Yearly Archives: 2006

The Chronicle Herald (Apr 20): Hallifax Chinese say Head Tax a Major Hardship

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From http://thechronicleherald.ca/Metro/498024.html

Head tax a major hardship
Ottawa told about injustices imposed on Chinese immigrants
By KRISTEN LIPSCOMBE Staff Reporter

David
Cheung says because of the head tax and Exclusion Act once imposed on
Chinese immigrants, many families have suffered both financially from
the expensive fee for moving to Canada and emotionally from being
separated from their loved ones.

Not to mention the blatant racial discrimination.

“At
that time it cost so much, eh? More than a year’s salary,” Mr. Cheung,
a Bedford resident, said Wednesday of the $500 head tax his sister’s
father-in-law had to dole out when he came here in 1918. “When you have
to work to pay the money back, you are heavily in debt. And then you
try to send some money back home and it’s really hard.”

Mr. Cheung was one of many Nova Scotian
Chinese who shared their stories and voiced their opinions Wednesday
night at a meeting hosted by Jason Kenney, parliamentary secretary to
the prime minister, at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in Halifax. More
than 50 people attended the meeting, which was closed to media, while more phoned in from St. John’s, Charlottetown and Fredericton.

Federal officials are travelling
across the country to consult with Chinese Canadians on what sort of
compensation should be made to those affected by the racist laws. In
the throne speech this month, Prime Minister Stephen Harper promised an
official apology for the head tax, which was forced upon immigrants
from 1885 to 1923. The Exclusion Act was in effect from 1923 to 1947.

Mr.
Cheung said his relatives wanted to sponsor family members still in
China, but the Exclusion Act prevented them from moving to Canada until
the 1950s. His sister’s father-in-law has since died, without having
received an apology or any sort of compensation, he said.

“You always feel so much injustice over the years,” Mr. Cheung said.

He
said financial compensation should go directly to the families
affected. “Hopefully the government will be able to do something soon.”

Mr.
Kenney said Wednesday night’s meeting was “the first part of a national
grassroots consultation with Chinese Canadians to figure out the best
way to right the historical wrong of the racist head tax and Chinese
Exclusion Act.”

He
said the session was about 2½ hours of many “heart-wrenching stories,”
including some from children of people who paid the taxes, which
started at $50 but eventually grew to $500. “Their families were split
up, a lot of them couldn’t come here from China (or) their parents were
separated.

“There
were a lot of very tragic, personal stories we heard about and some
constructive ideas about how we can create educational programs to
recognize this period in our history and make sure it never happens
again.”

“The big message was, move quickly, let’s not waste any more time,” he said.

The
apology likely will be made this spring while compensation will come as
soon as possible, Mr. Kenney said. He said the federal government also
plans a national reconciliation event in Ottawa on July 1, which is the
day the Exclusion Act came into effect and is known within the Chinese community as “humiliation day.”

“We want to put an end to that,” he said.

May Lui, chairwoman of the Halifax Chinese Redress Committee, said the government’s response to the concerns of Chinese Canadians has been “really positive.”

She
said the meeting allowed people to speak their minds. “What happened to
you as a child, what happened to your parents, you have a chance to air
it. That’s a good thing.”

(klipscombe@herald.ca)


Canadian Press (Apr 18):Federal ministers cross the country, consult head-tax victims about redress

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Canadian Press (Apr 18):Federal ministers cross the country, consult head-tax victims about redress

Canadian Press' Amy Carmichael writes a story about the coming community conusutations between the Conservative government and the Chinese Canadian communities.  Heritage Minister Bev Oda, and parliamentary Secretary for multiculturalism Jason Kenney are travelling to Halifax, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.   Sid Tan, Victor Wong and Yew Lee are interviewed.

Amy Carmichael once wrote a pretty good story about me and Gung Haggis Fat Choy Cultures collide: Chinese don kilts, Scots try haggis wonton


April 18, 2006

Federal ministers
cross the country, consult head-tax victims about redress

By AMY CARMICHAEL

VANCOUVER (CP) – How does a
government apologize for the racism of charging one ethnic group a
discriminatory tariff to come to Canada?

How does a government compensate
men who had to leave school early to pay off debts incurred by paying the
tariff, or apologize to families thrown into years of debt because of it? The
heritage minister will be asking Chinese Canadians these questions in a series
of meetings across the country this week aimed at devising a fair redress
package.

