Category Archives: Chinese Canadian History

Douglas Jung – Canada's first Chinese-Canadian MP recognized in Parliament

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Douglas Jung – Canada's first Chinese-Canadian MP recognized in Parliament

There were two statements in the House of Commons about Douglas Jung:
on June 8th by Jim Abbott (Conservative) and June 11th by
Meili Faille (BLOC). 

Victor Wong, executive director of the Chinese  Canadian National Council sent me the following information.

From Hansard: June 11, 2007

Douglas
Jung  

Ms.
Meili Faille (Vaudreuil-Soulanges, BQ):  

    Mr.
Speaker, yesterday was the 50th anniversary of the election of Douglas Jung,
the first Canadian of Chinese origin to be elected to the House of Commons for
the riding of Vancouver Centre.

    Every
step of Mr. Jung's career set a precedent in relations to improve racial
tension. Mr. Jung was the first member of Chinese origin to sit in the House of
Commons and to represent Canada
at the United Nations and he was also the first Chinese lawyer to argue before
the British Columbia Court of Appeals.

    This
anniversary gives us an opportunity to reflect on the contribution of
Mr. Jung and Canadians of Chinese origin of his generation who managed to
have the Chinese Exclusion Act repealed and who successfully advocated for the
creation of a special immigration program, inviting people of Chinese origin
who had entered Canada
illegally to come forward and have their status regularized.

    My
colleagues in the Bloc Québécois join with me in calling for this 50th
anniversary to continue to guide our actions toward harmonious relations
between parliamentarians of all origins.

*   *   *

http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?Pub=hansard&Language=E&Mode=1&Parl=39&Ses=1#OOB-2140066

  from Hansard: June 8, 2007

  Douglas
Jung

Mr.
Jim Abbott (Kootenay—Columbia, CPC):  

    Mr.
Speaker, 50 years ago on June 10, 1957,
Canada 's first Asian Canadian was
elected to Parliament. As a Conservative, Douglas Jung was nicknamed the
“Giant Killer” when he took out the Liberal minister of defence in
that election. It was just one milestone in his notable career in Canadian
public life.

    
Born in Victoria in 1924, the two term MP was
the first Chinese Canadian to argue a case before the B.C. Court of Appeal and
serve Canada
at the United Nations. Despite not being recognized as an official citizen of
Canada ,
Douglas Jung enlisted in the Canadian Forces in World War II.

    The
patriotism that he and his fellow Chinese veterans displayed ultimately paved
the way for the repeal of the Chinese exclusion act, and to full citizenship
rights for Chinese Canadians. Chinese Canadians continue to be leaders in many
fields of Canadian life.

    
I call on members of the House to join me in celebrating the achievements of
Mr. Jung in this place five decades ago.

*   *   *

http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?Pub=hansard&Language=E&Mode=1&Parl=39&Ses=1#OOB-21387

 


For Immediate Release
– June 7, 2007

CCNC Marks 50th
Anniversary of Douglas Jung Election:

Calls on Conservative Government
to Implement Moratorium on Deportations 

TORONTO.
The Chinese Canadian National Council marked the 50th anniversary of
the election of Douglas Jung, the first Chinese Canadian Member of Parliament today by calling on the
Conservative Government to implement the motion passed by Parliament yesterday
afternoon “to place an immediate moratorium on deportations” of all
non-status persons and their families.

CCNC honours the legacy
of (late) Douglas Jung who was elected on June 10, 1957 becoming the first
Chinese Canadian Member of Parliament. “Douglas Jung received numerous
honours for his military and public service including the Order of Canada and
the Order of B.C.,” Colleen Hua, CCNC President said today.
“Douglas Jung was also instrumental in advocating for changes to the
immigration system including the first regularization program: Chinese Adjustment Statement Program, which
allowed an estimated 12,000 non-status persons to attain legal status in
Canada .” 

Douglas Jung served in
the British-led Special Operations Executive unit during the Second World War
at a time when the Chinese Exclusion Act was in place and Canadian-born Chinese
like Mr. Jung had no legal status in
Canada . The service of Chinese
Canadian veterans gave moral weight to the community lobby for the repeal of
the Chinese Exclusion Act and full citizenship rights which followed in 1947.
Mr. Jung became a lawyer and eventually a candidate for the Conservative Party
and winning a seat in the 1957 federal election. Today there are 5 elected Chinese Canadian
MPs representing 4 political parties: Hon. Raymond Chan, Mr. Inky Mark, Ms.
Meili Faille, Hon. Michael Chong and Ms. Olivia Chow and 2 Senators of Chinese
descent: Dr. Vivienne Poy and Dr. Lillian Dyck.

Yesterday’s vote
on a motion introduced by MP Olivia Chow passed by a margin of 147 for to 115
against. The NDP and BLOC caucuses both supported the motion as did most
Liberal MPs. The Conservative caucus however voted against the motion.
“Where is the Douglas Jung in this Conservative caucus?” Victor
Wong, Executive Director of CCNC said today. 
“We urge the Government to implement the moratorium and to take
this opportunity to properly review the options for a fair and just regularization
program,” 

“We
need to stop this wasteful exercise of hunting down hard-working families in
their homes, workplaces or at their children’s schools and removing them
from their communities and from jobs for which there is no one else to take
their place.”

