National Post: 1885 tax becomes an issue in 2006

Not a day goes by now without a story on Chinese Head Tax in one paper or another….

The problems of this “One size fits All” redress for recognizing
“the historical experiences of [all] ethnocultural communities impacted
by wartime measures and immigration experiences,” would NOT be
tolerated if it were treaty negotiations with First Nations
peoples.  Each ethno cultural group must be addressed separately
and on an individual basis.  While it is true that no group
suffered the material loss that the Japanese Canadians did during WW2
Internment, it is also true that no other ethnocultural group was
targeted with a racially discriminatory head tax followed by an
outright exlusionary ban on immigrantion.

The Liberals are now in damage control and the Conservatives, NDP and
Bloc Quebecois smell blood.  It is ironic that after decades of
continued discrimination and having calls for Chinese head tax redress
dismissed by the government, that the closest the few remaining head
tax survivors see to a settlement is not because of fairness, honour
and justice – but because of its exact opposite in yet another Liberal
manipulation of public funds for votes.

Below is today's head tax article in the National Post

National Post: 1885 tax becomes an issue in 2006
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.html?id=cfedb730-
4d0e-485f-a43b-0b046a40aa06&k=50231&p=1
Brian Hutchinson, National Post
Published: Thursday, December 15, 2005

RICHMOND, B.C. – Raymond Chan is an emotional fellow. Canada's minister
of state for multiculturalism has been known to cry in front of
constituents in his suburban Vancouver riding. Sometimes he cries out
of gratitude, and sometimes in anger. His eyes teared up when our
discussion this week touched on human rights.

He likens himself to a crusader, a defender of democracy; he is quick
to mention he was once jailed in China, for leading a protest against
that country's authoritarian regime.

It might seem odd, then, that Mr. Chan is so firmly opposed to a
measure of reconciliation here at home, especially one that appeals to
many residents of his Richmond riding. Half of the riding's eligible
voters are, like him, of Chinese origin.
The issue is the long-discarded head tax, a racist duty imposed on
Chinese immigrants to Canada between 1885 and 1923. It's estimated
Ottawa collected $23-million from Chinese newcomers in those years;
those who are still alive, and many of their descendants, want the
money back.

They would also like a formal apology.
Mr. Chan once heartily supported their requests for compensation and redress.

But no longer. And he's not alone; indeed, half a dozen large
Chinese-Canadian organizations that represent hundreds more Chinese
groups have sided with Mr. Chan and his new, cautious approach to the
head tax question.

The issue has suddenly become an election hot button for
Chinese-Canadians across the country.  It could cost Mr. Chan his
job, and the Liberals some important seats in Parliament.

The Chinese Canadian National Council says there are only four head tax
survivors in Canada. But there are an estimated 80,000 descendants and
thousands more Chinese-Canadians who feel compensation and an apology
are due.

Mr. Chan took up their cause and ran with the issue in Richmond during
the 1993 federal election campaign, his first. He was elected and made
a junior minister in Jean Chretien's Cabinet. A year later, he
recommended to Cabinet some form of redress and an apology to survivors
of the head tax. “I was shot down,” he recalled.

He says an apology and compensation are never going to happen, at least as long as the Liberals are in power.
The NDP and the Bloc Quebecois have already called for a formal
apology, and last week Conservative leader Stephen Harper unexpectedly
jumped on the bandwagon.

The Tories, Mr. Harper noted in a statement, have “long recognized the
terrible historical wrong of the Chinese head tax. It is time for
Parliament and the Government of Canada to recognize this grave
injustice and to apologize for it.”
The statement– and the timing of its release, in an election campaign
— smacked of political opportunism. But it pleased those Conservative
candidates locked in close battles with Liberals in B.C.'s crucial
Lower Mainland.

Darrel Reid is facing off against Raymond Chan in Richmond. “The head
tax issue is huge,” said Mr. Reid, sitting in his Conservative war
room, a few blocks from Mr. Chan's own election headquarters. “It was
the only tax ever collected from a specific ethnic group in Canada. It
was wrong, and that has to be recognized.”

Mr. Chan counters that making an official apology to head tax survivors
and their families will “open the floodgates” to “countless lawsuits
and financial responsibilities for other historical wrongs.”

