Asian Canadian Culture Online Project: 
now on video – historic Nov 26 Head Tax redress protest


Check out the ASIAN CANADIAN Culture Online Project.  There is a
whole collection of stories, art projects etc created by Asian Canadian
youth. 

I was really surprised to discover a video of the Nov 26 protest,
against the ACE program proposed by the Liberal Government and the
National Congress of Chinese Canadians – which called for NO APOLOGY
and NO Compensation – only Acknowledgement, Commemoration and Education.

Presently the Conservative government is consulting Chinese Canadians
across the country and promising Apology, Comensation for head tax
payers and spouses.  Hopefully head tax sons and daughters will
not be Excluded from collecting for their predeceased fathers and
mothers who paid the head tax but who did not live long enough for
Apology and Compensation.

Check out this video – if you look and listen carefully, you will see
me holding a megaphone and leading chants of “Apology Now,” “We want
Head Tax Payer Redress”, and even “NCCC – doesn's speak for me!”

Calling for a Just and Honourable Redress

By Alex Mah
Vancouver, British Columbia

picture:  PM Paul Martin arrives amidst protestors in Vancouver Chinatown

Film Synopsis

On November 26, 2005, government compliant groups met at the Chinese
Cultural Centre in Vancouver to put forward a “no apology, no compensation”
agreement-in-principle between the National Congress of Chinese Canadians
and the Liberal federal government represented by Multiculturalism Minister
Raymond Chan.

Individuals and community groups, representing head-tax payers, their
spouses, descendants and supporters organized a leafletting and information
line at the conference and subsequent photo opportunity attended by Prime
Minister Paul Martin at the SUCCESS complex in Chinatown.

The shorter online version is from a longer report produced by the Saltwater
City Television Collective and broadcast on the Shaw community channel in
Greater Vancouver and Fraser Valley. Thanks to Karin Lee, Donna Lee and Jane
Kokan for use of video footage.

 
 

Check more of the great stuff from the Asian Canadian Culture Online Project:

This is a special anthology of written stories by or about Asian Canadian youth.

View Anthologies

This unique short video collection by or about Asian Canadian youth also includes a showcase of talented video artists.

View Youth Videos

These selected short essays about contemporary history and personal experience are reflective of Asian Canadian communities.

View Essays

Toronto Sun: Recalling  two who were heroes

(story of Kew Dock Yip and Irving Himel who launched appeal of Exclusion Act)

This
is a good story about how the 1923 Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed
on May 14th, 1947.   This would be a good annual celebration
for Chinese Canadians annually.  I will mark it on my calendar for
next year which will be the 60th anniversary.  Chinese immigration
was still heavily restricted until 1967, but it started the
reunification of families in Chinese Canadian families.



My
brother's older sister was born in Canada, but went to live with
friends in Hong Kong in 1926, because grandfather's business went
through some tough times.  She married a man in Hong Kong, and was
unable to come back to Canada until after the repeal of the Exclusion
Act.  She was then able to bring her 6 children to Canada in the
1950's.  My cousins are great, and  I consider them to be 3rd
generation Canadians like myself because our parents were born in
Canada, and our Grandfather came to Canada when he was 16 years old in
1882.  Some of them have made immeasurable contributions to
Vancouver and Canadian society and I consider them my role models.

Recalling two who were
heroes

Pair helped kill Chinese Exclusion
Act

By BRODIE FENLON, TORONTO
SUN

There was no celebration this week to mark the
59th anniversary of the death of legislation that barred Chinese
immigrants from Canada.

Nor
was there a tribute to the two Toronto lawyers who played a key role
in the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act on May 14, 1947.

Yet
every Chinese immigrant in Canada owes a debt of gratitude to Kew Dock
Yip and Irving Himel, two lawyers who fought
and lobbied the Ottawa to amend a law that had all but barred Chinese
immigrants since 1923.

“All the new Chinese who are here today don't
know the history,” said Alfie Yip, 60, an
electrical engineer and son of the late Dock Yip. “Both of them were
social crusaders.”

At
the time, Himel was already a lawyer and a
civil rights crusader. Dock Yip was a law student at Osgoode Hall on his way to becoming
Canada's first lawyer of
Chinese descent. Both had experienced discrimination, Himel as a Jew.

They were also reservists with the Queen's Own
Rifles of Canada and were sharing a tent in Niagara in the early 1940s when the plan to change
the law was hatched, Alfie said.

The
Chinese Immigration Act of 1923 was passed by the Liberal government of
William Lyon Mackenzie King.

It
barred all Chinese immigrants from landing in Canada
except for a few special cases and was enacted on July 1, Dominion Day,
which became known in the Chinese community as “Humiliation Day.”
Instantly, families were divided, some forever.

The
act replaced the hated Chinese head tax, a toll on Chinese immigrants
that began in 1885 at $50 and peaked at $500 in 1904.

Himel and Yip organized a
committee of 20 people from Ontario and B.C. in 1945. They
gathered petitions and travelled to Ottawa to lobby
the government directly. The act was repealed two years later — the
same year Himel helped found the Canadian
Civil Liberties Association.

“It
was an important contribution to a really hideous thing in Canadian
history,” said Toronto lawyer Bert Raphael, a friend
of Himel's until his death in July 2001. He
and Yip died within a week of each other.

“Too often in this country, we forget our
heroes,” Raphael said.

http://torontosun.com/News/Chinese/2006/05/17/pf-1584162.html

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