement. The writer places himself and his friends (seemingly by themselves) as having reversed a government decision leading to a partial redress. The pertinent exchange is at the end of these comments.

Later, viewing at a test screening of the upcoming film Redress Remix twigged how new media practice easily begets a meme-like history in quick fashion unlike traditional media. In the film, the narrator describes an individual who was “…for years” involved in the redress movement. In fact, the individual was involved for three or four months as Chinese language spokesperson and was removed for being off message. This begs the question how did the film’s researchers came to the conclusion the individual was involved for years?

In conversation before the film with a friend whose day job is senior communications adviser, we discussed how today’s new media gives rise to an immediate social history. Websites and blogs such as Susanna Ng’s Chinese In Vancouver, Todd Wong’s Gung Haggis and David Wong’s the Ugly Chinese Canadians and Elwin Xie’s Foo’s Ho Ho will be providing the archives that future researchers will mine for today’s social and political history.

My communications friend advised me to always set the record straight immediately if possible lest it become accepted and transmitted. Easily said but often requires much time and effort. Also, it’s not possible to know what’s being written in all blogs and websites about issues you care about.

Savvy media practitioners are plying their revisionist history trade online and in traditional media. This is also true in the Chinese Canadian community along with the more odious use of Chinese language competent individuals to be mischievous and to present biased information. Of course the reverse is true. You have one-side stories in Chinese language media because English language only citizens of Chinese heritage are unable to participate easily. The reverse is also true.

Dual language media practitioners have the advantage in framing the issue and controlling the message in Chinese and English language media. This is evident in how the Chinese language media drove the English language media on the redress issue. Marry dual language to new media practice and you have a formidable opinion-making opportunity. Such a situation is subject to abuse and it may well be time to organize an English-Chinese public interest media watchdog group to bridge the divide and keep an eye on the unscrupulous. This would be a significant boost to community building and in the public interest.

On a personal note, I have always felt the redress movement would be better understood if I were bilingual (and had more talent and eloquence). Growing up in the only Chinese family in a small Saskatchewan town, my primary caregivers (my Grandparent) were illiterate and spoke only Toisan. This is certainly not a good reason not to know Cantonese or Mandarin and I have retained a little of my mother tongue which did assist in redress. I have tried to learn Cantonese several times but failed miserably. I am trying to learn new media skills and will do my best to contribute to informed dialogue and debate.

In Why Chinese Canadian history Matters? the CIV guest blogger wrote:

“I first worked with X in late 2005, early 2006 on the head tax redress movement. Before Paul Martin called the federal election, minister of state Raymond Chan announced that Canada had reached a head tax redress agreement with the Chinese community associations across Canada. A week before the announcement, I learned that the so-called historic agreement contained neither apology nor compensation. It only provided some money for Chinese community associations to hold activities and projects.

Redressing the head tax with no apology — that is something I could not take. I contacted X and ORGANISATION’s Y to discuss how to oppose the agreement. During the federal election month and the following few months, we put all our other community work aside and concentrated our energy on pressuring political parties and candidates. We declared firmly that a redress without an apology is unjust. With the help of the media and our effective strategies, we reversed the position of the Conservative and Liberal parties. One after the other, they pledged to apologize for the head tax and the Chinese Exclusion Act in Parliament after the election (The head tax redress movement was started by NDP and Hanson Lau in the 80s. The NDP’s position was to have both apology and compensation). In addition, we were able to convince the Conservatives to accept the demand of symbolic compensation.

After Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s historic apology in Parliament, X walked another path by himself concentrating on the preservation of the history of the Chinese in Canada.”

I responded:

(The writer’) …with reference to the the roles played by Y, X and himself are very self-serving. For the record, they joined an ongoing struggle of over two decades, primarily led by the Chinese Canadian National Council in Toronto and the ad hoc BC Coalition of Head Tax Payers,Spouses and Descendants in Vancouver.

The B. C. Coalition recognized the lack of Chinese-language media skills and they took this on for the BC Coalition in beginning late November 2005. X became Chinese-language spokesperson until March 2006 when he was removed. For most of the time, he was off message and essentially rogue. After he attended the consultations in March 2006 Toronto with Minister Bev Oda and Secretary Jason Kenney, we have not heard from him but understand he and his friends have credited themselves as leader of the Chinese head tax and exclusion redress movement.

These are the facts. I was there with the BC Coalition since mid-80’s, helped formed Head Tax Families Society of Canadians in fall of 2006 and have been longtime CCNC director.”

—————————————

Disclaimer: Views expressed by guest bloggers are theirs and may not represent those of CIV.