Besides, he says, the federal government has already figured a way to
address the issue without assuming unrestricted financial liabilities.
In February, Ottawa announced the $25-million Acknowledgement,
Commemoration and Education Program, aimed at recognizing “the
historical experiences of [all] ethnocultural communities impacted by
wartime measures and immigration experiences.”

The money is to be shared among various Chinese-Canadian groups, along
with organizations representing other ethnic and cultural minorities.

“The ACE program is for the Italians, the Ukrainians, the Germans, the
Jews, the Sikhs,” Mr. Chan explained. “Now the Croatians have asked to
participate. The blacks have come to participate. Everybody wants to be
part of it now.”

The National Congress of Chinese Canadians is among the largest groups
in support of the ACE program. “The Chinese community stands united in
the cause of educating all Canadians about this tragic period in our
history,” noted Ping Tan, the NCCC's executive co-chair.

But the program's one-size-fits-all approach doesn't sit well with thousands of Chinese-Canadians affected by the head tax.
“Mr. Chan used to support us, and now he has turned his back on us,”
said Sid Tan, a Vancouver resident and spokesman for the Chinese
Canadian National Council, which says it represents half of all head
tax survivors and their relatives. “It really sickens me. The money is
just going to go to Liberal friends. It's like a Chinese-Canadian
sponsorship scandal.”

He says Chinese groups that supported the ACE program have already
submitted proposals for things such as commemorative rock gardens and
museums. His members, meanwhile, have asked for grant information but
have been ignored.

“There is a lot of anger over this,” he said. “The Liberals bungled the
whole issue of redress and they have basically divided the Chinese
community.”

It's an opening opposition parties are keen to exploit, and it has Liberals in B.C. on the defensive.

“I don't buy their little apology [demands] at all,” Hedy Fry, the
Liberal MP for Vancouver Centre, told a local newspaper this week.

As for Mr. Chan, he'd rather discuss other issues, such as same-sex
marriage. His opponent, Darrel Reid, opposes it. A Mennonite, Mr. Chan
used to oppose gay marriage, too. Not anymore.

THE HEAD TAX REDRESS
Before election was called, government and 11 Chinese-Canadian groups
agreed to $2.5-million deal to set up educational and commemorative
projects related to the tax.

HISTORY
Ottawa imposed a $50 tax on all Chinese immigrants in 1885, after
completion of the Canadian Pacific railway. Tax was raised to $100,
then $500 in 1903 — the equivalent of two years' pay. In 1923 a new
law effectively banned Chinese immigration. It was repealed in 1947.

OBJECTIONS
Chinese community says agreement bypassed some community groups and does not include an apology or compensation.

© National Post 2005

VANCOUVER
— Injustices from more than a century ago have emerged as a surprising
election issue that could cloud the prospects of at least one Liberal
cabinet minister, and possibly two.

At issue is how best to
redress the racist government policy that exacted an expensive head tax
from Chinese immigrants to Canada from 1885 to 1923 and then shut the
door to all immigration from China until 1947.

Both Industry Minister David Emerson and Multiculturalism Minister
Raymond Chan are seeking re-election in ridings with many
Chinese-Canadian voters, and the federal government's refusal to
apologize and offer compensation for these long-ago policies is now a
huge topic within the ethnic Chinese community.

“It's all over the media,” Sid Tan, the grandson of a head-tax payer and a long-time advocate of compensation, said yesterday

“Everyone in the community is talking about it. It seems to have a
life of its own. I can't quite believe it, after all these years.”

Mr. Tan said the controversy is going to hit Mr. Chan particularly
hard, since he argued for compensation in the past but had changed his
tune since joining the Liberal government.

But Mr. Tan predicted that Mr. Emerson's election chances could also
be hurt, with New Democrat rival Ian Waddell a strong supporter of
financial redress and an apology to those who paid the $500 head tax.

Mr. Chan has been the main defender of an agreement with a number of
Chinese-Canadian organizations to provide $2.5-million for programs
acknowledging the racism of the past.

But the deal provides no apology and no compensation for any of the
few surviving immigrants who paid the head tax, nor for any of their
families.

“Wrongs have been done, and we are going to document the stories and
make sure this never happens again,” said Mr. Chan, whose Richmond
riding is more than 40 per cent ethnic Chinese.

“Every generation of Canadians has faced some sort of discrimination, historically. Are we going to compensate them all?