The exercise is stirring up
painful memories for many head-tax victims.

Yew Lee, a descendant of two generations
of head-tax payers, says it brings him back to a time when some white Canadians
thought it was OK to walk into a Chinese restaurant, order a steak dinner, savour it and then butt their cigarette out in the scraps.

“They'd say, there's a
cigarette in my food, I'm not paying,” says Lee who lives in Chelsea, Que.

“It was OK because this was
a society where the government sanctioned discrimination against Chinese
people. It allows people to treat parts of our society like sub human.”

Yew's 94-year-old mother lives in
Ottawa. She's
immobile and won't be able to get to any consultation with government ministers
she's too cynical to have faith in anyway.

She sits with memories of being
kept out of Canada
by a law that barred Chinese people from immigrating at all.

Her husband paid the head tax and
wasn't allowed to bring Yew, his mother and three brothers over and the family
was separated for 14 years.

“How that affected me, I'm
still trying to figure that out,” says Yew.

The tax has been acknowledged as
a dark period in Canadian history for its blatant racism.

Chinese immigration to Canada began around 1858 in response to the Gold
Rush in British Columbia.
Immigrants also were brought in from China to help build the Canadian
Pacific Railway.

But the federal government
subsequently tried to restrict Chinese immigration, passing legislation that
initially imposed a $50 tax on immigrants. That later rose to
$500.

About 81,000 Chinese immigrants
paid $23 million to enter Canada
under the head-tax scheme between 1885 and 1923. The Chinese Exclusion Act
followed, barring Chinese immigrants altogether until it was repealed in 1947.

Victor Wong, another descendent
who lives in Toronto,
said you just can't compensate people for what happened.

He wants the government to act by
July 1 and provide a redress package, money and an apology to victims and their
spouses while they are still alive.

Wong said descendants can be
addressed later.

Victims have suggested the
government could apologize to the wider Chinese Canadian community by creating
a day to remember that would be marked each year.

Others are still just amazed that
the government wants to talk about it at all.

“It's pretty unprecedented.
No government has really done that before,” says Sid Tan, a Vancouver resident and
volunteer with Association of Chinese Canadians for Equality and Solidarity.

“I wish my grandma was alive
to see this. Wow.”

A senior government official in
the heritage minister's office said Tuesday the government wants to listen.

Heritage Minister Bev Oda and Jason Kenney, parliamentary secretary for
multiculturalism, will be attending meetings this week in Halifax,
Montreal, Toronto
and Vancouver
to consult with Chinese Canadians touched by the head tax.

The official, speaking on
background, said the government sees the tour as one for consultation, not
negotiation.

The government wants to know what
Chinese Canadians think is fair redress, so it first must hear how they were
affected, said the official.

Tan's story is similar to Yew's.

His grandfather paid the head
tax. His grandmother was kept out by the Exclusion Act created in 1923. The two
were apart for 25 years.

Tan remembers his grandmother was
fearful when her grandson took up the cause of getting redress for head-tax
payers 20 years ago.

“She told me not to. She
said 'What if the police come, what if the green coats (immigration officials
wore green then) in the middle of the night, what if they tie you up, throw you
in the river. No, no, where would we be, these things,
never mind.'

“I knew she was so
intimidated by the forces of government. She would be gratified to hear the
government talking about these things now.”

Tan said he's feeling really good
about how the stories are coming out. Communities are talking and the
government is listening.

“Our Chinese forbearers not
only had to overcome the geography and environment and the climate, we had to
overcome the people. And I think we have. Now, I think Chinese people are
accepted as part of the Canadian mosaic,” Tan says.

Few people who actually paid the
head tax in the early 1900s are still alive. Four elderly men live in Vancouver.

Tan is helping to organize
carpools for head-tax payers, their families and widows to get them out to the
meeting with the federal ministers in suburban Richmond, B.C.

He says some of them don't want
anything from the government other than acknowledgment of their story.

Tan will ask the government to
return the $23 million it collected in head-tax.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2006/04/18/pf-1539339.html

Hamilton Spectator (Apr 17): We enticed the Chinese to build our CPR, then scorned them

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Hamilton Spectator (Apr 17): We enticed the Chinese to build our CPR, then scorned them

The Hamilton Spectator has published an interesting story that includes references to the Chinese Canadians attempts for redress through the Canadian legal system and the United Nations.  I have included references below to demonstrate that in 2004, the United Nations did ask Canada to make reparations for the Head Tax, as well New Zealand made reparations in 2002.

