Monthly Archives: November 2005

Send a letter to the federal Liberal government to protest the unfair redress to head tax payers and descendants

Leave a reply


Send a letter to the federal Liberal government to protest the unfair redress to head tax payers and descendants

http://www.headtaxredress.org/

Here is my letter.

I am a 5th Generation Chinese Canadian.
And I will NOT vote Liberal if Bill C-333 goes ahead.
I will tell all my friends and family to do the same.

Chinese Canadian pioneers are being discriminated against 3 times over.

1 – Chinese had to pay the head tax – no other ethnic or racial group was taxed.
2 – We endured over a century's worth of racial discrimination and prejudice.
3) The government is ignoring us, and speaking to new immigrants who did not pay the head tax.

The Government must recognize that it was a Liberal government that
brought in the Head Tax, and it was a Liberal government that is
ignoring the Canadian born descendants of the head tax payers.

The Government’s actions to date have been to silence and ignore head
tax families and groups representing them who refuse to accept the
Government’s preset conditions of  “no apology, no
compensation”  for 62 years of legislated racism;

Tthe Government is poised to allocate $12.5 million from the ACE
Program to the Congress, so that funds will be distributed through only
the Congress, to resolve the Head Tax and Exclusion Act issue, despite
loud opposition from head tax payers and families across Canada who
declare that the Congress is not representative of Chinese Canadians,
WE, the Undersigned, state that Government’s process of appointing the
Congress is anti-democratic and that any payment to the National
Congress of Chinese Canadians is illegitimate without proper
consultation with head tax payers and families.

THEREFORE, the Government MUST:
STOP any and all payments from the ACE Program to the Congress; and
immediately commence negotiations with head tax payers and families and
their legitimately appointed representatives.
     
Send your own letter to www.headtaxredress.org

Joy Kogawa is one of Almanc's 100 Greatest British Columbians

Leave a reply


Joy Kogawa is listed in

Almanac's 100 Greatest British Columbians

This past week CBC Radio host Mark Forsythe of BC Almanac, has been promoting his new book Almanac's  100 Greatest British Columbians.  This is a BC Version of CBC television's The Greatest Canadian.

The names are all listed by categories with no numerical value.
BC's top ten literary writers include Joy Kogawa, George Bowering, Wayson Choy, Dorothy Livesay.

Other prominent Asian Canadians include Roy Miki, David Suzuki, Milton Wong, Yip Sang, Tong Louie, Wong Foon Sien, David Lam

The book is published by Harbour Publishing.

Fundraising Drive Launched for Joy Kogawa House

Leave a reply


Fundraising Drive Launched for Joy Kogawa House

Organizers of the drive to preserve the childhood home of novelist and poet Joy Kogawa
were jubilant after Vancouver City Council voted unanimously on
November 3 to grant a 120-day demolition delay order to preserve the
home and to recognize its historical and cultural heritage. The four
month period will allow the Save Kogawa House
Committee to raise funds to purchase the property and convert it into a
major centre for Canadian and international writers.  

For Kogawa, the West 64th Avenue property became a symbol of lost hope
and happiness after Joy, then six years old, and her family were
removed from their home and interned in the Slocan Valley in 1942 as
part of the forced evacuations and internment of 21,000
Japanese-Canadians during World War II. Joy's family was never
compensated for the confiscation of their property. Their house and
personal belongings, like those of other internees, were auctioned off
at rock bottom prices by the government's “Custodian of Enemy Alien
Property” and the proceeds used to pay for the government's expenses in
running the internment camps.

The loss of the house and the dispersal of the Japanese Canadian
community until their civil rights were restored in 1949 inspired
Kogawa’s best-known novel, Obasan, winner of the Canadian Authors’
Association Book of the Year Award in 1981. Its adaptation for
children, Naomi’s Road, premiered as a Vancouver Opera
production on September 30th and visits more than 140 schools and
community centres from Vancouver Island to the Kootenays until May
2006. Roy Miki, 2003 Governor General's Award Winner for Poetry, has
called Obasan the most important literary work of the past 30 years for
understanding Canadian history.  In 2005 Obasan was selected by
the Vancouver Public Library for its One Book One Vancouver program, encouraging all Vancouverites to read this single book.