“I think the Chinese-Canadian community understands that the
important part is the government's acknowledgement that this was a
racist policy,” he said.

Mr. Chan added that a formal apology would open up the possibility of class-action lawsuits against the government.

But last week, Conservative Party Leader Stephen Harper thought the
issue hot enough to overturn his party's previous support of the
Liberal position. Mr. Harper called on the government to apologize for
“the terrible historical wrong” of the hated head tax.

He further promised to negotiate with all groups, including Mr.
Tan's Chinese Canadian National Council, about the possibility of
financial redress.

His statement came just two days after Manitoba Tory MP Inky Mark,
who spearheaded a private member's bill on the head tax issue,
reiterated his agreement with the Liberals that an apology was a
“slippery slope” leading to a possible avalanche of legal claims.

“What [past governments] did was legal,” he told reporters. “That
didn't make it morally right or ethical, but the fact was it was legal.”

Mr. Harper, however, chose to respond to the entreaties of three
Conservative candidates in B.C. who urged him to revisit the issue.
Among them was Darrel Reid, Mr. Chan's Conservative opponent in
Richmond.

Also adding to the fuel yesterday was Chinese-Canadian commentator
Gabriel Yiu's demand for an apology from Mr. Chan over remarks he made
about Mr. Yiu in a radio interview. He denied making any misleading
statements as alleged by Mr. Chan, calling them defamatory and
unacceptable.

Mr. Chan laughed off Mr. Yiu's demand.

“He's trying to speak as a commentator and not telling people he was
an NDP candidate [in the past provincial election]. You cannot mislead
people like that.”

He also brushed off any suggestion that the controversy was causing him political trouble.

“It's all orchestrated. If you look at the support of the
associations that have signed on to the agreement, it's historic. There
has never been so much wide support. I think Chinese-Canadian voters
understand.”

Mr. Tan, meanwhile, said he intends to continue galvanizing “the
grandmas and the grandpas” to fight for an apology and, at the very
least, some repayment in recognition of the head tax they were forced
to pay alone among all immigrants to Canada.

“There is anger and frustration out there. It's not orchestrated, despite what Raymond Chan says. It's real.”

Chinese
Canadian Redress Alliance

For Immediate
Release: December 9, 2005

Prime
Minister Paul Martin Should Meet Montreal
Survivors of the Head Tax and Chinese Exclusion Act

MONTREAL/TORONTO. The Chinese
Canadian Redress Alliance (CCRA) called on Prime Minister Paul Martin to follow
the lead of Conservative Party Leader Stephen Harper, NDP Leader Jack Layton
and BLOC Leader Gilles Duceppe and support the call for an apology to and
redress for the victims of the Head Tax and Chinese Exclusion Act.  

“Mr. Martin has adjusted his
schedule to be in Montreal
today to meet with former US President Bill Clinton. Yet he has been unwilling
to meet with one of his LaSalle constituents, Mr. James Wing, a surviving Head
Tax Payer,” Walter Tom, spokesperson for CCRA and Head Tax descendant said
today.

“Mr. Martin has called for
building an inclusive society. However, he continues to exclude the Head Tax
payers and families who are among the nation-builders of this country from any
redress settlement.” 

The Head Tax was imposed by the
Canadian government from 1885 to 1923 and the Exclusion Act was imposed by the
Liberal government of the day in 1923 and lasted until 1947. CCRA supports the
Chinese Canadian National Council and redress-seeking groups who have
tirelessly sought redress on behalf of over 4000 redress claimants for more
than 20 years. “We call on Mr. Martin to meet with Mr. James Wing and to begin
a genuine reconciliation with the Head Tax payers and families,” Colleen Hua,
CCNC National President said today. “Mr. Martin has already acknowledged that
‘the Chinese Head Tax was a terrible thing.’ It’s time for Mr. Martin to commit
to good faith negotiations with the Head Tax payers and families and resolve
this longstanding issue in a just and honourable manner.”

Chinese Canadian Redress Alliance
is joined in the campaign for redress of the Head Tax and Chinese Exclusion Act
by CCNC and redress-seeking groups including the Ontario Coalition of Chinese
Head Tax Payers and Families, BC Coalition of Head Tax Payers Spouses and
Descendants, Association of Chinese Canadians for Equality and Solidarity
Society, and Metro Toronto Chinese and South East Asian Legal Clinic.