By inviting guest bloggers to write here, we’d like to see us grow together with more diverse ideas and perspectives. If anyone believe the idea is cool, please don’t hesitate to submit your stuff to us. We use real names and identities here. Thank you.

Related posts

• The Leungs may be laid to rest in Vancouver (1)
• 2 heros in a family (8)
• [GB] Shanghai Expo (0)
• [GB] How can a columnist use fabrications to support Fadden? (101)
• Anti-Chinese graffiti not ‘hate’? (42)

To clearly stand out a guest blogger entry, all such headlines will begin with [GB]

I have known Bill Chu for more than a dozen years. He is a sincere and dedicated activist in the Chinese community, someone I truly respect. Bill has been contributing to our society. He does it not for power, money or fame.

I know Bill because of his activist work for the aboriginals. Throughout the years, he has worked hard to make Chinese Canadians understand and care about the aboriginal community.

Bill was also very active in opposing gambling expansion in the 90s. My stand on this issue was influenced by him.

I first worked with Bill in late 2005, early 2006 on the head tax redress movement. Before Paul Martin called the federal election, minister of state Raymond Chan announced that Canada had reached a head tax redress agreement with the Chinese community associations across Canada. A week before the announcement, I learned that the so-called historic agreement contained neither apology nor compensation. It only provided some money for Chinese community associations to hold activities and projects.

Redressing the head tax with no apology — that is something I could not take. I contacted Bill and BC ALPHA’s Thekla Lit to discuss how to oppose the agreement. During the federal election month and the following few months, we put all our other community work aside and concentrated our energy on pressuring political parties and candidates. We declared firmly that a redress without an apology is unjust. With the help of the media and our effective strategies, we reversed the position of the Conservative and Liberal parties. One after the other, they pledged to apologize for the head tax and the Chinese Exclusion Act in Parliament after the election (The head tax redress movement was started by NDP and Hanson Lau in the 80s. The NDP’s position was to have both apology and compensation). In addition, we were able to convince the Conservatives to accept the demand of symbolic compensation.

After Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s historic apology in Parliament, Bill walked another path by himself concentrating on the preservation of the history of the Chinese in Canada.

He quit his job as an engineer. He dedicated himself to searching for Chinese Canadian history and Chinese heritage sites. With the help of aboriginal friends, Bill was able to find relics of the history of the Chinese in faraway and often derelict places, and he spent time to persuade the government to preserve such

relics and sites.

Bill’s efforts have successfully made the City of New Westminster publicly admit the city’s discrimination against the Chinese and seek reconciliation with the Chinese community.

Last July, the New Westminster city council passed a motion to instruct staff to research into the city’s discrimination against the Chinese. This February, the city posted over 30 pages of historical documents about the city’s past disgraceful treatment of the Chinese on its website and scheduled a public hearing on March 31.

New Westminster council’s courage to face the city’s disgraceful past is to be applauded. This is indeed a crucial step, but only the first step. What should follow is apology and reconciliation. I would suggest the installation of a commemorative monument with some carving about the history of the discrimination against the Chinese and the contribution of the Chinese. It should not be a metal plate but a monument which students and tourists can visit. In addition, the city of New Westminster should introduce the early history of the Chinese into their school curriculum, so that past mistakes could be learned and not repeated.

Why should we target New Westminster?

It is a fact that the entire British Columbia was discriminating against the Chinese in the past. However, New Westminster is a prime source of the discriminatory wave. When Bill was searching for Chinese historical materials, he discovered that in New Westminster, school was built on Chinese cemetery, the city dismantled the Chinatown there and forced it to move to Vancouver. The premises of the Chinese Benevolent Association’s club house was used as a dog toilet. There was a “No Chinese” clause on all the city’s contracts. The Chinese Exclusion Act in 1923 was also tabled in parliament by a New Westminster MP.

One might ask, what do these happenings in the past have anything to do with today’s Chinese and our offspring?

Although everyone is equal in front of Canada’s constitution and law, in real life, there’s hidden discrimination in many aspects of society, like employment, promotion opportunities and political representation. People, including some Chinese Canadians, often feel that the Chinese are merely guests or outsiders. They are somehow not fully Canadian. When my wife and I were on Georgia Street during the Olympics, some young fellows referred to us as visitors from China.

In the Olympic opening ceremony, the projected image of Canada is a society consisting of aboriginal and white people.

