Angry head tax descendant criticizes Conservative Govt Redress package – photo Todd Wong
Yearly Archives: 2006
Head Tax descendant speaks at community meeting, saying Conservatives
must include descendants for Head Tax redress – photo Todd Wong
Woman speaks about need for descendants to be included for Chinese head tax redress package – photo Todd Wong
Canada Day…. what I love and hate about this country
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Canada Day…. what I love and hate about this country
This year, Canada Day is bittersweet.
For the Chinese community… starting in 1923, the day of the Chinese
Exclusion Act, July 1st became known as “Humilation Day.” How
else can you describe the country of your birth or choice, not wanting
you because of your ethnicity or skin colour… not wanting “your kind”
so much, they they pass laws banning any immigration of your ethnicity
or ancestry, from anywhere in the world.
While the Conservative government has apologized officially for the
Chinese Head Tax and Exclusion Act, it has failed to recognize all
payers of the head tax. They have offered financial payment to
“living head tax payers and spouses… who were directly
affected.”
But what about the head tax payers and spouses who died waiting for the
apology? And weren't familes direcly affected by the head tax and
exclusion act, which deliberately deterred families from being together
and ultimately separting them for decades?
Prof. Henry Yu of UBC, says that “giving redress only to those head tax
payers and spouses still alive, is like giving redress to First Nations
people who are still alive after their land was initially
stolen.” Hmmm… I guess they would have to be 150 to 250 years
old now.
If my father's father was still alive today, he would be 140 years
old. He had to pay $500 to bring my father's mother to Canada,
which would have been the price of a house, or 2 years salary. In
today's world that would cost $200,000 to $350,000.
If the Canadian people thought that the $1000 immigrant landing fee
that the Martin Liberal government repealed last year was unfair to new
immigrants – a $200,000 deliberately prohibitive head tax is
unbeliveably unfair.
July 1st 1923, was the first day of the Chinese Exclusion Act.
The present redress package only addresses the surviving head tax
payers and spouses. Chinese immigrant families have always been
multi-generational and lived together because of 1) family values
2) economic necessity. So yes… descendants are directly
affected by both head tax and exclusion act.
My friend Bill Chiu just sent me this information:
In the case of the reconcilation movement in Australia with the
aboriginals before Australia's 2000 summer Olympics, the country had a
reconciliation plan that affects every community, every institution and every
government( http://www.reconciliationaustralia.org/i-cms.isp). Knowing
full well that 2010 is coming up, if we can build up the community to
that level, the momentum will be there to transform the government and
the community.
aboriginals before Australia's 2000 summer Olympics, the country had a
reconciliation plan that affects every community, every institution and every
government( http://www.reconciliationaustralia.org/i-cms.isp). Knowing
full well that 2010 is coming up, if we can build up the community to
that level, the momentum will be there to transform the government and
the community.
On Friday night, last week, we held a celebration/fundraiser dinner for Joy Kogawa and Kogawa House. Wow!!! Joy received the Order of BC on June 22 in Victoria. The Land Conservancy of BC
purchased historic Joy Kogawa House on May 30th, and we will work
together to create a writing centre, and writer's in residence, as well
as a national landmark for Canada.
On last Saturday, I attended a board meeting for the Canadian Club Vancouver…
I have now been appointed to co-chair the annual Order of Canada – Flag
Day luncheon – the premier event of the Canadian Club Vancouver…
indeed an honour. My co-chair is Linda Johnston, Director for
Canadian Heritage, Western Region. For 2005, I helped organize parts of the 2005 Order of Canada luncheon with Joy Kogawa as keynote speaker, Margaret Gallager as MC, and Harry Aoki as special guest musician.
CBC Television is going ahead with the follow up to the award winning
series “Canada- a People's History,” titled “Generations.”
They want to do a episode following the 7 generations of the Rev. Chan
Yu Tan family. Wow! I have been co-chair of the Rev. Chan
Legacy with my mom's cousin Gary Lee. Chief Rhonda Larrabee is
excited, and I have also talked to my cousin Joni Mar – former CBC
reporter. All agree this is good for the family, and good for
Canada.
And then there is our Gung Haggis Fat Choy Dragon Boat team. 30
individuals of different ages, ethnicities, interests and abilities…
paddling together for fun and recreation to help move the boat
forward. Gee…. that sounds like Canada. Maybe if Bob Rae
wins the Liberal leadership, we can get him in a dragon boat with his
guitar singing his self-composed song “We're All in the Same Boat Now!”
What I love about Canada, is Canadian's willingness to be inclusive,
and to think beyond their own needs and beyond their own selves.
We can be incredibly giving to other countries…. but sometimes we
forget to look in our own backyard, or in our own mirrors.