– 30 –

For more information, please
contact:

Walter Chi-Yan Tom, CCRA, (514)
341-3929

Ging Wee Dere, CCRA, (514)
488-0804

Victor Wong, CCNC Executive
Director, (416) 977-9871

Chinese
Canadian National Council

Media
Advisory: December 9, 2005

Head Tax
Redress Issue Debated in Chinese Canadian Community

TORONTO/VANCOUVER. Community
debates on the Head Tax redress issue will take place this weekend in Vancouver
and Toronto. This
follows Prime Minister Paul Martin’s recent public comment that “the Chinese
Head Tax was a terrible thing and I never want to see it happen again” and
Conservative Leader Stephen Harper’s statement yesterday “for Parliament and
the Government of Canada to recognize this grave injustice, and to apologize
for it.” All three Opposition Parties and the Green Party support redress of
the Head Tax and Chinese Exclusion Act.

Vancouver:

What: Vancouver AM1320 radio phone-in
program.

Participants include Dr. Joseph
Wong, Bill Chu and Thekla Lit.

When: Saturday (December 10) from 10:00 am – 12:00 noonPST                                                                                                                                    

Where: AM1320 on Radio dial; callers should dial 604-280-1320

Toronto:

What: Public Forum co-organized by Toronto First Radio Station
and Toronto City Newspaper. 

Speakers include: Avvy Go
(Ontario Coalition of Head Tax Payers and Families).

Commentators include: Cheuk Kwan.

When: Sunday (December 11)
from 2:30 pm – 4:00 pm EST; Radio Broadcast is available online on Monday
(December 12) at 9:30 p.m. at www.torontofirstradio.com                                                                                                                        

Where: Food Court of Market Village, Markham (near Kennedy and
Steeles)

“We applaud Vancouver's
CHMB 1320 Radio, Toronto First Radio and Toronto City News for their effort,”
Sid Tan, CCNC National Director and Head Tax descendant said today. “The
Liberals need to know the damage caused by their poor handling of the Head Tax
redress issue. We are expecting CCNC founding President Dr. Joseph Wong to call
in from Australia
to participate on Saturday.”

“Martin’s Government has been
unable to explain the accuracy of their list of so-called supporting
organizations or quell growing anger over the secretly negotiated
Head Tax deal,” Avvy Go, representing the Ontario Coalition of Chinese Head Tax
Payers and Families and human rights lawyer said today. “All Parties and
candidates need to know that Head Tax redress is a priority for the few
surviving Head Tax payers and families, for the Chinese Canadian community, for
Canadians and for Canada’s
human rights image.” 

“The Government needs to involve
the Head Tax payers and families and not exclude us,” George Lau, Co-Chair of
the Ontario Coalition of Chinese Head Tax Payers and Families and Head Tax
descendant said today. “Many of us will be at the Sunday Forum in Toronto
to voice our concerns and educate voters.”

CCNC is a national organization
with 27 chapters across Canada.
CCNC is joined in the campaign for redress of the Head Tax and Chinese
Exclusion Act by the Ontario Coalition of Chinese Head Tax Payers and Families,
BC Coalition of Head Tax Payers Spouses and Descendants, Chinese Canadian
Redress Alliance, the Association of Chinese Canadians for Equality and
Solidarity Society, and Metro Toronto Chinese and South East Asian Legal
Clinic.

-30-

For more information, please
contact:

Avvy Go, Ontario
Coalition of Chinese Head Tax Payers and Families, (416) 971-9674

George Lau (Chinese language
media), Ontario Coalition of Chinese Head Tax Payers and Families, (416)
588-1751

Sid Tan, CCNC National Director
(604) 433-6169; (604) 783-1853

Victor Wong, CCNC Executive
Director, (416) 977-9871

Canada’s New Democrats

NDP
CALLS ON GOVERNMENT TO PROVIDE FAIR DEAL FOR CHINESE HEAD TAX PAYERS

Vancouver – NDP candidate for Vancouver
East, Libby Davies, along with her NDP colleagues, Mary Woo Sims (Port Moody
–Westwood- Port Coquitlam) and Ian Waddell
(Vancouver Kingsway) joined with families and representatives of Chinese head
tax payers to urge the Liberal government to find a compromise and fair deal
for all Chinese Canadian head tax payers and their families today.