We
enticed the Chinese to build our CPR, then scorned them

 

By Evelyn Myrie
The Hamilton
Spectator (Apr 17, 2006)

In its first Speech
from the Throne, the new Conservative government repeated Stephen Harper's
election promise to issue an apology for the notorious 19th-century head tax
imposed on Chinese immigrants.

The promise of an
apology is welcome news to the many Chinese-Canadians and their supporters who
have lobbied hard for many years to reach this goal. They have successfully
pushed this important historical wrong onto the front burner of the political
agenda.

Canada is doing the right thing by issuing an
apology.

In the 1870s and
'80s, about 15,000 Chinese were enticed to Canada to help build the Canadian
Pacific railway. Hundreds, if not thousands, died carving out the path for the
railroad through the Rocky Mountains.

Once their job was
done, Canada
wanted them to go home. Failing that, they did not want friends or family
joining them in Canada.

The Chinese
Immigration Act of 1885 required all Chinese entering Canada to pay a
$50 fee. When that did not prove sufficient discouragement, the government
passed the Chinese Immigrant Acts of 1900 and 1903 which raised the levies to
$100 and $500 respectively. Later, the Chinese Immigrant Act of 1923 excluded
Chinese immigration altogether.

By imposing this
racist levy on Chinese (and only Chinese) immigrants, Canada denied the railway workers the right to have their families join them in Canada. This
head tax was equivalent to two years' salary for a Chinese worker.

The costly and
discriminatory head tax made it financially difficult, most often impossible,
for families to reunite in Canada,
and destroyed many families in the process.

Chinese-Canadians
pointed to Ottawa's
1988 apology and compensation to Japanese-Canadians for interning them and
confiscating their property during the Second World War.

Since those actions
had been based on the basis of race, Canada's Chinese community felt the
cases were similar and deserved similar treatment.

In 1994,
Chinese-Canadians sought redress from Ottawa,
but were rebuffed by then multicultural Minister Sheila Finestone
who reportedly told the group that Canada “cannot rewrite
history.”

Despite their
disappointment, activists journeyed on. In 2001, they took their case to the
United Nations World Conference on Racism, Xenophobia and Other Related
Intolerances in South Africa.
Again they asked Canada
for an apology and got none.

Another blow to
their case came in 2002 when a Ontario Superior Court
judge struck down a class-action lawsuit on behalf of surviving immigrants,
ruling that modern remedies can't be applied to historical laws.

The group, made up
of nearly 4,400 survivors and descendants, sought $1.2 billion in compensation
and a formal apology. (The lawsuit claimed that between 1885
and 1923 Canada collected $23 million in head taxes, which equals about $1.2
billion today.)

State-sanctioned
discrimination against Chinese immigrants was not limited to the head tax. They
were unable to own property and had limited occupational choices.

The
Chinese-Canadian community has persevered and continues to make significant
contributions to Canada.
An apology for past wrongs is welcomed.

Freelance columnist
Evelyn Myrie lives in Hamilton. She is co-chair of the Hamilton
Black History Committee.

http://www.hamiltonspectator.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=hamilton/

Layout/Article_PrintFriendly&c=Article&cid=1145225412210

http://www.hamiltonspectator.com/pdfs/20060417/A15.pdf

CANADA'S GOVERNMENT MAINTAINS STANCE
But UN Report Recommends It Pay Reparations
April 2-15, 2004 — Doudou Diene, the UN special rapporteur on racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, recently spent 10 days in Canada and submitted a UN draft report recommending Canada consider paying reparations for the head tax once levied against Chinese immigrants. The government's response to the UN recommendations was the same as it has been for the last ten years: No.  Click
for More.



CANADIANS CALL UPON OTTAWA TO REDRESS CHINESE FOLLOWING NEW ZEALAND APOLOGY
February 8, 2002   Edmonton & Montreal
— In anticipation of a formal apology by New Zealand's Government to its own Chinese on February 12th, members of Canada's Chinese Head Tax & Redress (HTEA) Committee in Edmonton and organizers in Montreal called upon Ottawa to negotiate directly with families who paid extortionate Chinese “head taxes” from 1885-1923 and faced exclusionary laws until the late 1960s. The New Zealand Government is expected to apologize for imposing “poll taxes” and other discriminatory laws against its Chinese on the Lunar New Year.  Click
for More.