What I hate about Canada, is the petty selfishness of people to resent
and stereotype First Nations and non-white Canadians with negative and
ignorant characters.
Canadians we dislike (hate is a strong word… almost un-Canadian)
Trevor Lautens
Pamela Anderson
Doug Collins
racists
bigots
selfish self-centred people
ignoramuses…
all of the above
Canadians we love
Joy Kogawa
Joy Coghill
Thomas King
Roy Miki
Sarah McLachlan
David Suzuki
Wayne Gretzky
Steve Podborsky
Rick Hansen
Madeliene Thien
Evelyn Lau
Bryan Adams
Paul Yee
Shelagh Rogers
Sheryl Mackay
Prem Gill
Heather Deal
Harry Aoki
Mom & Dad
+ many more (it's just so much easier to Love, than to Hate)
There's lots to cheer and boo about Canada… but like any
family, you wish every member the best, you encourage them to grow and
learn, and you love them in spite of themselves.
Cheers, Todd
Globe & Mail: June 28: Apologies Have Power
Globe & Mail: June 28: Apologies Have Power
Here is the Op-Ed piece from this week's Globe & Mail. Erna Paris is the author of Long Shadows: Truth,
Lies, and History. She
gives a nicely balance arguement for apologies having a healing and
progressive course of action for our country and society. Enjoy –
Todd
Apologies have power
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
ERNA
PARIS
After
Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized to Chinese-Canadians last week, a
barrage of criticism focused on the prospect of “victims” lining up
at the public trough. Most missed the central point: confirmation that human
rights still matter in this country.
How many
Canadians knew about the punishing head tax imposed on 15,000 Chinese workers
brought here to build the CPR? How many knew up to 1,000 of these men died
during this back-breaking labour? Or that families were divided because Canada refused
to allow wives and children of those who had raised the money to join them?
Without formal recognition of injustice, the darker side of a nation's past is
unlikely to make it into school history texts, which are the bedrock of the
national narrative.
In an
ethnically mixed society, social adhesion is threatened without a public
acknowledgment that the state, itself, maltreated minorities living within its
borders. Although those of us who were not affected by head taxes, residential
schools, or wartime internment as “enemy aliens” may spend little
time thinking about this “other” history, Canadians who were have not
forgotten. The story of maltreatment is passed down from generation to
generation, until the survivors, or their progeny, have the courage to demand
formal redress. State-instigated human-rights abuses live in a category of
their own, as the history of the 20th century makes abundantly clear.
Unaddressed, they are increasingly corrosive to the body politic. When
addressed, they contribute to healing and, by extension, national unity. It is
no surprise an elderly Chinese-Canadian interviewed on the day of the apology
declared that she finally felt she was a Canadian.
Pierre
Trudeau said he and his government were not responsible for Canada's past,
only its future. He was wrong. It matters not one whit whether human rights
abuses were carried out yesterday, or decades ago. Those who occupy the seats
of power today carry, and are responsible for addressing, yesterday's corrosive
legacy, for the unreconciled past inevitably sends long tendrils into the
present.
Other
countries have also begun to acknowledge that at a time when human rights were
undervalued, or not valued at all, their governments committed grave abuses
that decades later, threaten national unity. In France,
for example, President Jacques Chirac formally apologized for the actions of
the collaborationist Vichy
regime, which willingly assisted the Nazis in deporting 78,000 Jews to death
camps. His courageous acknowledgment ended decades of official myth-making and
prevarication that was taught to children as factual history. France also
held criminal trials for the German Nazi, Klaus Barbie; the French Nazi, Paul
Touvier; and the bureaucratic paper-pusher, Maurice Papon, who signed away
thousands of lives with a flourish of his pen. This reversal in policy came
about because a few survivors of the deportations never forgot that the country
of their birth had betrayed them, and neither did their children. They
correctly believed that France
would be unable to normalize its present until it was willing to acknowledge
what had been carried out in the state's name.
Japan, on the
contrary, has never formally apologized to the families of those who survived
the Rape of Nanking in 1937, among many other atrocities; in fact, Japan's Prime
Minister makes provocative visits to a Shinto shrine where the
“souls” of several convicted war criminals are glorified. This
unresolved tear in the historical fabric has affected relations between Japan and China.
Canada
cannot afford to ignore the state-inspired cruelty of the past. Which is not to
deny that reason and balance must reign. More than half a century ago, the
fledgling United Nations published the Universal Declaration of Human Rights —
the key word being “universal.” These must be the foundational
yardstick for assessing claims against the Canadian government.