In her letter on behalf of the League of Canadian Poets, Mary Ellen
Csamer wrote Mayor Larry Campbell and the Vancouver City Councillors
that “The League of Canadian Poets, representing over 730 professional
poets across Canada, supports the effort to save Joy Kogawa's childhood
home on 1450 West 64th  Avenue in Vancouver from demolition, and
would like to encourage its conversion into a major writers centre for
Canadian and international writers. Just as Emily Carr’s home in
Victoria and Pierre Berton’s in the Yukon provide a unique sense of the
physical space that helped to define those artists, so this building
forms an important part of our collective cultural imagination. To
create a writers’ centre would be an appropriate and timely action,
which would draw national and international writers to the West Coast
for cultural stimulation and peaceful retreat.”

In addition to the League, the other writers’ organizations supporting
converting Kogawa House into a writers-in-residence centre include the
Writers Union of Canada, the Federation of BC Writers, the Playwrights
Guild of Canada, the Canadian Authors Association, the Periodical
Writers Association of Canada, PEN Canada, the Vancouver International
Writers and Readers Festival, the Canadian Society of Children’s
Authors, and the Asian Canadian Writers Workshop. The project has also
been endorsed by the Vancouver Public Library Board, Vancouver Opera,
the Alliance for Arts and Culture, Heritage Vancouver, the Land
Conservancy, the National Nikkei Museum and Heritage Centre, and the
National Association of Japanese Canadians.

The Save Kogawa House Committee is looking for one thousand individuals
to donate $100 each for the Joy Kogawa Writers-in Residence Centre but
would of course greatly welcome donations of all sizes. The Committee
is also targeting corporations, foundations and the federal government
for support.

Donations can be made through the Vancouver Heritage Foundation which
has established a Kogawa house rescue fund and will issue charitable
receipts. All donations to the rescue fund receive a tax receipt for
the full amount of the donation. Cheques should be made out to
“Vancouver Heritage Foundation” and mailed to the Vancouver Heritage
Foundation, 844 West Hastings St., Vancouver, B.C. V6C 1C8. Donors are
asked to indicate on the cheque memo line: “Save Kogawa House.” Donations can also be made on-line on the Vancouver Heritage Foundation’s website

Speaking at the Vancouver International Writers Festival on October 13,
Margaret Atwood declared, “The destruction of the Kogawa home would be
a great loss of cultural heritage for Vancouver, for British Columbia,
and for Canada. Although Canada scored high on the recent all-nations
report card, it scored low on culture, history and heritage. Why
destroy more of this precious asset?”

HEAD TAX redress: Sunday meeting + Vancouver Sun letter by Brad Lee

Leave a reply

HEAD TAX redress: Sunday meeting + Vancouver Sun letter by Brad Lee

The Vancovuer Sun printed a letter today by 5th Generation
Canadian Brad Lee of Toronto.  Brad is reflecting the simmering
anger by many Chinese Canadians that the Liberal government is giving
money “in the name of head tax redress” to groups NOT even actually
connected to actual head tax payers and their descendants.

Multicultural minister Raymond Chan is an immigrant Chinese and he is
giving money to other immigrant Chinese groups and courting Chinese
media when all the head tax payer descendants are now multigenerational
Canadians and are reached through Mainstream media.

Here's what we can do about it.

1 – write and phone your MP – tell them you are not happy with their
idea of “redress”.  Tell them you will not vote Liberal.  Click on www.headtaxredress.org

2 – Come to a B. C. Coalition of Head Tax Payers, Spouses
and Descendants meeting Sunday November 20, 2005 to update our seniors
on the redress campaign and consult with the group. At 1:30pm at Quan Lung Sai
Tong at 164 E. Hastings Street west of Carnegie Centre at Main Street.