CCNC is a community leader for Chinese Canadians in promoting a more
just, respectful, and inclusive society. CCNC is a national non-profit
organization with 27 chapters across
Canada with a mandate to promote
the equality rights and full participation of our community members in all
aspects of Canadian society.


 

Head tax news: “Ottawa drops “no apology, no compensation” hard line”

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Ottawa drops "no apology, no compensation" hard line

Here's some news about the Conservative Government's approach to redress.
This sounds exactly what the United Nations asked Canada to do a few 
years ago, when they addressed Canada's refusal to apologize and provide
fair redress to the Chinese head tax issue, especially following 
New Zealand's redress.


By Jack Aubry, (From Google Alert)
Vancouver Sun, Sunday, June 03, 2007
OTTAWA - The Harper government has quietly dropped the previous
Liberal regime's "no apology, no compensation" hard-line in
negotiations with ethnic groups seeking redress for past wrongs
despite warnings that it would open the door to a possible flurry of
claims.

In government documents obtained by CanWest News Service through the
Access to Information Act, the federal government was recently advised
that the new approach "may advance calls for apologies/redress" and
that there was the "potential for other presently unknown communities
to seek recognition."

The briefing notes state that there were already three agreements in
principle with representatives of the Chinese-Canadian,
Ukrainian-Canadian and Italian-Canadian communities under the
now-defunct Liberal program.

"A number of other communities are known to have been impacted by
wartime measures and/or immigration restrictions including:
Austro-Hungarians, Bulgarians, Croatians, Doukhobors, Germans,
Hutterites, Indo-Canadians, Jews, Mennonites, Turks, etc..." says the
briefing under the heading Other Impacted Communities.

In an interview with CanWest News Service, Jason Kenney, secretary of
state for multicultural and Canadian identity, said the terms and
conditions of the Community Historical Recognition Program (CHRP) are
still being finalized and will be made public "fairly soon" once the
details are worked out completely.

He acknowledged that the "no apology, no compensation" policy of the
previous government has been dropped by the Harper government as it
picks up where former prime minister Brian Mulroney left off in 1988
with the Japanese-Canadian redress case that involved a full apology
and a $422-million compensation package.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized about a year ago to Chinese
Canadians for the country's racist immigration policies of the past,
including the head tax once charged by the federal government to newly
arriving immigrants from China. Survivors or their surviving conjugal
partners have been offered each $20,000 "symbolic payments."

The documents indicate that of the 43 applicants received since by the
federal government, 36 "head-tax" survivors have been paid.
The payments come out of the Harper government's $24-million CHRP,
which drops the Martin government's "no apology, no compensation"
policy that was part of its "never implemented" Acknowledgment,
Commemoration and Education (ACE) program.

Under the Conservative government, talks are progressing towards
redress announcements with Italian-Canadians for the internment of
about 700 men during the Second World War and Ukrainian-Canadians for
government actions during the First World War, when about 5,000 were
interned while land and other assets were expropriated.

As well, consultations and a report by Conservative MP Jim Abbott, who
is parliamentary secretary to Canadian Heritage Minister Bev Oda, have
been completed for the government on the Komagata Maru ship incident
in 1914 which saw 376 Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus forced back to sea by
a Canadian warship at Vancouver harbour.

The Indo-Canadian community has long advocated for a formal apology
and commemoration of what happened to the passengers aboard the ship.
However, Abbott reportedly advised the government "there was no
consensus or agreement" on the issue of a formal public apology.
While some of its critics have called it electioneering, the
Conservatives have taken many steps over their past 18 months in power
to strengthen ties with Canada's ethno-cultural communities.
Harper has publicly recognized the Armenian genocide, launched an
inquiry into the Air India tragedy, reduced the immigrant landing fee,
and oversaw the transportation of Lebanese-Canadians back to Canada.
This included the prime minister using his airplane to safely bring
back a plane load of those escaping the region.

The documents say the Conservatives have also created a new four-year
$10-million National Historical Recognition Program to "provide a
federal government narrative that presents an objective point of view
on the history linked to wartime measures and/or immigration
restrictions."

It will include the creation of educational material, including
"Historica Minutes" ads on past wrongs, an interactive website as well
as commemoration and exhibits informing the public about the
injustices.

Kenney said major features of the Chinese-Canadian redress settlement
were the apology issued by Harper and the $20,000 symbolic payments.
"In a legal sense, we wouldn't call it compensation but in a symbolic
sense it is a form of tangible (financial) redress," said Kenney.
"But at the end of the day, this is symbolic because you can't go back
in time and take away people's pain and suffering. All you can do as a
government is demonstrate through meaningful symbolic actions serious
regret for what happened in the past."

He added that Canadians should not be made to feel "culpable" for
"occasional racist policies" committed by their ancestors and which
the country's modern democratic system would no longer tolerate.
"I shouldn't be made to feel culpable for what my great-grandparents
may have thought, say about Asian immigration. But the Canadian state
has a responsibility to face up to those moments in our history when
we allowed unjust policies to focus on particular ethnic communities,"
said Kenney.

Kenney said the previous government's policy of refusing to apologize
or compensate was holding up redress negotiations. He said one of the
effects of the slow talks under the Liberals was the gradual dying off
of survivors.

"That was exactly our sense of urgency when it came to the
Chinese-Canadian redress package. There were very few, only a few
dozen actual taxpayers left. If you are going to do redress, it has to
actually be experienced by the victims of previous injustices," Kenney
said.

(c) CanWest News Service 2007