Head Tax Redress: Gabriel Yiu and Raymond Chan speak on CBC Radio Early Edition


Gabriel Yiu and Minister of State (Multiculturalism) Raymond Chan were
both interviewed on CBC Radio Early Edition this morning by host Rick Cluff.  They
spoke about the current head tax issues.  My comments are in
italics.

You can hear the interview on-line
http://www.cbc.ca/bc/story/bc_chan-head-tax20051128.html

Gabriel Yiu said the following:


– Chinese Canadian community response
so far is one-sided. On Sat, Fairchild Radio & Channel M's
open-line shows (3 hours), not a single caller supported Liberal's
handling of the matter. 

(The issue has actually been very hot in the Chinese media for the past
2 weeks – Mainstream media has been slow to explore in-depth issues or
to give more than a wire story except CBC Radio.)

– On Sunday,  Sing Tao (page A2),
one of its headlines said “Martin gives political promise, will
apologize to Chinese if elected”. 

(This headline is translated
from the Chinese – and was attributed to NCCC chair Ping Tan, who said
this to the NCCC conference.  The Liberal position is that an
acknowledgment is as close to an apology as Chinese Canadians will
get.  Martin is clearly politicizing the issue.  It has
already been debated in standing committees at parliament.  Only
the NDP and Bloc Quebecois debated against the language that the
Liberals and Conservatives are trying to ram through as Bill C-333 put
forward by Conservative MPs Inky Mark and Bev Oda.  NDP MP
Margaret Mitchell
first tried to resolve head tax issues in the 1980’s.)

– CCNC has been working on the Headtax
Redress for over 20 years and it represents over 4000 Headtax payers
and they've been shut out of the government settlement.

(Chinese Canadian National Council
formed after the 1979 W5 issue when it was recognized that a national
voice for Chinese Canadians was needed. CCNC was also the organization
that started registering headtax payers and descendants since
1984.  The NCCC has not claimed that they have registered any head
tax payers.)

Raymond Chan basically attacked Gabriel Yiu next stating:


– Gabriel Yiu is not only a commentator, he is a NDP
 candidate

(FACT: Gabriel Yiu has been a Chinese
media commentor for many years and has also contributed to mainstream
media such as the Vancouver Sun, CBC Radio, Ming Pao and many others. Yiu is NOT a candidate in the upcoming
federal election, but did run in the provincial election as an NDP
candidate – same colour as Ujal Dosanjh before he joined the federal
Liberals to become a Senior Cabinet minister compared to Chan’s junior
portfolio.)

– Gabriel Yiu is misleading the community
(How is presenting the views of the
community misleading?  Chan must be desperate to resort to
personal attacks rather than to feature the facts).


– Chan denied any community opposition and said the settlement is well represented by a great many Chinese organizations

Chan says the Chinese Community has never come together like this
before: 
WRONG! 
In 1979, Chinese ad-hoc committees sprouted up across Canada to protest
CTV's W-5 program which aired a misleading story called “Campus
Giveaway.” It was the CCNC that grew out of this unified movement.


Unfortunately Gabriel Yiu did not get a chance to dispute Raymond
Chan's statements.  Chan repeatedly said that Gabriel Yiu was
“lying” and “misleading the public” when it was clearly  Raymond
Chan who is out of touch with the community and needs to take Chinese
Canadian history lessons.  I recommend Paul Yee's “Struggle and Hope:
The Story of Chinese Canadians.” It's a good easy read written for
young adults.


You can find my name listed on the bottom of page 85 just
above Raymond Chan's in the Chronology: The Chinese in Canada. 
Raymond is listed for being an MP appointed to Secretary of State for
Asia Pacific Affairs whereas I am listed for being awarded the Simon
Fraser University Terry Fox Gold Medal for my personal battle with
cancer and for efforts to create racial harmony.

Please ask CBC Radio to present more in depth stories on Head Tax
Issues where the interviews can clarify their positions and also
include the actual descendants of head tax payers – not just the more
recent immigrants of the “Chinese community”. 

The CBC Radio Early Edition Talk Back phone number is 604-662-6690.