“It’s upsetting to see the divisiveness the
Liberals have created on this issue in the Chinese Canadian community,”
said Davies. “We’re challenging the Liberal government’s
so-called “shared vision” to acknowledge past hardships for Chinese
Canadians through the Chinese head tax and exclusion legislation in a way that
unites the community rather than deliberately divides it.”

An initial amount of $2.5 million has been allocated to the
National Congress of Chinese Canadians in an agreement in principle through the
Acknowledgement, Commemoration and Education (ACE) Fund. The Liberals announced the deal with the
Congress in November, despite calls from several other organizations, such as
the Chinese Canadian National Council, to be involved in any commemorative,
educational or other key measures that may arise from the fund.

“It is completely unacceptable for the Liberal
government to exclude at least 4000 head tax payers, their families and
descendants through an agreement with only one part of the community,” said
Sims.  

The NDP candidates are calling on the government to quash
the existing agreement in principle, go back to the table with all the relevant
groups, including key Chinese Canadian head tax payers, their families and
representatives, and find a compromise and fair deal for everyone.   

 “These families deserve an apology and real
respect from this government,” said Ian Waddell.
“For so many to be shut out at this point is too reminiscent of the head
tax itself.”

“This deal is going ahead without the families and
others who were at the forefront of the redress movement,” said Davies.
“The government has a responsibility to acknowledge the diversity of the
Chinese Canadian community and find a course of compromise.”

Former NDP MP Margaret Mitchell, a long time advocate for
human rights who was on hand for the news conference, was the first MP to ask
the government for an apology on behalf of a head tax payer in 1984.  Libby
Davies tabled a motion in 2004, asking for an apology and redress for head tax
payers, their families and representatives.

The Canadian government collected $23 million from Chinese immigrants
to Canada between 1885 and 1923.
 

-30-
 

Contact: Meena Wong,
604-430-8600 ext. 257

Leanne Holt, 604-254-8863

Stephen Harper and Conservatives jump on the Head Tax apology band wagon

Yesterday
the Vancouver Sun and other media announced that 3 Conservative MP
candidates had broken away from the Conservative party platform on the
head tax issue.  Led by MP Jim Cummins, (Delta-Richmond East) and
candidate

Here's a Canadian Press Story about the Conservatives now ganging up
with the NDP, and the Bloc Quebecois against the Liberal position.
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Politics/CanadaVotes
/2005/12/08/1344746-cp.html

FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 8, 2005

Statement
by Stephen Harper on Chinese head tax redress

NORTH BAY- Conservative leader Stephen Harper issued
the following statement today:

 “The
Conservative Party has long recognized the terrible historical wrong of the
Chinese head tax.  It is time for Parliament and the Government of Canada to
recognize this grave injustice, and to apologize for it.

I acknowledge the efforts of Conservative parliamentarians and candidates to
obtain a just redress of the head tax.  These efforts are in keeping with
the historical achievement of a previous Conservative government in addressing
the unjust internment of Japanese Canadians.

Any redress should also acknowledge the invaluable contribution made to Canada by the
Chinese-Canadian community.  A Conservative government would work with the
entire Chinese-Canadian community to establish a consensus for reconciliation
and redress.”

-30-

For more
information: Conservative Party Press Office (613) 755-2191

David Suzuki quote on Japanese Canadian redress: prophetic for Chinese Canadian Head Tax Redress



During the Japanese Canadian redress there was a very similar situation
to the current Chinese Head Tax redress process, where the Govt had
worked with one group,  then another group arose to oppose and ask
for
inclusion.  In the end everybody was included and the settlement
was
accepted.

Here is the quote from David Suzuki made around 1984 (page 179)

“David Suzuki, a broadcaster, geneticist and enviornmental activist who
attended the meeting on his own, had called for caution in attempting
to politicize redress:


We are a minority group that is so
small that we don't count anywhere.  What we have going for us is the
moral rightness of the issue.  There is a great deal of pressure now to
ram through something because this government is tottering on shaky
legs.  There is no question in my mind that George is right, that this
is a very opportune moment politically.  Whatever is done is not going
to be done by addressing the moral issue involved.  It's going to be
done for purely political reasons and you're going to be bought out if
you don't watch yourselves very carefully.”  p.179 Roy Miki, Redress

3 Tories break with party on
Chinese-Canadian issue The three want Ottawa
to apologize and compensate for the head tax imposed on Chinese immigrants

Peter O'Neil

Vancouver
Sun

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

OTTAWA
— Three of Conservative leader Stephen Harper's candidates have split with their party's senior
critics on an issue that has divided Canada's Chinese-
Canadian community. 