Bill advocates that the Chinese should be seen as among the builders of British Columbia and Canada. The railway which united Canada was built with the life and blood of Chinese laborers. In the census of 1881, the Chinese made up 20% of the non-aboriginal population but the contribution of the Chinese has been unsung, neglected and forgotten. When British Columbia celebrated its 150th anniversary, there was no mention of the Chinese contribution on the BC 150th Anniversary website. By recognizing this history, Canadians, including Chinese Canadians, would understand that the Chinese are not foreigners who came just to get a share of the wealth. The respect for Chinese Canadians shouldn’t be based on the votes we have and our power as consumers. It should be recognized that the Chinese have helped build Canada. Chinese Canadians should be proud of their heritage.

Bill’s work need to be recognized and supported by the Chinese community. I wish him well on his continuous efforts to reveal Chinese Canadian history and to seek and protect Chinese heritage sites.

—————————————

Disclaimer: Views expressed by guest bloggers are theirs and may not represent those of CIV.

By inviting guest bloggers to write here, I’d like to see us grow together with more diverse ideas and perspectives. If anyone believe the idea is cool, please don’t hesitate to submit your stuff to me. We use real names and identities here. Thank you.

Related read:

[GB] Reconciliation for what?

Related posts

• The Leungs may be laid to rest in Vancouver (1)
• 2 heros in a family (8)
• [GB] Shanghai Expo (0)
• [GB] How can a columnist use fabrications to support Fadden? (101)
• Anti-Chinese graffiti not ‘hate’? (42)

To clearly stand out a guest blogger entry, all such headlines will begin with [GB]

(Article courtesy of Ugly Chinese Canadian)

Reconciliation?

Over the past few years, an individual has been actively creating ripples in the community, insisting that there is a “need for reconciliation”.

The question that should be asked, is, Reconciliation for what?

This past week, I received an email that wandered through the bamboo network, and ended up in my email IN box. The information was attributed to Mr Bill Chu.

Mr Chu, or one of his supporters, had titled his media release: ” Why B.C. must acknowledge its horrific treatment of Chinese”.

Here is what was on the media release:

Why B.C. must acknowledge its horrific treatment of Chinese

By Bill Chu

Why reconciliation? There are voices saying, “Forget it and move on”; “Why rock the boat when we are doing well?”; and “What good would acknowledging our history do?”

Someone else has said, “Peace is not a lack of war.”

Peace is also not a subservient coexistence with another group that has expressed no acknowledgement or remorse for discriminating against the Chinese for a century.

Reconciliation is about bringing back such groups to hear the truth in history, to express appropriate remorse, and to undertake to treat each other with respect.

Secondly there is the issue of our identity. For the Chinese in the diaspora, they lack an appropriate historical frame of reference.

If they orient themselves only toward China’s history, then they soon will find themselves and be seen as being irrelevant in their new countries.

If they orient themselves toward their new country’s history, the problem is most new countries they end up with like Canada, the USA, Australia, New Zealand, etc. have a hidden but long history of discrimination against the Chinese.

Here in B.C., without the current culture and curriculum painting Chinese as cofounders and builders of the province, non-Chinese will see themselves as the hosts and the Chinese as guests. This will likely result in inequities from school playgrounds to work.

Since discrimination dies hard as we happen to live near the former epicentre of racism against the Chinese, we have little choice but to seek reconciliation.

For older Chinese-Canadians, they might know some history of the Chinese pioneers. But since that is not acknowledged by the bigger society, it often becomes a deep and heavy secret in their hearts.

A World War II veteran once lamented to me that in a few years, all the veterans will be gone and so would be the stories and history of their era.

Still others, because of their unacknowledged history, continue to subconsciously behave as second-class citizens.

Without a history to position and guide them, the more affluent, newer Chinese immigrants settle down into a laid-back living.

They become part of a massive consumer society, but have little if any engagement in sharing the pains of this country e.g. the plight of the Native people.

Ironically, we also fell into such a role in the former colony [Hong Kong] where the given freedom is to make money. Will being a “consumer” be our identity and destiny? What if we become poor?

For the less affluent, they will likely encounter more discrimination as the competition for white- and blue-collar work increases in a poor economy.

Such encounters do not generally inspire one to good citizenship or setting roots in Canada

Finally we have to seek true reconciliation because we are seeing false reconciliation marked by the following signs:

1. False reconciliation trivializes the oppression. During BC150 celebrations, there were banquets and celebration in Victoria’s Chinatown. We heard lots of political rhetoric about the contributions of the Chinese. However the province did not and still has not acknowledged its horrific history against tens and thousands of Chinese, nor has it considered incorporating that into B.C.’s school curriculum.

2. False reconciliation bypasses the victims. This year New Westminster is planning its 150th birthday celebration. On April 4, we contacted the mayor and council and asked them to consider incorporating redemptive actions toward Chinese Canadians.

