Saltwater City TV:  
See how the head tax redress protest got started in Vancouver


Paul Martin walks past angry protestors drowned out by a friendly Lion Dancer when he 
arrived to sign the Agreement-in-Principle for "No Apology" and "No Compensation" as 
the first part of $2.5 Million for Acknowledgement, Commemoration and Education."
Little did he know that Chinese Canadians really wanted "Apology, Compensation and 
Education" - photo Harvey Lee

It was November 26, 2005 when Prime Minister Paul Martin came to Vancouver to sign the 
Agreement-In-Principle with the National Congress of Chinese Canadians at the SUCCESS 
building in Vancouver's Chinatown.

Chinese Canadians came from throughout the Vancouver Lower Mainland to combine their
voices in protest against an "agreement" that contained pre-conditional clauses of "No Apology"
and "No Compensation."

Saltwater City film crews were there to record the action.
Watch Saltwater City on on Shaw cable 4 in Greater Vancouver and Fraser Valley. 
1:00pm Sunday Jan. 15
10:30pm Monday Jan. 16
2:30pm Thursday Jan. 19
11:30am Saturday Jan. 21

See Chinese Canadian seniors from leafletting and information
line in action.

See a music video by the Running Dog Lackeys produced by the 
Nugget Peak Railway Collective celebrating Gim Wong's Ride for Redress. 

See a short video with Pierre Berton and Gim Wong's presentation from 
the Last Spike event Nov. 7, 2003. 

“Our Story” head tax sound bites and turntable hip hop by No Luck Club



Trevor Chan, the laptop samplist, of No Luck Club has created a mashup called “Our Story.”


It address the head tax issue and 62 years or legislated
racism.   It is an amazing aural soundscape that splices
together historical and documentary sound bites including quotes from Martin Luther King Jr.  The juxtaposition of positive and negative statements for racial equlality is striking.

January 15th is Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the United States.  This is a great way to celebrate racial equality and justice for all.

Listen to such quotes as:



“We don't want Chinamen in Canada.  This is a white man's country and white men will keep it.”



“The people of Canada do not wish to make a fundamental alteration to the character of our population”



“Large scale immigration from the Orient would change the fundamental composition of the population the  of Canada”



“He's telling us what he wants us to know.  That's his story not our story.”



“The government passed a special
legisalation which places a tax of $50 on every Chinese entering the
country.  The Head tax was raised to $100 and eventually in 1903
to $500.”



“We have suffered political
oppression, economic exploitation and social degradation.  The
government has failed us.  You can't deny that.”



Vancouver seethed with racial hatred.  An Anti-Asiatic league was formed.”

“You know how I want to think of myself – as a human being.”



Trevor has given me permission to post it.

Listen to it on Dogma Radio

Gim Wong's “Ride for Redress” featured in Vancouver Sun head tax story

I have known Gim Wong for a few years.  He served in the Canadian
Armed Forces during WW2 when Canadians of Chinese ancestry were
unwanted soldiers, and couldn't vote in the land of their birth. 
Gim is a sweetheart of a man, which is why it is hard to believe that
he would ride a motorcycle across Canada to draw attention to redress
for Canada's infamous head tax and exclusion act.

This past summer Gim drove from Victoria BC to Ottawa ON, to try to
meet with Prime Minister Paul Martin. Gim met head tax descendants
across the country and also with NDP leader Jack Layton.  But
sadly the PMO did not respond to any requests for a meeting.  When
the Paul Martin came to Vancouver to sign the ACE Agreement in
Principle, aggreeing to No Apology, and No Compensation to head tax
survivors, spouses and descendants – Wong was in the audience. 
But he still didn't meet with the Prime Minister.  Click on my
stories about Gim Wong's Ride for Redress

Gim's story is also featured in the Karen Cho documentary IN THE SHADOW OF GOLD MOUNTAIN which was recently shown on CBC Newsworld “Rough Cuts” on January 3 and 7th. 

Gim Wong's motorcycle diaries

Seeking an apology for the notorious head tax

Proud
that he still fits into his RCAF uniform,
Gim Foon Wong, 83, rode his
motorcycle to Ottawa to seek redress for the head tax.

Photograph by : Ian Smith, Vancouver Sun

It was, he admits, a truly nutty idea. Last summer, Gim Foon Wong
decided, with history weighing on his mind, that he'd ride his
motorcycle from Victoria to Ottawa to have a chat with the prime
Minister. He was a spry 82 and weighed just under 60 kg the day he
mounted his 315-kg Honda Goldwing and started heading for the nation's
political capital.

Now, when an octogenarian straps on his
motorcycle boots and travels thousands of kilometres across the country
to Parliament Hill on his hog, one too heavy for him to right when it
falls over, one might think the politicians might want to know what was
on his mind.

Some did take an interest.

New Democratic
Party leader Jack Layton, for example, met with Wong on Canada Day,
when he roared into the capital decked out in his Second World War
uniform with two carefully polished service medals pinned over his
heart. Toronto Mayor David Miller was moved enough by the old man's
trek to write Wong a letter of commendation that now sits on a shelf in
his modest home in Burnaby.

Prime Minister Paul Martin? Well, that was another story.

“I
got within 15 feet of him,” says Wong, shaking his head ruefully at the
memory of his one-man effort to penetrate the prime ministerial bubble.
“We let his office know I was coming. But the RCMP pounced on me. I
never got to meet Paul Martin.”

Read the rest if the story Gim Wong's motorcycle diaries