Official
acknowledgments, memorials, museums that tell the truth about the past, and token
reparations to surviving victims are symbolic ways of separating the unlovely
past from the present. And for promoting unity among the diverse peoples of Canada.
Erna Paris is the author of Long Shadows: Truth,
Lies, and History.
Announcement: Walk for Redress to Mark Chinese Head Tax/Exclusion on Canada Day:Still Humiliation Day Without Appropriate Redress to Head Tax Families
MEDIA ADVISORY - June 29, 2006
Walk for Redress to Mark Chinese Head Tax/Exclusion on Canada Day:
Still Humiliation Day Without Appropriate Redress to Head Tax Families
Vancouver, BC – The BC Coalition of Head Tax Payers, Spouses and Descendants
will mark July 1 - Canada Day – with a Walk for Redress. The Conservative
government’s June 22 unilaterally imposed redress package ignored and rejected
calls from head tax families for a just and honourable settlement. The BC
Coalition calls on the federal government to commit to complete the two stage
framework presented by redress groups to Canadian Heritage Minister and
Beverley Oda and Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister Jason
Kenney at a March 24, 2006 consultation in Toronto.
Date: Saturday, July 1, 2006 – Canada Day
Time: 11:00am call time – walk to begin shortly after
Place: Courtyard in front of Sun Yat-Sen Gardens
50 East Pender, Vancouver
The two stage framework calls for an apology and as well as urgent appropriate
redress to surviving head tax payers and spouses. This was completed June 22,
2006. The second step is appropriate redress to head tax families without
surviving tax payer or spouse to be completed by July 1, 2007, the 60th
anniversary of the Chinese receiving the federal vote and 100th of the Chinatown
race riots in Vancouver.
The BC Coalition of Head Tax Payers, Spouses and Descendants are today’s
Chinese Canadians. We are from different ages, from all walks of life,
all having one thing in common. They or someone in their family paid the
head tax.
We are neighbours, friends and family who have endured journeys of
hardship, sacrifice and suffering due to the effects of more than six decades
(62-years) of racial discrimination specifically targeted at the Chinese in
Canada. We welcome all Canadians to join us in this quest for justice and honour
for our Chinese adventurers and pioneers and their families.
- 30-
Joy Kogawa Celebration Dinner on Friday June 23
Joy Kogawa Celebration Dinner on Friday June 23
Joy Kogawa recieved the Order of BC on June 22nd, at Government House
in Victoria BC. It was presented by Iona Campagnolo the Lieutenant
Governor of BC.
We held a celebration dinner on Friday, June 23, at Flamingo Chinese
Restaurant, on Fraser St. This was a celebration dinner for both
Joy's Order of BC, as well as to celebrate the purchase of historic
Kogawa House, Joy's childhood home, by The Land Conservancy of
BC. The home had been confiscated by the Canadian government from
her family while they were interned in Slocan during World War II, and
also played a central figure in Joy's literary works Obasan and Naomi's
Road.
Joy Kogawa, MC Todd Wong (Kogawa House committee), and Anton Wagner (secretary of Kogawa House committee) – photo Deb Martin.
Anton Wagner is an independent film maker in Toronto. He filmed
the Order of BC ceremony, and showed it at the dinner.
Another film highlight that Anton shared with the audience, was an
excerpt that featured Joy from his film, Veterans Against Nuclear
War. Joy spoke about how the Nuclear bomb that dropped on
Nagasaki was created by Christian Americans, and dropped on the largest
Christian Church and Christian community in Asia, located in
Nagasaki. It is a very moving speech, that Joy gives.
Todd introduces Ramona Leungen, the composer of Naomi's Road opera,
produced by the Vancouver Opera. Vancouver Opera will recieve the
inaugural Gung Haggis Fat Choy intercultural arts achievement award,
for their incredible production Naomi's Road which toured BC schools,
as well as in Red Deer Alberta, and Seattle Washington.
Todd Wong, Nancy Tiffin (TLC development officer), Ramona Leungen and
Joy Kogawa – enjoying the presenations and the food for the evening –
photo Deb Martin.
Dan Seto and Gail
Thompson, senior paddlers on the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team,
present Joy with a Gung Haggis Fat Choy, team shirt. – photo Deb Martin.
Joy Kogawa is the honourary drummer for the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon
boat team this year. For the Alcanc Dragon Boat Festival, we
changed the team name to Gung Haggis Fat Choy Kogawa House, to ensure
that the 90,000 people who attended the Festival all heard the name
“Kogawa House.” The team shirt is emblazoned with “lucky gold
coins” – four on the front and fourteen on the back. This year we
listed The Land Conservancy of BC, and Save Kogawa House Committee, as
our special “sponsors” – as we also listed the websites to help create
awareness for these wonderful organizations.