Here's the letter by Brad Lee.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 
Vancouver Sun; Date:2005 Nov 19; Section:Observer; Page Number:
C7

Publication:
Vancouver Sun; Date:2005 Nov 19; Section:Observer; Page Number: C7
The
Liberals bungle a great opportunity to do the right thing



Brad Lee



  
Let this go down in history: Paul Martin’s Liberals had an opportunity
to correct past injustices involving decades of legislated racism
against the Chinese in this country.
  
Instead, they are bungling it.
  
In their headlong rush to purchase goodwill among voters ahead of an
election, through multimillion-dollar deals in principle with the
Ukrainians, the Italians and other groups close to political noliability
settlements, the Liberals have cast aside the language and intent of
true reconciliation and redress.
  
Witness Bill C-333, the so-called “Immigrants of Chinese Origin
Exclusionary Measures Recognition Act,” now wending its way toward third
reading in Parliament, after breezing through final amendments at the
Liberal-dominated standing committee on heritage.
  
In just two meetings of the committee, a strange cabal of Liberals and
Tories managed to do away with wording acknowledging the injustices of
the head tax on Chinese immigrants, from 1885 to 1923, and the Chinese
Exclusion Act (1923-1947.)
  
Historians who review the implications of Bill C-333 on social justice
will not see words like “unjust,” “discrimination,” “racism,” nor any of
their derivatives. Equally, they will see no evidence of
“reconciliation,” “redress,” “reparations” or “compensation.”

  
Further investigation will show missteps by Martin’s Liberals in
drafting amendments to the private member’s bill simply to avoid any
hint of government liability. The backward reasoning for watering down
the text and intent of the bill is that the head tax and Exclusion Act
were legal at the time so the government bears no actual responsibility
for what happened.
  
(Never mind that the $500 my grandfather paid to enter Canada, along
with the varying amounts from more than
82,000 other Chinese, had generated $23 million by 1923 for government
coffers. In contrast, non-Chinese immigrants were offered a
quarter-section of land to settle here.)
  
“In each case the attorney-general of Canada, on behalf of the
government of Canada, disagreed with the arguments made on the basis
that what was done during the two wars, and either under the War
Measures Act in the case of the Germans and Italians, and under a
variety of immigration acts in the case of the Chinese, that all those
measures were perfectly legal,” according to Canadian Heritage legal
counsel Michel Francoeur.
  
Would Canadian justices trying the cases of genocide in war-torn
countries, or even historians looking back at the roots of the
Holocaust, accept this reasoning?
  
Adding insult to century-old injury, the Liberals have also insisted on
naming a single group, the National Congress of Chinese Canadians formed
in 1991 and hardly representative of the broader community, as the
government’s sole partner on projects to recognize past “exclusionary
measures.”
  
All this because the NCCC’s leaders have agreed to the Liberals’
position of “no apology, no compensation.” As well, due diligence on
this group has been set aside in favour of political expediency.
Meanwhile, the Chinese Canadian National Council, which has
registered more than
4,000 head-tax payers and their families since 1984, has been refused a
seat at the reconciliation table.
  
Our historians may note misgivings about Bill C-333 voiced by MP Libby
Davies (NDP—Vancouver East) and echoed by Bloc Quebecois MPs Maka Kotto
(Saint-Lambert) and Meili Faille (Vaudreuil-Soulanges.)
  
“As far as saying we can only name one organization because they’re the
only ones who are willing to work with the government under the terms
set by the government, I mean what is that about?” Davies asked.

  
“Is that how we do our business? That only if you
agree beforehand that these are the terms you get to participate in the
process. That’s not my understanding of parliamentary democracy.”

  
But with Martin’s Liberals it has always been about the money.