Globe & Mail: Jan Wong writes on Chinese head tax
and Grandpa Wong

I first met Jan Wong in Beijing in October 1993.  I
found her at her Globe & Mail Beijing bureau chief office, and we
talked about Terry Fox, Canada, her American husband, Svend Robinson
getting kicked out of China – and me speaking at the Terry Fox Run at
the Canadian embassy in Beijing.  Jan is very cool.  She has
written the books Jan Wong in China and Red China Blues, describing her
time as the first Canadian foreign student in Communist China.

The following is her story in the Globe & Mail.

“Give
the money to us” – Who gets the $2.5 Million federal payout announced
this week for Chinese Canadians.  Jan Wong reports on a taxing
question.

Globe & Mail

By JAN WONG

Saturday, November 26, 2005 Page M2

What would Grandpa Wong think?

Last week, the National
Congress of Chinese Canadians thought it had a good news story. In the
wake of similar federal agreements with the Italian and Ukrainian
communities, the congress triumphantly announced it had beaten out two
other Toronto-based organizations to negotiate a $12.5-million payout
from Ottawa for the head tax once levied on Chinese immigrants when
they entered the country.

But then reporters began asking awkward questions. Why did the deal
exclude an apology? Why was there no compensation to those who paid the
head tax? And why, on the eve of a federal election, was so much money
going to a single organization that sent out squads of volunteers to
campaign for a Liberal candidate running in Toronto's Chinatown in the
last election?

Ping Tan, a Toronto lawyer who heads the NCCC, started getting
tetchy. He publicly scolded Linda Tse, a Fairchild Television
correspondent, when she asked several pointed questions at his press
conference. “You don't ask questions like that,” he snapped.

Toronto First Radio, a Chinese-language station with a popular
suppertime call-in show, never got invited to the press conference in
the first place.

No wonder. A few weeks earlier, the host of the show, Simon Li, had
posed this loaded question to listeners: Do you think this is a
sponsorship scandal in the Chinese-Canadian community? “A majority of
callers said the only difference is it is taking place in the Chinese
community, not Quebec,” says Mr. Li, 25.

One major difference is that no one is suggesting that any criminal
conduct has occurred. It's a harsh comment, meant to reflect concerns
about Liberals favouring their supporters, but it demonstrates how
divisive the issue of head-tax redress has become among Chinese
Canadians.

Further complicating matters, the government, which could fall as
early as Monday, this week downplayed any suggestion of a done deal
with the NCCC. A spokesman for Raymond Chan, multiculturalism minister,
said on Tuesday that his department was merely “reviewing” the
application from the organization.

But on Thursday, Mr. Chan did sign an agreement in principle with
Mr. Tan — for just $2.5-million. And a multiculturalism program under
his purview provided Mr. Tan's group with a $100,000 grant for airfare,
hotels and meals for a national conference this weekend in Vancouver to
discuss how to spend the money.

So far, Mr. Tan says, the group has no specific plans for the payout
money. But one thing is certain: It won't be used to compensate the
families of Chinese Canadians who paid the tax, in compliance with the
government's stipulation that no individual redress payments be made.

Officials with Mr. Chan's office, who say that the NCCC is the only
organization that actually applied for redress money, issued a press
release that included a list of dozens of community groups that support
the deal. But one organization listed — a Chinese-Canadian veterans
group called Army, Navy & Air Force Veterans in Canada —
disassociated itself from the congress, specifying it wants an apology
as part of the government's settlement.

Another group listed is, in fact, one of the toughest critics of the
deal — the Chinese Canadian National Council, which has lobbied since
1984 for direct head-tax redress. “We want something for the head-tax
payers and their families,” said Victor Wong, executive director, whose
group didn't apply for the federal money because it disagreed with the
government's conditions. He says the council plans to file an
injunction to stop the payment to the Congress, and stage protests
today in Chinatowns in Toronto, Montreal, Edmonton and Vancouver, where
Prime Minister Paul Martin is expected to meet with Mr. Tan and other
congress officials.

Mr. Tan hopes his organization will eventually see even more money.
“This is the initial funding,” he says. “We have an agreement to
negotiate for more.”