For more information, go to:
www.kogawahouse.com
To donate for Kogawa House go to:
www.conservancy.bc.ca
Edmonton Journal: 110 year old head tax spouse (Alberta’s oldest person) dies
Edmonton Journal:
110 year old head tax spouse (Alberta’s oldest person) dies
This is a good story about the sacrifices and challenges the head tax payers made, and the costs of racial discrimination by the Canadian government because of the head tax and Exclusion Act.
Mrs. Mah is no longer “living” – so does she NO LONGER qualify for head tax redress? But she was living on June 22nd, when the government apologized and presented the
redress package. But what about the people that died the previous day, week, year or decades?
Fair and honourable means fair and honourable. The present Chinese Canadian Redress package should do the same. People paid the head tax from 1885 to 1923. If a person was 20 years old in 1885, then they would be 141 years old today. If they were 20 years old in 1923, they would be 103 today… and most likely they would want their children and
grandchildren to be able to enjoy the redress payment.
The redress package for Japanese Canadians included people who were interned and born up to or before 1947. 1947 was also the year that the Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed. Maybe the Chinese head-tax and Exclusion Act redress package should
include “One certificate – one payment” to the surviving representative descendant as long as they were born before 1947. Or given it is 22 years since the issue was first brought up in 1984, how about we set 1967 as the date.So if the head tax payer has died, their spouse had died, theirchildren have died… then a grandchild can recieve the symbolic “taxrefund” – as long as they were born before 1967.
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Alberta‘s oldest person dies Raised children alone in wartime China,
EDMONTON – Fong When she died Sunday after nearly five decades of living in Edmonton, she was 110 — Alberta’s oldest person. Family members sat by her bedside at Capital Care Norwood on Sunday, recounting their favourite stories of grandma and holding her hands as she slipped away due to pneumonia. A stylish woman until her last day, Mrs. Mah would get weekly pedicures and never left her Norwood room without her lipstick and compact, said her granddaughter, Winnie Mah, 44. “Always look your best and do your best,” Winnie said, recalling her grandmother’s advice. She said her grandfather used to take his wife shopping to Eaton’s to keep her in the latest styles. “Like a little fashion plate, Granny was,” Winnie said with a laugh. Mrs. Mah was nine years old when Alberta became a province in 1905. Last September, she met then-prime minister Paul Martin during Alberta’s centennial activities and fell asleep during the speeches. Winnie said her grandmother’s greatest advice was just to have faith. Mrs. Mah was born on Sept. 28, 1895, in Kwangtung province of southern China. Around He had emigrated to Edmonton in 1910, doing menial jobs to make a living that would have been a small fortune in China. He was forced to pay a $500 head tax under Canadian law and leave his new Mah visited his wife only every few years, but on those trips he built her a brick house, dressed her in style, fathered two daughters and adopted a son. “They were considered well off,” Winnie said, since most houses in China were In 1923, the year their first child was born, Canada’s Chinese Immigration Act barred all Chinese immigrants from Canada and extinguished any hope of Mrs. Mah joining her husband. But Winnie said her grandmother never gave up faith. “They just thought one day they will be together,” she said. Mrs. Mah was left to raise her children alone. When the Japanese invaded China in the 1930s, she hid her family in nearby caves. “You could hear the bombing and they would flee to the mountains to hide,” Winnie said. “A lot of times (they) went hungry.” As political turbulence in China grew, Mrs. Mah’s husband stayed in Canada, fearing conscription into the army. When communists took control in 1949, they confiscated Mrs. Mah’s brick house. Her son, Jack, feared his mother would be put into forced labour and insisted they move to Hong Kong. “Given their wealth, they were branded as capitalists,” Winnie said. Mrs. Mah’s daughter-in-law sold 100 silk dresses to pay for safe passage. Mrs. Mah was finally able to immigrate to Canada in 1958 and reunite with her husband in Edmonton. “It just became one long honeymoon for them afterwards,” Winnie said. She said her grandparents lived a simple life in Edmonton. She would stay overnight and her “She had a way of making us feel she loved us the most,” Winnie said. “Little did I know, all us kids used that special blue cup.” After her husband died in 1985, Mrs. Mah lived alone until age 99. At Norwood, she shared a room with her son, who had been partially paralyzed by strokes. She fed him and made him comfortable each day. He died in 2001 at the age of 72, said Winnie. “She was the poster-mom for single moms at her age,” Winnie said. “She reminded us, don’t be so busy. Don’t forget what’s important.” Mrs. Mah has 15 grandchildren, 27 great-grandchildren and 17 great-great-grandchildren. ashortt@thejournal.canwest.com © The
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