On April 21 they sent back a simple acknowledgement of our e-mail, while on April 9, they quietly called the president and VP of CBA [Chinese Benevolent Association] of Vancouver to go to New Westminster.

These two had been informed by me of the historical wrongs by New Westminster towards the Chinese, yet they chose to agree without conditions to participate in the New Westminster 150th anniversary parade.

In so doing, New Westminster bypasses the victims: all Chinese Canadians except two.

In fact, the city even bypassed CBA of Canada, which is the group historically connected with the former CBA of New Westminster. Instead they chose to contact CBA of Vancouver, which was formed only in the 1970s!

I suggest the bigger Chinese public should decide whether it is appropriate for any Chinese group to celebrate the history of a city that has shown no remorse over its terrible treatment of our forefathers.

3. There is no apology. The province as well as New Westminster so far has expressed no apology for being the epicentre of racism against the Chinese. Without a sincere feeling of remorse, would any society turn fromits discrimination toward the Chinese?

Amid a rising China, B.C.’s white elites and politicians are flocking to China. Would Chinese both here and there be fooled into thinking that this province had always been good to the Chinese?

Bill Chu is president of Canadians for Reconciliation.

_________________

Here are the thoughts I posted in a reply to the email recipient list:

Hi all,

Bill Chu wrote:

“In fact, the city even bypassed CBA of Canada, which is the group historically connected with the former CBA of New Westminster. Instead they chose to contact CBA of Vancouver, which was formed only in the 1970s!”

Not true.

CBA (Chinese Benevolent Association) of Vancouver has just celebrated it’s 100th anniversary. See this link: http://www.cbavancouver.ca/. Chu has his information backwards.

In fact, current Vancouver City Councilor George Chow was a past president of the CBA of Vancouver. The CBA was founded by Yip Sang and other pioneer Chinese Canadians. The CBA of Vancouver was not “formed in 1970’s” as Bill Chu claims.

The other CBA, the CBA of Canada of which Bill Chu is claiming moral high ground, has only been around for a few decades, with it’s head “office” on Main Street. It is run almost exclusively by recent arrivals from Taiwan.

I had also posted an earlier comment to Bill on why has his efforts excluded multi-generational Chinese Canadians’ and only has support from our newly arrived Chinese Canadians? A number of us Canadian born Chinese have written to Bill Chu to support his work, to give it a “Canadian born perspective”, but we have yet to hear from him. Some of us had tried contacting Bill over the past 4 years.

This from last year’s Georgia Straight article:

http://www.straight.com/article-222952/steven-cheng-chinese-canadians-put-pressure-new-westminster-council-advance-anniversary-parade

Other issues I have on this “reconciliation effort”, include

Why aren’t the wonderful references on First Nations relations made by the Canadian born Chinese described nor included by Chu?

Why the selective history?

Veteran Bing Wong has always included First Nations Vets in our community celebrations – parades, dinners, key events, etc. The Musqueam First Nations band has had a long history with the Chinese. In fact there is a lot of blood lineage between the two groups, and our city’s land tenureship (eg. leaseholds) can be traced back to early Chinese pioneers and the Musqueam peoples.

Author Wing Chung Ng wrote the book “The Chinese in Vancouver, 1945-80: The Pursuit of Identity and Power” (published: UBC Press,Vancouver, 1999). In his book, Mr Ng succinctly describes and documents the important effort put together by the “Tusheng” (Canadian born Chinese) back in the 1970’s – of documenting First Nations and Chinese historic relations, the burial site locations up and down the Fraser river and other parts of BC, and other notable historic relationships.

I know. I was part of this effort.

We used this material to support and unite our community … and helped result in Vancouver’s Chinese Cultural Centre, a once proud community institution.

So what is Mr Chu’s “reconciliation” all about?

Going back a number of years, I noted and I saw in my children’s high school history textbooks, many references on the historic head tax, and on other past racial injustices in Canada. I have over a dozen head tax ancestors in my family, so when I saw references to our nation’s unjust history being taught in our school curriculum, our family was touched and we knew that amends were being made by our education system… albeit small, but steps are being taken.

So what is Chu ranting about that there are “no teaching references” to head tax and racism in our school system?

That’s just pure BS.

I know for a fact that our high school kids are now, and have been, making school presentations and videos on head tax and stuff. A number of my nephews and nieces, including my own children, have made presentations on head tax material and historic injustices. You can find many these school supported videos on YouTube.

Yes. All this student work supported and guided by today’s teachers in our school system.