  
For weeks, officials at Canadian Heritage have been negotiating a
$12.5-million payment to the NCCC in the matter of recognizing the
imposition of exclusionary measures on Chinese Canadians.

  
According to Chinese media, the plan is for the prime minister to travel
to Vancouver, after the first ministers’ meeting in Kelowna next week to
announce the deal at the NCCC’s national conference.
  
Similar to a redress package unveiled last weekend for redress of the
Italian Canadians over internment during the Second World War, there
will be much handshaking and many smiles for the cameras. Martin might
even repeat his comment that, “You know as well as I do it’s not enough
to remember the past — you have to learn from it.”
  
Problem is, the prime minister and his party are still foggy on the
details.
  
Brad Lee is Chinese-Canadian. His
family has been in
Canada for five generations. He lives in Toronto.




MARK VAN
MANEN/VANCOUVER SUN FILES Vancouver’s Charlie Quan displays, nearly 80
years later, the admission papers he paid $500 for in 1923.

Toddish McWong interview on BBC Radio Scotland for Maggie Shiel's Scotland Licked!

Leave a reply


Toddish McWong interview on BBC Radio Scotland for
Maggie Shiel's Scotland Licked!

Yes indeed, Toddish McWong is finally going to Scotland via the
national airwaves of BBC Radio Scotland.  This past week I was
contacted by BBC Radio producer Amraine Rasool. 

I will put on my maple leaf tartan kilt made by Bear Kilts, strap on my
sporran also made by “Bear” himself, and arrive at the CBC Radio
studios in downtown Vancouver at 9am, which is 5pm Scotland time. Maybe
I will even take my accordion with me!

I will let you know when the program actually airs.
Scotland Licked! runs at 11:30 to 12 noon Scotland time which would be 3:30am in the morning!

Listen live to BBC Scotland

Here's an excample of
Scotland Licked’s Menu

Edition Two 14th November 2005



Welcome to BBC Radio Scotland's food
magazine programme where I aim to whet your appetite and find out about
the real people behind the food.  Far from being awash with
celebrity chefs, Scotland Licked will be hooking up with the unsung
heroes and heroines of the kitchen every week.  And through them
I’m going to take you on a journey that will hopefully enlighten and
entertain you about the different cultures and peoples that call this
land home. And, naturally enough, I’ll be celebrating all that is good
about Scottish cooking from handmade oatcakes to handmade humbugs. Come
on a real culinary journey with me, Maggie Shiels, on Scotland Licked
every Monday morning at 1130, I’m sure you won't leave unsatisfied!

Cheers,

Maggie


If you’ve got any foodie queries
you’d like me to tackle, or if you know someone who deserves to have
their culinary skill brought to light, then get in touch. Here are all
the details you need – you can call, write or email the show.

Scotland Licked
Room 4144, BBC Scotland
Queen Margaret Drive
Glasgow G12 8DG
Tel. 0141 338 3500
scotlandlicked@bbc.co.uk

Todd Wong's choices for Vancouver City Council, Parksboard and School Board

Leave a reply

Todd Wong's choices for Vancouver City Council, Parksboard and School Board

It is election eve, and all the candidates are holding their
breath.  Two evenings ago, I bumped into Ivan Bulic, manager for COPE,
and he said “Only two more sleeps until election day.”  Ivan was
surprised to see me working at the  Information Desk at the
Central Branch Library in downtown Vancouver.  “I thought you were
a professional entertainer,” he told me.

We talked briefly about all the changes at the Vancouver Public Library
during the last 3 years.  The library is now more accessible with
more hours into the evenings, and on Sundays year round at Britannia,
Kitsilano, Renfrew and Oakridge branches as well as Central.  The
library is no longer closed for the last week in August as in previous
years under the NPA councils.  The present Library Board is also
one of the best boards in recent memory under the guidance of
chairperson Joan Andersen (also regional director of CBC Radio.)