In this pre-election flurry of feel-good largesse, the federal
government bypassed the one group formed to represent the victims, the
Ontario Coalition of Chinese Head Tax Payers and Families. The group
has signed up 4,000 payers and their families since the 1980s. It
estimates that only a few hundred head-tax payers, at most, are still
alive.

Like the callers to Mr. Li's radio show, the head-tax coalition
alleges that another Liberal scandal is in the making. “They will
transfer $12.5-million of taxpayers' money to political cronies,” Susan
Eng, the coalition's co-chair, said at a press conference last week
before the lower amount became public.

Pressed at the time for specifics about cronyism, Ms. Eng came up
short. But at Mr. Chan's Liberal nomination meeting last Sunday in
Richmond, B.C., congress members and officials packed the hall,
including many who didn't live in the riding, according to several
witnesses.

So what would Grandpa Wong make of all this? He and other family
members of mine paid a total of $1,300 — about $23,600 in 2005
dollars, according to the Bank of Canada inflation calculator — to
enter Canada. Grandpa Wong and my grandmother each paid $500 in 1915.
My other grandmother, who arrived in 1902, paid a lower head tax, $100,
as did her stepson and daughter-in-law. Her husband, Grandpa Chong,
arrived in 1881, before Ottawa dreamed up the tax. One of about 9,000
coolies recruited to build the Canadian Pacific Railway, he paid a
different tax — after the last spike was driven in — to stay in
Canada and find a new job. But that's another story.

Canada discriminated against aboriginals, Japanese, Germans,
Italians and Ukrainians, to mention just a few. The government devised
regulations to keep out Africans, Indians, Jews and a host of other
non-Aryan types. But only the Chinese were singled out for a punitive
admission fee — and issued receipts. From 1885 to 1923, more than
82,000 Chinese immigrants to Canada paid an estimated $23-million to
the government. (In 1923, the head tax was replaced by the Chinese
Immigration Act, the Orwellian name for a law that barred virtually all
Chinese immigration until its repeal in 1947.)

My grandparents might have had a claim for redress, but they died
decades ago. Even if I wanted repayment of their $23,600, it would
probably work out to the price of three Starbucks lattes by the time I
finished divvying it up with my zillions of cousins, second cousins,
their children, and their children. The rest would go to lawyers and
accountants — oh, wait; we have a dozen of those in the family, too.
The point is, we're all here and flourishing; thank you, Canada. But I
can't and shouldn't speak for others.

Jack Chong, a retired postal sorter, has kept his father's $500 head-tax receipt, dated April 9, 1914, and numbered 87126.

“We want the government to say they were wrong, to apologize,” said
Mr. Chong, 73. “Why don't they give the money to us? Instead, they
throw the money to the Congress.”

For 91 years, Har Ying Lee's family has also kept her father's
head-tax certificate. Mrs. Lee, 69, said her father worked as a
laundryman, briefly returning home to marry and start a family.

The Chinese Immigration Act forced him to leave them behind when he
came back to Canada. Mrs. Lee said her father saw her once when she was
an infant, and not again until she was 22 and had arrived as a bride in
Canada. “My mother is still alive. She's 97,” said Mrs. Lee. “My father
told me it took him so long to come up with the head-tax money that he
hoped my mother would have a long life to get the money back. She wants
the head-tax money back. We need direct compensation from the
government.”

George Lau, a thin, energetic man, is a co-chair of the Ontario
coalition of head-tax payers. His father paid the head tax in 1924.
Now, at 74, Mr. Lau fears time is running out for redress. He points
out that Mr. Tan came to Canada from Malaysia as a student in 1968,
after the era of the head tax. “They were not impacted,” said Mr. Lau,
speaking of people like Mr. Tan. “They shouldn't be given sole
responsibility for handling this money.”

It
is totally irresponsible of your Government to empty the funds before
the Head Taxpayers and families even have the chance to seek justice.
We've been on their case for over 20 years and they’ve done zilch until
now. So why the sudden rush ?  If they’re going to throw
money out the window like that, at least take the time to hear out
those who directly suffered from 62 years of legislated racism.
Isn't that what these funds are all about ? Your Government must be
diligent & not just give the money out with no accountability. I
like to remind you in case you’ve forgotten that it is your
responsibility & one of the reasons you were elected into office to
begin with ! 