For reference – please check
http://www.asian.ca/redress/index.html

Silver Star IS multicultural behind the scenes…. + Dummy Gelunde jumping

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Silver Star IS multicultural behind the scenes…. + Dummy Galunga-sprunging


Trevor is the first Caribbean-Canadian professional ski-patroller I have ever met.  Born in Canada, like myself – we had a bonding moment – photo Deb Martin.

There are Chinese-Australians speaking with Aussie accents in the Ski Dazzle retail store.  There is a Scottish-Canadian Ski Tour partner.  There is a Caribbean-Canadian ski patroller.  There is a bavarian style Beiregarten selling Mexican Corona beer.  And I have just discovered there is a Scottish Highland piping and dancing summer program called Piping Hot Summer Drummer.

I can't believe that I have skiied 3 days in a row. My body is sore and aching, I am exhausted. But I couldn't pass up the Easter Weekend Ski Pass special for $50. I arrived in Vernon BC, late on Friday afternoon. I skiied Saturday, Sunday and now Monday.


The last time I skiied Silver Star had been in 1977, when I was still 16 years old. The resort has changed, and grown HUGE. My body has changed and I can't do the same ski ballet or freestyle tricks that I used to. My body is exhausted.
The sun was shining over Kalamalka Lake when I woke up this morning, and I knew I wanted to get one more day of skiing in. The two previous days had snowed a lot, with only brief periods of sunshine. I knew that I really wanted to go home with “skiier tan.”


I skiied on my own, disappointed that there were no complimentary tour guides available. I had taken a tour on Saturday afternoon, and had met a wonderful man named David Todd, who not only had been born in Glasgow, but was a friend of my girlfriend's parents.
I skiied green and blue runs, avoiding the black diamond expert runs. My thighs, arms and ab muscles all were sore, with each big bounce on the snow.


Throughout the day, I met many people vacationing at Silver Star, or who now lived in Greater Vernon.  I met a couple originally from Czechoslovakia, moving to Canada in 1980.  I met a woman who is originally Swiss, and who married a Canadian.  She told me that they have lived all around the world, but always came back to Vernon for holidays, and now live near Kalamalka Lake.  Their 12 year old daughter speaks four languages.


Deb and I stand in front of the Silver Star ski trail map.  I am wearing my Easter Egg colours – photo Pat Martin

My girlfriend and her mother came up to Silver Star to meet me for lunch, as I called it a day and put my skis away. After lunch specials from the Town Hall restaurant, we walked around the Victoria styled village, and poked around in the shops. I bought about 10 wool and fleece hats for $2 each, marked down from $21 to $45. Many of them were junior sized. Boy… my nephew is going to like the hats that Uncle Todd will be giving to him.
The three sales women at the counter were all from Australia, even the Chinese girl all spoke with Aussie accents.

I also met a Ski patroller named Trevor.  Trevor described his heritage as West Indian from the Caribbean, even though he was born in Canada.  “Just like the Jamaican boblsed team!” he exclaimed.
I called him the first Caribbean ski patroller I have ever met! 


David Todd is a Glasgow born Scot, who came to Canada 30 years ago.  We met on the Saturday, when I took a Ski partners tour with him.  We hit it off immediately and had a great time.  He and his wife, even saw me on television being interviewed about Gung Haggis Fat Choy, my Robbie Burns Chinese New Year dinner event.  Next year, we should have one in Vernon – photo Deb Martin

We took a drive to see all the individual homes that have been built in the area, then walked by the skating pond, and the Tube riding centre. Here we saw the Tube Town staff putting the final touches to their entry for the Dummy Gelunde jumping contest. It was a wooden replica of a John Deere bulldozer, set on skis. The driver's body was stuffed with hay, and was named after the “boss” of Tube Town.


This is Tube Town -home to ice-skating and inner tubing at Silver Star.  The staff made a John Deere wooden tractor and named it “Deere Jon” because their boss is named Jon – photo Todd Wong

On the last day of each ski season, Silver Start invites all its different departments, and businesses in the community to create a entry for this special race. Many other ski resorts have contests where people have to ski over/ or jump over a pond. In this case, they create a contraption on skis that includes a “dummy.” There are 3 categories that are judged: 1) Best Dressed; 2) Biggest Air; 3) Best crash.
It was a great event to watch. All the businesses and departments had shut down early, so everybody could participate and watch. It was a really good community atmosphere.