While I was on my dinner break while working this evening at the
Champlain Heights branch library, I was greeted by a Chinese woman
handing out COPE pamphlets, then I heard my name called, and I greeted
my friend, city councillor Ellen Woodsworth, still campaigning as the
sun was going down at 4:40pm.

My choices are based on humanistic qualities and community
values.  I also like values such as ability to act, 
advocacy, and having a vision.  Are the candidates genuinely nice
human beings, and interested in my areas of interest which are
currently heritage, arts and culture? And most importantly have they
ever attended a Gung Haggis Fat Choy or ACWW event!
  The candidates listed below are mostly all people that I have met in
person, and are not listed in any particular order other than group 1
and group 2 and reverse alphabetical order

First picks for councillor:
WOODSWORTH, Ellen COPE

ROBERTS, Anne COPE
LOUIE, Raymond P. Vision Vancouver

HARDWICK NYSTEDT, Colleen NPA
DEAL, Heather Vision Vancouver
CHOW, George Vision Vancouver
CADMAN, David COPE

Next picks for councillor
STEVENSON, Tim Vision Vancouver
LOUIS, Tim COPE
LADNER, Peter NPA
HARRISON, Heather Vision Vancouver
BASS, Fred COPE
ANTON, Suzanne NPA


For Mayor, I will simply state that I have been turned off by the
negative comments and sniping.  I know both Sam Sullivan and Jim
Green personally, and am glad to recieve greetings from both of
them.  I've known Sam for a few years since we bumped into each
other at a BC History and Genealogy exhibition at the Public Library,
and he often attends GHFC and ACWW events.  I have known Jim only
recently, but he has really helped us on the Save Kogawa House
campaign, pushed for the Obasan Cherry Tree planting, announced to the
Vancouver Arts Awards audience about Kogawa House and he has always
come down to the Rememberance Day services in Chinatown.  I
respect both men for their achievements and if you want my personal
opinions – call me.

GREEN, Jim Vision Vancouver
SULLIVAN, Sam NPA

For Schoolboard – I had the
pleasure to meet many of the present school trustees when I made a
presentation to the board on behalf of the Vancouver Asian Heritage
Month Society back in 2002.  Last week at the COPE Chinese Dinner
fundraiser, I had the pleasure to talk with a number of them
again.  I will admit my favorites are Allan Wong, Kevin Millsip,
and Noel Herron.

BLAKEY, Allen COPE
BOUEY, Jane COPE
HERRON, Noel COPE
KENYON, Angela COPE
LEW, Conrad COPE
MILLSIP, Kevin COPE
REIMER, Andrea Green Party of Vancouver
WONG, Allan COPE
KENYON, Angela COPE

For Parks Board –
Omar Kassis is a big fan of Gung Haggis Fat Choy, and I have even
invited him up to read a verse of Robbie Burns poem “Address to a
Haggis.”  And I just discovered that Loretta Woodcock is a former
dragon boat paddler – now I hope to get her onto the Gung Haggis Fat
Choy dragon boat team.


DEGENOVA, Allan NPA
HERBERT, Spencer COPE
KASSIS, Omar COPE
LEHAN, Mel COPE
ROMANIUK, Anita COPE
WOODCOCK, Loretta COPE

The Chinese Head Tax Issue: Why is the federal government not negotiating with head tax payers and their descendents?

Leave a reply


Chinese Head Tax redress:  Why is the federal government not negotiating with head tax payers and their descendants?

This message is from my friend Sid
Tan, who is spokesperson for BC Coalition of Head Tax Payers Spouses
and Descendants.  I too, am a descendant of head tax payers. 
My mothers' father and grand father paid the head tax.  Sid's
message follows:

Why doesn't the National Congress of Chinese Canadians want to talk to English-language media?
 
This information is from a Chinese-language media advisory.
It looks like NCCC doesn't want English-language media there. It's
2:30pm at Chinese Cultural Centre Friday November 18.
I plan to be there around 2:00pm with Gim Wong and perhaps Linda Jang.
We're not sure we will be let in. I have probably written more on
this than most of the reporters there.
 
