A real Head Tax apology should Stand On Guard for True Patriot Love – instead of a Chinaman's Chance for fair redress.

Here is my re-written and more thoughtfully edited response to the Tyee Election Blog article by Richard Warnika  Head Tax Apology Falls Flat

The “word on the street” is that the entire head tax redress positioning by the Liberals, has been dumbfounding.  When the Liberals released the November 26th Agreement-in-Principle for redress of immigration and internment issues, they only negotiated with organizations that would agree to their preconditions of “No Apology” and “No compensation.”  

But now they have flip flopped the day after it is reported that the Conservatives are leading over them.  This is like the school yard bully who refuses to apologize after it was proven that he stole your lunch money, but only “apologizes” through an intermediary, when he is pressed after realizing he is no longer popular:

A true and sincere apology would be:

My initial response to the apology can be found on my blog article: “Did Paul Martin Really Apologize or did he duck?  If it waddles like an apology, and it quacks like an apology… it must be a duck!
The original November 26th announcement was also accompanied by a list of 260+ organizations that were being “represented” by the four signatory organizations of the Chinese Canadian Military Museum, Chinese Cultural Centre of Greater Toronto, and the Montreal Chinese Cultural Centre (which has been admitted to be a non-entity), and the National Congress of Chinese Canadians, which only has a website in Chinese (go figure!) Check this Epoch Times article, Head Tax Still a Headache regarding the controversies.

Many organizations' names were repeated on the list, and many have since asked to be removed for various reasons.  Only 3 organizations actively have anything to do with Chinese-Canadian historical programming.  The Chinese Canadian National Council – which was listed by mistake – because they have always asked for an apology and for individual compensation, the Chinese Canadian Veterans Association – who have always asked for an apology. The Chinese Cultural Centre in Vancouver came under some controversy
when their President admitted that she did not consult or inform her
board.

The veterans only agreed to the No Apology, because they were told that “Acknowledgement” is like an “Apology” and because they would like to see some settlement before the remaining members die.  These are Canadians of Chinese ancestry who went to fight for Canada in WW2 in the hopes that they could prove their loyalty to Canada and somehow argue for voting francise for all Chinese-Canadians.  This is not the way to treat our respected elders. Click here for a Vancouver Courier Story featuring my grand-uncle Daniel Lee asking for an apology

I am 5th generation Canadian, a descendant of Rev. Chan Yu Tan.  He was a Christian missionary who taught English to the Chinese immigrants, and always told his family to learn the Canadian ways.  In every subsequent generation there has been inter-racial marriage with caucasian-Canadians.  We have an Indian Chief, and a Miss Canada runner up in our family.  All my maternal cousins have married caucasians.  We are Canadian.  

We deserve better than an off-the-cuff remark on ethnic radio, when his polls are slipping.

It's about standing on guard for true patriot love – instead of a “Chinaman's Chance” for fair redress.