 
Our friend
& social justice activist, June Callwood said ‘to favour one group
selected by the Government is unacceptable. I haven't seen such
highhandedness for a very long time’ while she wonders ‘what are
they hiding?’ Tony Chan, ex-CBC broadcaster now broadcast prof/writer
said ‘This is worst than the W-5, ‘campus giveaway’ CTV program in
1979!’ If you remember the noise from the community back in ’79…that
was nothing compare to what you’ll be hearing this time around.    I've been getting overwhelming support from as far as Washington State
& MPs from B.C. but nothing from my local MP…That really pisses me off !
Again I ask you…”How can the Liberal Government negotiate with these
privileged and self-important members of so-called national group with
no historical/community understanding or connections to the issues at
stake?”   As
a direct descendant of a Chinese Head Tax payer, I want you & your
Government to know that I’m not interested in your ‘Guilt Money’&
empty political gestures. The irresponsible rush to pawn off this money
to The NCCC without any true representation of my community is
essentially what this money is & the message it carries. What I
want for my ancestors’ are sincere recognitions for their contributions
to this country & a meaningful apology to put their souls to rest.    You’ll be hearing from my wide circle loud & clear at the polls this coming election !    Regards, Kwok K. Gin      Trinity Spadina       M6G 1H8 Meena Wong     Vancouver Central    V6K 2S4   Thank
you all for your recent overwhelming solidarity. Please copy and paste
the letter into a new message and place your names under this list with
your riding, postal code & forward it to your MP (google them on
line). For Liberal MPs in BC: Vancouver Quadra Stephen Owen Owen.S@parl.gc.ca Vancouver Centre, Hedy Fry Fry.H@parl.gc.ca Vancouver Kingsway David Emerson Emerson.D@parl.gc.ca Vancouver South, Ujjal Dosanjh Dosanjh.U@parl.gc.ca Richmond, it is Raymond Chan Chan.R@parl.gc.ca Victoria, it is David Anderson Anderson.D@parl.gc.ca North Vancouver, it is Don Bell Bell.D@parl.gc.ca

Head Tax issue: Todd's letter to the editors of the Vancouver Sun

To Kirk LaPointe
Managing Editor, Vancouver Sun

Hello Kirk,

Thank you for taking seriously my comments about
the Sun's coverage of Canadian issues that just happen to have Asian
names and faces behind them, and not just to feature Asian faces at
Chinese New Year time.

I am a 5th generation Canadian, my
picture and activities have been featured in the Vancouver Sun many
times since 1993, for my Gung Haggis Fat Choy events, for being awarded
the SFU Terry Fox Gold Medal, and for speaking as a Terry's Team member
for the Terry Fox Run as a living cancer survivor.

I believe
that the Vancouver Sun can offer a different perspective to the Chinese
head tax issue.  I want to know what real community leaders such as Bob
Lee, Milton Wong, David YH Lui, Lori Fung, Roy Mah and Bev Nann have to
say.  Their pioneer forefathers all likely had to pay the head tax,
their families were isolated by the Chinese Exclusion  Act.  These
people have recieved the Order of Canada and or the Order of BC.

I want to hear from
architect Joe Wai, writer Wayson Choy, historian Jim Wong-Chu.  How
about “white” people that are important members of the Chinese
community such as Dr. Jan Walls or Dr. Edgar Wickberg.

Kevin, here is the link to my blog article postings on Chinese Canadian Head Tax redress
http://www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com/blog/ChineseHead
TaxissuesGimWongsRideforRedress

What does writer Joy Kogawa think about the Chinese head tax redress
issue.  Joy and Roy Miki both worked on the Japanese Canadian redress
campaign and both are listed in Almanac's 100 Greatest British
Columbians.

Here's a letter to me from Joy Kogawa below

Regards, Todd Wong

June
Callwood, Dr. Joseph Wong, Michele Landsberg, and many other people of
conscience have added their support to the Ontario Coalition of Chinese
Head Tax Payers and Families plus the Chinese Canadian National
Council. The strenuous efforts of these organizations to have the Head
Tax redress resolved in an honourable manner have thus far been
thwarted by the federal government.