There will be a meeting of the BC Coalition of Head Taxpayers, Spouses
and Descendants at 1:30pm on Sunday November 20 at the Quan Lung Sai
Tong (164 East Hastings Street).

This is Charlie Quan's association and he and Gim Wong suggest we
consult with the group for our next steps. Hope you can attend and
please circulate to those who support a just and honourable redress for
the Lo Wah Kiu (old overseas Chinese).
  
Take care.    anon    Sid
 
Go to www.headtaxredress.org and sign petition and read following for current news.
 
Ontario Coalition of Chinese Head Tax Payers and Families And Chinese Canadian National Council

For Immediate Release



November 17, 2005


Chinese Canadians Condemn Secret Deal

Toronto:  Groups seeking redress of the Head Tax and Chinese
Exclusion Act are calling on the Canadian Government to put an end to
secret deals once and for all. The Chinese Canadian National Council,
Ontario Coalition of Chinese Head Tax Payers and Families and BC
Coalition of Head Tax Payers, Spouses and Descendants urge the Canadian
Government not to empty the Acknowledgement Commemoration Education
Fund (ACE Fund) before talking to the victims of 62 years of legislated
racism: the Head Tax payers and families.


The National Congress of Chinese Canadians today announced that it has
negotiated a deal with the government for the payout of $12.5 million
and that the agreement will be signed on November 23rd. Apparently this
has the backing of Minister of Multiculturalism Raymond Chan’s office.

“It’s outrageous that Minister Chan would say publicly on CBC that he
is still open to negotiations with other groups while concluding a
secret deal with his political cronies,” said Susan Eng, Co-Chair of
the Coalition. “What part of “Gomery” do they not understand?”

“This issue has been absolutely churning in the Chinese language media
so we would be surprised that the Prime Minister and his Government
have missed the vocal opposition among Head Tax payers and families and
throughout the community.” said Victor Wong, Executive Director of the
Chinese Canadian National Council. “We call on Prime Minister Martin
not to repeat the mistakes of the past and enter into good-faith
negotiations with the Head Tax payers and families.”

“We are indeed shocked and angry to hear of this apparent sell-out,”
Sid Tan of the BC Coalition of Head Tax Payers, Spouses and Descendants
said today. “Is Minister Chan hiding behind the language barrier to
silence his critics in the hopes that the wider community will never
hear about it? The Minister has seriously bungled this case.”

The Ontario Coalition of Chinese Head Tax Payers and Families consists
of Head Tax payers, their surviving spouses and descendants.  They
are joined in their demands for redress of the Head Tax and Chinese
Exclusion Act by the Chinese Canadian National Council, Chinese
Canadian Redress Alliance, the Association of Chinese Canadians for
Equality and Solidarity Society, Metro Toronto Chinese and South East
Asian Legal Clinic, BC Coalition of Head Tax Payers Spouses and
Descendants.

-30-
 
For further information, please contact:

Susan Eng, Coalition Co-Chair, (416) 960-0312

Victor Wong, CCNC Executive Director, national@ccnc.ca, (416) 977-9871

Sid Tan, BC Coalition of Head Tax Payers Spouses and Descendants, (604) 433-6169

Ontario Coalition of Chinese Head Tax Payers and Families And Chinese Canadian National Council

 

I meet city council candidate Collen Hardwick Nystedt in Vancouver's historic Chinatown

Leave a reply

I meet city council candidate Colleen Hardwick Nystedt in Vancouver's Historic Chinatown.

It is fitting that I bump into Colleen Hardwick Nystedt
in Chinatown at the veterans ceremony on Rememberance Day.  We
discover a mutural love of Vancouver history and heritage, and I invite
her to join us for lunch following the ceremony at the Chinese Canadian
Pioneer memorial at Keefer Triangle, at the corner of Columbia and
Keefer Streets.