B.C. candidates Darrel Reid
and Kanman Wong, and veteran MP John Cummins, say the federal government
should renegotiate a $2.5 million agreement that seeks to recognize the racist
anti-Chinese immigrant policies of Canada's past while not apologizing or offering
individual compensation.

All three Tories say the
next government should reopen talks to try to bring all factions of the
community together on the issue, which, according to Reid, could be politically
damaging for Multiculturalism Minister Raymond Chan in his riding.

“Certainly if the talk
radio and the Chinese press are any indication, I would say there's been a very
strong negative reaction,” said Reid, Chan's Tory challenger in the riding,
where close to half the population is ethnic Chinese.

“I think there's a lot
of concern, there's a lot of upset, there's a lot of recriminations being thrown
around.”

While the federal Tory
caucus hasn't taken a formal position, Tory multiculturalism critic Bev
Oda and immigration critic Inky Mark both endorsed the Liberal position.

They both said Tuesday the
Liberal position, based on private bills by Oda and Mark, had the endorsement of
Harper.

Both Reid and Cummins, the
MP for Delta-South Richmond, say they would like to see a government apology and
individual compensation for the surviving victims of the head tax that was
imposed on Chinese immigrants between 1885 and 1923.

Wong, while supportive of an
apology, wouldn't say if he supports financial redress.

There are about one million
Chinese Canadians, representing a little over three per cent of the population.
But in Richmond
and Vancouver Kingsway, represented by Industry Minister David
Emerson, they represent 44 and 42 per cent, respectively. In Cummins'
riding, 18 per cent are ethnic Chinese, according to Statistics Canada.

Chan announced just days
before the election campaign began that a “historic” agreement had been struck
with the National Congress of Chinese Canadians and several other groups.

The initiative is intended
to acknowledge the historic wrongs and fund projects to educate Canadians on the
contribution of Chinese-Canadians.

But a rival group, the
Chinese Canadian National Council, has waged a media campaign to discredit the
agreement and argue that it doesn't satisfy demands.

The federal New Democratic
Party has joined the CCNC in calling on the government to come up with a
package similar to the 1988 agreement that provided more than $300
million as compensation to the Japanese-Canadian community, which was
interned in camps during the Second World War.

Chan said Tuesday the
Chinese-Canadian community has always been divided on the issue.

While some want money and an
apology, others don't see themselves as “victims,” according to Chan, who once
publicly favoured individual  compensation.

“They say, 'We're not
victims of Canada.
Yes, we were discriminated against, and paid the head tax, but
we benefitted as well.'”

Chan said both Harper and
Mark, the Manitoba Conservative MP who initiated the

legislation and helped
negotiate the agreement, support the government's position that an apology
could open the government to legal claims.

“Both Inky and Harper
recognize we cannot open the Canadian taxpayers to unlimited liabilities.”

Mark's father and
grandfather paid the head tax. Oda is a Japanese-Canadian who opposed the 1988
compensation agreement.

Last month, Mark sent out
e-mails to MPs from all parties saying that the CCNC is “basically an arm of
the NDP across Canada.”

Mark said Tuesday he wished
that Tory candidates in B.C. promising a better redress package had spoken
to him, as he doesn't believe an apology and compensation are realistic.

He said he accepts the
argument of government lawyers that an apology and redress package would be a
“slippery slope” opening the door to countless other legal claims.

“Today's government
can't apologize for things that happened in past governments. That's just the
way it is,” Mark said of the head tax and the subsequent exclusion
legislation that banned Chinese immigration from 1923 to
1947. 

“What they did was
legal. That didn't make it morally right or ethical, but the fact was it was legal.”

But Reid said the Chinese
experience stands out as unique because Chinese-Canadians were the only
ethnic group specifically targeted in racist immigration laws.

“If the intent of the
recent agreement . . . was to heal historic wounds, it hasn't worked,” Reid
said.

“Instead, the
controversy and ethical issues surrounding it continue to grow.  It has reopened wounds in
the Chinese community.” 

poneil@hotmail.com
© The Vancouver
Sun 2005