Media Release: November 24, 2005  –  For Immediate Release

Government Bungling
Confuses Canadians on Chinese Head Tax/Exclusion Redress: 4,000 Head
Tax Payers and Families Call for a Just and Honourable Redress Now

Vancouver – The federal government is poised to sign an agreement with
the National Congress of Chinese Canadians (NCCC) that humiliates and
disrespects the few remaining Head Tax payers and their spouses. 
Community groups say the NCCC is not representative of the Chinese
Canadians calling on the government to engage in a genuine process of
redress and reconciliation.  Only good faith negotiations with
representatives for the last surviving Head Tax payers and spouses who
are in the 90's or older will bring about the long overdue
reconciliation and healing.

“We would all agree that Canada is a better country today because of
the legacy of the Japanese Canadian redress. In that light, we
respectfully request that the Prime Minister review the deliberations
taking place regarding Bill C-333 and re-engage in negotiations with
active participation of all Chinese Canadian communities,” said Grace
Eiko  Thomson of the National Association of Japanese
Canadians.  “Only a just and honourable settlement can bring about
a healing process leading to full participation and pride in Canadian
citizenship.”

Since 1984, over 4,000 Head Tax payers, spouses and families, each with
Head Tax certificate, registered with the Chinese Canadian National
Council (CCNC) to represent their claim to the Government.  The
CCNC was not consulted about the agreement because the government set
preconditions of “no apology” and “no compensation”. This was
unacceptable to those seeking direct individual acknowledgement,
recognition and a tax refund.

“Paul Martin is doing the same to the aboriginal community at the First
Minister   Conference: luring native elites and chiefs into
accepting a dollar cap for a Ten Year Plan without consultation with
grassroots groups and victims of residential schools,” said Bill Chu,
chairperson of Chinese Christians in Action and Canadians for
Reconciliation.  “It is shameful that a Chinese group (NCCC) with
little history of fighting for Head Tax redress bypassed consulting the
victims and is willing to accept whatever small funds offered with no
intent of paying the actual victims.”

“As Canadians, we should have the courage to face our past wrong-doings
including the imposition of head tax and the Chinese Exclusion
Act.  We should also urge our government to redress the head tax
payers and families,” said Thekla Lit, a human rights and peace
activist.  “Before anyone or group benefits from the money
established because of the injustice to Chinese pioneers, they have the
moral obligation to ensure the head tax payers, spouses and families
get their refund of head tax first.”

“The Chinese head tax redress has been dragged on for over a quarter of
a century.  We shouldn't rush to an unjust settlement because of a
upcoming election, said Gabriel Yiu, current affairs commentator. 
“By shutting out the Chinese Canadian National Council, who represents
over 4,000 redress claimants, the Liberal government is adding another
disgraceful chapter to our national history.”

“There is much anger and frustration at the federal government. 
Before his election to the Commons, current Multiculturalism Minister
Raymond Chan supported Head Tax payers, spouses and descendants at
Chinese Canadian National Council meetings,” said Sid Tan of the B. C.
Coalition of Head Tax Payers, Spouses and Descendants, director of CCNC
and a grandson of  a Head Tax payer.  “His proposed agreement
with the NCCC is unethical and humiliates the very people who overcame
the racist legislation to enable him to serve in public office.”

The B. C. Coalition of Head Tax Payers Spouses and Descendants are head
Tax payers, their surviving spouses, descendants and supporters. 
They are joined in their demand for a just and honourable redress now
by the Ontario Coalition of Head Tax Payers and Families, Chinese
Canadian National Council, Chinese Canadian Redress Alliance, the
Association of Chinese Canadians for Equality and Solidarity Society
and the Metro Toronto Chinese and South East Asian Legal Clinic.

Go to www.headtaxredress.org to sign the on-line petition to stop the
proposed agreement between the federal government and NCCC. 
Without proper consultation with the over 4000 Head Tax payers and
families registered with CCNC, any agreement on the on the Chinese Head
Tax/Exclusion redress and reconciliation will be unethical.

-30-

Sid Tan, co-ordinator  604-433-6169
B. C. Coalition of Head Tax Payers, Spouses and Descendants