Colleen Hardwick Nystedt is 3rd from
left in the front row with BC Lee on her right  – the only woman
in this photograph!  My Grand-Uncle Daniel Lee is 2nd from right
in the back row.  Family friend “Uncle” Bing Wong is 1st on the
left, and Ed Lee is on the far right in the front row.  Mayor
Larry Campbell and councillor Raymond Louie and candidate George Chow
on his right – photo Todd Wong

We all go to the traditional Rememberance Day luncheon at Foo’s Ho Ho
Restaurant following, where they still serve up Cantonese homestyle
cooking, like in the good old days of Chinatown.  The veterans all
socialize and are glad to see each other and their family members and
friends.  I  make sure some of the supporters are all
seated.  There are family members of one of the veterans, and the
NPA candidates that I encourage to join me at a table.  We make
introductions, and I interrelate the issues and connect them to the
veterans and Vancouver’s Chinatown history.

When I meet BC Lee, and explain that I am the creator of “Gung Haggis Fat Choy”,
his eyes light up, and he tells me he is very glad to meet me.  He
explains that he organized the Chinese New Year celebrations at Plaza
of Nations.  I tell him that we have some mutual friends who
always exclaim that they cannot believe I haven’t met BC Lee yet.

Seated beside me is Collen Hardwick Nystedt, whom I first saw at an
all-candidates meeting on Vancouver’s heritage and culture at the
Vancouver Museum.  Colleen tells me that her father, Walter Hardwick, had been a
city counselor under the TEAM banner in the mid-70’s and that she had
walked with him in the protest marches against the planned freeway that
would have bi-sected Chinatown and the Strathcona neighborhoods. 
Her grandmother had also been a city parksboard commissioner.  We
quickly develop an interest drawn on our family’s long 
multi-generational history in Vancouver.


Colleen Hardwick Nystedt sent me this
picture of her from 1970 when she walked in a protest for the
preservation of Gastown – photo courtesty of Colleen Hardwick Nystedt

Colleen shares that she had spent a lot of time in the old Ho Ho
Restaurant back in the 1980’s as a location manager in the film
industry.  She told us some of the stories while making the film
“Year of the Dragon” which starred Mickey Rourke and admitted that it
portrayed stereotypes of Chinese people and of Chinatown.

I tell her that I was very impressed with the way she introduced
herself to the audience at the Vancouver Museum all candidates meeting,
and tackled some of the issues.  While Colleen was not as up to
speed with some of the heritage issues as Vision Vancouver candidate Heather Deal,
who had the advantage of being a Parksboard commissioner who sat on the
Heritage commission, Colleen did not shy away and demonstrated that she
had the smarts and the will to be an assertive and effective
councilor.  Colleen also grew up inside politics, had planned on a
career in urban geography before becoming a leader in the BC film
industry, and will bring a
strong presence and sense of Vancouver history.

“It’s about connectedness,” says Colleen, when I tell her that I really
appreciated what she had to say about her family history, and how that
informs her about the decisions she makes for today.  When I ask
her about running for city council, she tells me “It was just a matter
of time.”

I tell Colleen about my involvement with the Save Kogawa House
committee, and she is very interested.  We are surprised to
discover that our social circles and interests cross over in different
places.  She innocently asks me if I was aware of the Freeway
protests and I rattle off some of the names that were involved, but
admit that I was quite young when it was happening.  She knows my
cousin architect Joe Wai, who has been a champion for both the
preservation and revitalization of Chinatown, who speaks enthusiastically of Colleen.  She later sends me a
picture of herself at the
Freeway protests and of her father as a member of City Council.

While checking out Colleen’s website
I discover that she has been recognized by the Financial Post as “One
of the 13 Most Important People in the B.C. Film Industry”, she
received a “40 Under 40” Award for entrepreneurship from Business in
Vancouver Magazine, as well as numerous other awards.