The MC announcer was Heather McLellan, who does the Events at Silver Star, and who also happens to be former Canadian ski champion Rob Boyd's sister. Heather did a great job explaining the event, and describing each entry and the department/ business that entered.
There was one entry with a snowman sitting on a toilet, mounted on skis.
There was an entry with “Queen Kong” sitting in a tri-plane.
There was an entry with “Aung Gladys”, a dummy in a racer's tuck position.
Tomorrow I will post pictures, and describe more of the event.

MULTICULTURAL SKIING at Silver Star, Vernon BC

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MULTICULTURAL SKIING AT SILVER STAR, VERNON BC.



“3 Skiing Amigos”: Jeff, Francisco and Todd.

“This is multicultural skiing, I like it!” declared Francisco Carreon Argudin. I looked at him puzzled. I didn't see anything mulicultural about spring skiing at Silver Star Resort, just north of Vernon BC.
It was Easter Sunday, and we were sitting in the “Bieregarten” on the main stroll of Silver Star Village, eating our Steak Sandwich lunch specials and drinking beer.

“What's multicultural about skiing?” I ask.
They look at me in disbelief, like I missed the punch line of a joke.
“We're multicultural!” They exclaim.
“Oh, yeah…. I forgot about that,” I sheepishly reply.


We were drinking Corona beer because Francisco bought them and he is originally from Mexico, with
Mexican and Italian heritage. Our mutual friend is Jeff Chiba Stearns,
the animator/film producer of “What Are You Anyways?” Jeff describes
himself as hapa – Half Japanese, and Half Euro-mutt. I am 5th
generation Chinese-Canadian.


We have a great day skiing. Jeff is an ex-competitive snow boarder. He had also been part of a demonstration team that used to tour the province. He first learned to board when he was 13, and followed around a 39 year old who wanted somebody to board with.
“That's how you become good,” he explains to “Paco” (Francisco's nick name). “You have to ski with people who are better than you.” It is Paco's 4th time ever on a snow board.
“There was nobody to ski with in Mexico,” Paco replies.



Francesco (Paco) and Jeff Chiba Stearns – all ready to ride! – photo Todd Wong

Jeff and Paco, had driven up from Kelowna to ski with me. I had bought the $50 Easter Weekend Ski Pass, and promised to buy them lunch if they changed their plans from skiing Big White, to coming to Silver Star. The weather was a mix up snow. clouds and sunny breaks, and had dumped another 11 cm overnight. Chances were that with Big White's high altitude and penchant for fog and cloud cover, it would have been “Big White Out,” at least that was what my ski tour guide friends had assured me on Saturday afternoon.


We have a great day of Spring skiing. The snow is light. Jeff and I ski through the glades, and amongst the trees. It's great fun, having somebody good to ski with. Paco makes his way down the green runs with us, as we encourage him, and coax him onto some blue runs. We go visit the terrain park, and watch Jeff do a 360 in the air, taking good air off the jump.
Friends, good snow, visit to the Bieregarten…. what more can you ask for?
“

How about a good soak in the hot tub?  Saturday night had a great sunset.  This was the view from the deck over the hot tub.


Sunset over Kalamalka Lake – almost the same view from the hot tub below the deck – photo Todd Wong

Meeting for all head-tax payers, spouses, descendants and supporters – April 19 – SUCCESS Choi Hall

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Meeting for all head-tax payers, spouses, descendants and supporters – April 19 – SUCCESS Choi Hall

The following message is from Sid Tan, a leading advocate for Chinese Canadian head tax redress:

The BC Coalition is holding a meeting at 7:00 pm on Wednesday April 19,
2006 at SUCCESS Choi Hall (28 W. Pender, Vancouver) for head-tax payers,
spouses, descendants and supporters…..

Due to the government consultations at 7:00
pm on April 21 at the Gateway Theatre in Richmond (6500 Gilbert Road), our
meeting on April 19 will provide updates and information. It is hoped head-tax
families will discuss and prepare for the April 21 meeting when the
government
wants to hear from them.