I’m a multi-generational Canadian of Chinese ancestry. I take great offense to individuals exploiting the memories of our pioneer ancestors… no matter how noble the effort may appear.

There’s no denial that Mr Chu has done some good charitable work in other areas, but I question what is the motive behind all this “reconciliation” effort by Mr Chu.

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Latest release from Statistics Canada:

The visible minority population of the census metropolitan area (CMA) of Vancouver could more than double from 910,000 in 2006 to just over 2 million by 2031, according to new population projections.

The main factor would be immigration, as well as fertility.

During the same period, the rest of Vancouver’s population is expected to increase at a much more modest rate of roughly 12%.

These projections on Vancouver’s diversity are based on a ‘reference scenario’, that is, the medium assumptions of how the population might evolve as determined by analyzing recent demographic trends. Other available scenarios are a low-growth scenario that assumes low fertility, life expectancy and immigration, and a high-growth scenario that assumes high levels of each.

By 2031, visible minority groups could account for nearly 60% of Vancouver’s population. Of the 2 million visible minorities, one in three would be Canadian-born.

Counting both first generation and second-generation immigrants, 70% of the population of Vancouver would be either immigrants or children born in Canada of immigrant parents by 2031. This would be the second-highest proportion in Canada behind Toronto.

The largest visible minority group in Vancouver would be the Chinese, as it was in 2006. Their population could double from 396,000 to 809,000 over the next two decades. As a result, their share of Vancouver’s population would rise from 18% in 2006 to 23% in 2031.

The South Asian group, which ranked second in 2006, is likely to remain the second largest visible minority group. They would account for 14% of the population in 2031, up from 10% in 2006.

The share of Vancouver’s population having a non-Christian religion is projected to increase from 16% to roughly 21%. The proportion having a Christian religion is likely to decline from 50% to 47%.

The proportion of persons reporting no religion in Vancouver is likely to continue to be one of the highest of any metropolitan area in Canada, with this group accounting for nearly 33% of the population in 2031. This would be virtually unchanged from 2006. This situation is in part related to the high level of Chinese immigration in Vancouver. The population of Chinese origin has a high propensity to report no religion on the census.

One could only imagine how this ethnic mix would affect the already stringent race relations in Canada.

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In BC, it’s very common among new Chinese immigrants that they cannot distinguish between the federal and provincial Liberals. As Campbell is becoming BC’s worst-liked politicians with the HST and the huge deficit, federal Liberal candidates better educate their constituents that they are not — please find some creative way to do that, not just “no no no, we’re no them” and nothing solid after that.

For Ontario, I’m already seeing discussions on forums such as 51.ca that people say they won’t vote for Ignatieff because of McGuinty’s latest performance (eHealth etc).

Liberal MPs in BC are already trying to make the case that the unpopular HST is a direct consequence of manipulation from Ottawa. Here’s what the Globe and Mail said earlier:

The B.C. government had opposed harmonization since the goods and services tax was introduced in 1991. Every year, the province would consider harmonization of tax rates in its annual budget process. And every year, the government would decide the disadvantages outweighed the benefits. The government even re-affirmed its opposition earlier this year, after a provincial advisory group had urged harmonization.

Ottawa altered the balance by allowing the provinces to exempt some items and by offering cash incentives, ostensibly to help with the transition. Ontario picked up $4.3-billion, which it decided to send out to taxpayers to help pay the additional cost. B.C. was offered $1.6-billion. The money will go into the government’s general revenue. Ottawa also agreed to allow B.C. to set the HST at 12 per cent, although the harmonized tax was 13 per cent in other provinces.

Mr. Hansen talked to Mr. Campbell before going to Meech Lake for the finance ministers’ meeting; he had not yet taken a proposal for harmonization to the B.C. cabinet.

Ottawa set the timetable. B.C. had to sign on by mid-July – in less than two months – so it could introduce the tax changes on the same day as Ontario. That meant Mr. Hansen had no time to signal to the public that changes were coming, no time for public discussion or consultation. Mr. Hansen said he would have preferred to announce the tax changes in the budget on Sept. 1, but had no choice. “It’s probably obvious to everybody when we made this announcement we were not prepared [to explain the impact of the tax,]” he said. “We’re working hard to catch up.”

A memorandum of understanding on HST was signed on July 23. The blending of PST and GST means that the provincial tax will be paid on everything that is now subject to GST, except for a short list of exemptions. Several goods and services currently exempt from provincial tax, such as restaurant meals and new housing, will be subject to HST. While consumers pay more, businesses will pay less. Eliminating the provincial tax on items now exempt from GST is expected to save businesses about $1.9-billion.

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• We are all spies? (13)