Colleen has just been selected as the lone NPA candidate for the Georgia Straight's “The Straight slate for a more livable region,”
highlighting her knowledge as an urban geographer – no doubt influenced
by her father Walter Hardwick, a professor of geography that the
Straight calls one of the greatest city councillors ever.

Check out my architect friend David Wong's choice of Hardwick for council.  David cites Walter Hardwick as one of his favorite UBC professors.


Colleen's father Walter Hardwick is
2nd from left in the back row standing beside Mike Harcourt. 
Seated in the front row from the left is Jack Volrich and Mayor Art
Philips in this picture of the 1972 TEAM city council – photo courtesy
of Colleen Hardwick Nystedt.


Rememberance Day 2005 in Chinatown

Leave a reply

Rememberance Day 2005 in Chinatown



Chinese Candian Veterans of
Pacific Unit 280 pose with Vancouver mayor Larry Campbell, city
counsellor Raymond Louie, and councillor candidates George Chow, BC Lee
and Colleen Hardwick-Nystedt – photo Todd Wong



Rememberance Day, November 11, 2005



I watched the
CTV television coverage of the cenotaph ceremonies of Vancouver’s
Victory Square.  Afterwards I headed down to Chinatown to attend
the 12:30pm ceremonies at the Chinese Canadian Pioneers Memorial at
Keefer Street Triangle.



Uncle Daniel Lee is interviewed by Channel M News following the Rememberance Day ceremonies – photo Todd Wong


My Uncle Dan Lee
is an executive with Pacific Unit 280.  I make a point of
supporting him as one of our Chan family elders.  I actually like
hanging out with the Pacific Unit 280 veterans.  I have known a
few of them since I was very little, and most of them knew my father,
and even my Uncle James Wong, who served with some of them in Australia
and the Pacific Theatre. 



I have a lot of
respect for these gentlemen who took some of the best years of their
lives to offer it up for a country that wouldn’t even give the vote,
even though they were born in Canada. 

“A real man would be wearing a kilt in this weather,” says an
approaching voice beside me as I stand at the memorial.  I turn to
greet Mayor Larry Campbell, who smilingly recalls the fun he had
attending my 2005 Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner event.



Mayor Larry Campbell address the Chinese Canadian veterans group of Pacific Unit 280 – photo Todd Wong


The ceremony was
fairly casual.  It was a small group attended by family and
friends, as well as Chinese media, Mayor Larry Campbell and councilor Raymond Louie.  Also attending were city council candidates George Chow, Colleen Hardwick-Nystedt
and BC Lee.  Speeches were made by Mayor Larry Campbell and MC
Wesley Lowe.  A prayer was said and many pictures were
taken. 


At one point
some of the vets aske me “Todd – where's your camera.”  I reply
that it is broken.  Veteran Ed Lee gives me his camera and asks me
to take some pictures for him.  “Oh look, Todd's got a
camera.”  And all seems right.



Veteran Ed Lee, executive member of
Pacific Unit 280 lays a wreath at the memorial commemorating the
sacrifices of the Chinese-Canadian pioneers as soldiers, and railway
workers – photo Todd Wong


We all went to
the traditional Rememberance Day luncheon at Foo’s Ho Ho Restaurant
following, where they still serve up Cantonese homestyle cooking, like
in the good old days of Chinatown.  The veterans all socialize and
are glad to see each other and their family members and friends. 
I  make sure some of the supporters are all seated. 

There are family members of one of the veterans, and the NPA candidates that I encourage to join me at a table.  Colleen Hardwick Nystedt
agrees saying “As long as you're hosting.” We make introductions, and I
interrelate the issues and connect them to the veterans and Vancouver’s
Chinatown history.  It turns out that Colleen's father was former
city councillor Hardwick who organized some of the protests against
Freeway development in Chinatown and the Strathcona neighborhood. 
Heritage, veterans and family histories.  How wonderful that it
all comes together in community.