To this end, the BC Coalition, with the assistance of ACCESS, will be
holding
a media briefing at 10:30 am on Monday April 17 at 7680 River Road (one
block
southwest of Cambie and No. 3 Road, Richmond) to promote the meeting
for head-
tax families as noted above. The venue is provided by Hanson Lau Travel
and
many of you will know he has been a redress champion from the
beginning.

We need everyone's help to get as many people out as we can for the
Wednesday
meeting. If you wish to volunteer (meeting and greeting, help give and
take
information, setting up chairs at 5:30 pm and tearing down), please
contact
Harvey Lee email: or me so we can co-ordinate.


For the time being, pass the Wednesday April 19 SUCCESS meeting to your
networks judiciously. We do want the media at our briefing and this is
the
news we have and hope they cover.

Media Advisory – April 16, 2006

For Immediate Release

Vancouver BC –

The BC Coalition of Head Tax Payers, Spouses and
Descendants
is calling for a meeting of head-tax payer families and their
supporters to
prepare for the federal government consultations on Chinese head-tax
redress
in Richmond on April 21, 2006. 

The government is moving quickly on the
issue.


Suggested quote:
“Redress will lose much of its meaning if there are no surviving
head-tax
payers and spouses to receive it,” states Havey Lee, a BC Coalition
spokesperson and son of a head-tax payer.

 “The government is providing
an
opportunity for head-tax payer families to voice their concerns. The BC
Coalition appreciates this and will move swiftly to assist as best we
can
towards a just and honourable redress.”


Skiing at Silver Star… my first time skiing in Vernon since 1977

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Skiing at Silver Star… my first time skiing in Vernon since 1977


Me at Silver Star, 29 years after my last time skiing on the mountain – photo Jeff Chiba Stearns

Hey… I took a ski tour of Silver Star mountain.  And my guide was speaking with a Scots accent. I asked him if he was from Glasgow, and his mouth dropped in amazement. He asked how I knew that. I showed him my business card. And he exclaimed, “I've seen you interviewed on TV!”

And that's not all…. his last name is Todd – David Todd.
And there's more… he is a good friend for my girlfriend's parents who live here in Vernon.
Oh… It's a small world after all….

David and I have a great time skiing. He shows me the mountain, all its ins and outs, as well as how the resort and the accomodations have been developing. It's a mighty big change since I last skiied at Silverstar back in 1977.
We go down mostly Blue Square intermediate runs. It is my first day of the season, and his last day of the season, as Silver Star closes after Easter Weekend.

After the runs, we go to Long John's Pub in the Village, to meet his friends. It's a great time, talking about the Gung Haggis Fat Choy Robbie Burns Chinese New Year dinner event that I organize in Vancouver. David says that his wife saw my tv interview and afterwards said, “If we were in Vancouver, I'd go to that!”

“Next January, we can have a Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner in Vernon,” I tell David Todd.

“Sorry I can't come,” he deadpans, “My wife and I don't hang out with Scots people.”

David and I bonded immediately after we met. We had a great day of skiing, exchanging jokes and stories.

“How did you know my last name was Todd, it only says David on my name tag,” he asks me.

“I read it on your ski pass, which was sticking out of your jacket. I'm a clever one. Clever like a fox,” I reply. He laughs and our conversation turns to the origins of the name Todd, which according to Baby Name books, means “Fox, in Old English.”

“How did you come by the name of Todd,” he asks.
“Och… I was named after a sea captain, who sailed between Hong Kong and Singapore. Captain Ronald Todd, was a friend of my auntie's husband in Hong Kong.”

“I've never knew that Todd was a Scottish name,” I say. “I've never seen a Todd tartan.”

“It's a branch of the Gordons,” David explains. “We wear the Gordon tartan.”


David Todd and Todd Wong, the first born in Glasgow and Canadian for past 30 years, the second born in Canada, and faux-Scots for the past 14 years – photo Deb Martin

In Long John's pub, David's friends enjoy the stories…. Joanne loves it. This exhuberant blonde woman exclaims that she may be more Asian than me, after I tell her that I am 5th generation Chinese-Canadian. It turns out that her grandmother was part Mongolian, and she was born with a Mongolian birth mark – which she still has.

“Great,” I say…. “You will have to come to the Vernon Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner and show everyone,” I joke.
Turns out that Joanne also has a Japanese Uncle, who married into this family of Finns, on her grandmother's side. We talk about the Japanese internment, and my involvement with the Save Kogawa House committee.

Don and Brett are their friends who are also sitting with us. Brett explains that he grew up on Vancouver Island, and had friends who were the Yamada's. We talk about how Coldstream Ranch was run by Japanese after the war.
These are great people, and I am glad I met them! They are truly wonderful ambassadors for Silver Star and Vernon.

Oh…. what was the skiing like?
Spring skiing at Silverstar in April. Sounds beautiful….
I am staying at a lakeside home on beautiful Kalamalka Lake, this weekend. just south of Vernon BC. There is a $50 ski pass for the entire Easter weekend. Sounds like a great deal….

Fresh snow fell over night, 8 cm! Sounds divine….
When I arrived on the peak at 10am, the sun was peaking through the clouds. I could see all the way to Kalamalka Lake. It was beautiful. I phoned my girlfriend who was still at the lakeside home. But the mountain temperature dropped to minus 11 degrees celsius last night freezing the snow pack. The midmountain has a bit of crud, and its a bit sticky at the bottom by the afternoon.

I was skiing Silverstar. One of the finest ski resorts in BC.

I had skiied here in the early 1970's. My parents would take me and my brother out of school for a week, to go to Vernon and ski Silverstar for a week. Lucky boys we were. We really learned how to ski well, as 10 to 12 year olds. Amazing what a week's worth of ski lessons can do.
When I was in grade six. I broke my leg – fractured left fibula. It was on my way to my Monday morning ski lesson. Thank goodness I had been able to ski on the Sunday. But the next 3 days were spent in the Vernon Jubilee Hospital.

Hospital miniature televisions were brand new back in 1972, and our family friend Kim Mah had the contracts for BC hospitals. Uncle Kim just happened to be in Vernon, and he gifted me with one. Wow!!!

The last time we went to Silverstar was in 1977. I was still 16, and my brother was 15. We burned up the ski hill with freestyle moves, on the moguls, and on the gentle slopes with ballet tricks. Wayne Wong was HOT STUFF back then. Freestyle (now called Free Riding) was still a pioneering sport. We could do tip rolls, cross-overs, jump-overs, 360 arials and spread eagles off bumps and jumps.
That was 29 years ago.

Today, Snowboards are where the action is. Skis went through the parabolic revolution. I have a pair of Rossignol Bandit's that I bought in 2002.  My boots are Salomon 1040's, which I bought in 2003 – but I didn't get a chance to use them until Dec 2004, because I severely sprained my ankle skating through the ice at Burnaby Lake.  NEVER go skating on a lake that is not at least 6 inches thick!

Joy of Words, An Evening of Readings and Music for Kogawa House, April 25th

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imageimageimageimage

  
PSA – UPCOMING COMMUNITY EVENT

What:   The Joy of Words, An Evening of Readings and Music
with Award-Winning Canadian Author Joy Kogawa


When:   Tuesday, April 25, 2006


Time:   7:30 to 9:00 pm


Where:  Christ Church Cathedral, 690 Burrard Street, Vancouver


Price:  Admission by donation

 

TLC The Land Conservancy of British
Columbia is pleased to host an evening of readings and music with
internationally recognized author Joy Kogawa on Tuesday, April 25, from 7:30 to
9:00 pm. Kogawa will read from her first novel, Obasan, recently re-released as a
Penguin Classic and listed as one of the “100 Most Important Canadian Books
Ever Written” in The Literary Review of
Canada in November 2005. Along with Joy, special celebrity guests will read
their favourite selections from the list.

Kogawa’s Obasan, published in 1981, describes
through the eyes of a young girl the life of her family before, during and
after the Japanese Canadian internment in 1942 and features Kogawa’s childhood
home. The struggle of the Japanese Canadian community for justice culminating
in the 1988 redress settlement is the subject of Emily Kato.

Over the years, Kogawa's
childhood home has become a symbol of lost hope and happiness and a central
image in her writings. Located in the Marpole neighbourhood of Vancouver, the
historic Joy Kogawa House is now threatened with demolition.

This event is part of TLC’s fundraising campaign to save
the house as a cultural landmark for all Canadians. Once protected, the house
will be a used as a writing retreat, enabling new writers to create works
focusing on human rights issues. It will also be open for public and school
tours to educate people about
the Japanese Canadian experience during World War II.