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First BC Baby of 2007 born to my friends Rod Barham and Mimi Yui

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First BC Baby of 2007 born to my friends Rod Barham and Mimi Yui

Here are more news stories about baby Tasha born to my friends Rod Barham and Mimi Yui.  Guess Rod won't be coming out to any kilts night events or dragon boat paddling anytime soon.

New Year’s baby born to Burnaby couple at RCH
Burnaby Newsleader, Canada – 6 hours ago
The Burnaby accountant gave birth to eight-pound Tasha Margaret Barham at 12:03 am New Year’s Day at Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster. …
2007's first baby arrives at 12:03 24 Hours Vancouver
all 2 news articles »

Vancouver Sun (subscription)		 Accountant surprised by Jan. 1 birth
Vancouver Sun (subscription), Canada – 2 Jan 2007
She phoned her husband, Rod Barham, 43, who was at home with their first child. He picked her up and drove her to Royal Columbian Hospital. …

Accountant surprised by Jan. 1 birth

Meet baby Tasha, the Lower Mainland's first newborn of 2007

The first baby of the year, born at 12:03 a.m., Jan. 1, is Tasha, here with mom Mimi Yui.

Doug Ward, Vancouver Sun

Published: Tuesday, January 02, 2007

NEW WESTMINSTER – As she enjoyed dinner on New Year's eve at the
home of a friend, Mimi Yui had no expectation that hours later she
would give birth to the Lower Mainland's first baby of the year, a girl.

The 42-year-old Burnaby accountant was two days overdue but labour did not seem imminent.

“I
didn't think she was going to be born for another week because I didn't
feel anything at all,” said Yui, in her hospital bed, Monday. “I was
very, very surprised.”

Yui began to feel contractions Sunday
night while celebrating with her friend. She phoned her husband, Rod
Barham, 43, who was at home with their first child. He picked her up
and drove her to Royal Columbian Hospital.

The couple arrived at
the hospital at 9:45 p.m. and, as Yui recalled, “things progressed
quickly from there. The pain was getting to be unbearable.”

The
baby was in a posterior position, which meant she had gone down into
the pelvis with the back of her head towards her mother's spine. That
often means a long and painful labour. So the physician and his patient
worked to turn the baby around.

The difficulty of the posterior
position made the labour longer and probably delayed delivery enough
for Tasha to be born in 2007, said Yui. After 31/2 hours of labour, Yui
gave birth to eight-pound Tasha Margaret Barham at 12:03 a.m.

Nursing staff wore party hats as they and the parents welcomed the newborn and the new year.

Tasha spent most of her first day of life sleeping.

“She's a very good baby,” said Yui. “No fussing at all. Totally different from her big brother.”

The couple have a 21-month-old boy, Thomas.

Asked whether she had any New Year's wishes for her baby, Yui said: “I just want her to grow up to be happy and healthy.”

Yui,
whose family immigrated to Canada 30 years ago from Hong Kong, said
that, according to the Chinese calendar, her baby was born in the Year
of the Dog.

People born in the Year of the Dog — it is said in
Chinese traditional lore — have a deep sense of loyalty, are honest
and inspire other people's confidence because they know how to keep
secrets.

dward@png.canwest.com

© The Vancouver Sun 2007


New Year’s baby born to Burnaby couple at RCH

 
 
MARIO BARTEL/NEWSLEADER

Mimi
Yui, of Burnaby, snuggles with her newborn daughter, Tasha Margaret
Barham, the first baby born in the new year, at Royal Columbian
Hospital.


By Grant GrangerNewsLeader
Jan 04 2007

When Mimi Yui had her second child early – very early – Monday morning, her mother found out in a very unusual way.

The Burnaby accountant gave
birth to eight-pound Tasha Margaret Barham at 12:03 a.m. New Year’s Day
at Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster. She was the first baby
born in B.C. in 2007. But Yui’s mother didn’t know because she was out
celebrating the new year.

“I tried to call her and I
couldn’t reach her,” said Yui just before being released from RCH.
“[Tuesday] she showed up at hospital and said, ‘Oh I only knew because
your brother saw it on the news.’ That’s how she found out.”

Although she was a couple
of days overdue, Yui felt it would be all right to go to a mom-and-kids
dinner at a friend’s house to celebrate New Year’s Eve. At about 8:30,
however, she started to feel something.

“I still didn’t realize I
was in labour. It was my friend who told me, ‘I think you’re in labour,
better call your husband,’ ” said Yui.

So she called her husband,
Rod Barham, who had just dropped her off, at their home in Simon Fraser
University’s UniverCity. “He said, ‘What? I just rented a video,’ ”
said Yui.

Needless to say, the
video, Casanova, stayed in its package and he picked her up and headed
to RCH. They arrived at 9:45 p.m. and although Tasha was ready to be
born she was coming out in the posterior position and had to be turned
around delaying her birth until after midnight.

“I talked to some other
moms who said make sure she’s born before the New Year because of
problems with school because they’re a year behind [those babies born
in December],” Yui said of giving birth to B.C.’s first baby.

Yui, 42, is employed at an
accounting firm near Granville Island while Barham, 43, works at
Tekion, a fuel cell manufacturer in Lake City. They picked out Tasha
partially because they liked the sound of it and because it made their
first child, 20-month old Thomas, smile every time he tried to say it.

• The first baby born at
Burnaby Hospital was Marko Antonio Medeiros who arrived at 11:16 a.m.
on Jan. 1 weighing seven pounds one ounce. His parents, Juliana and
Roberto Medeiros, live in East Vancouver.

ggranger@burnabynewsleader.com

1st baby born in Vancouver Lower Mainland – Tasha Barham!

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1st baby born in Vancouver Lower Mainland – Tasha Barham!

“Todd – come watch tv!” shouted my parents excitedly. “It's Rod.”

“What's going on?” I asked.

My
friend Rod Barham was being interviewed on Global News.  He was
holding his two year old son Thomas.  The reporter was asking him
about his new daugther, the first child born in Vancouver's Lower
Mainland for 2007.

The
camera also showed mother Mimi Yui holding baby Tasha Elizabeth
Barham.  Tasha looked well with a healthy head of black
hair.  Mimi sounded very cool and unfazed.

It
was just Dec 23rd when I called Rod on the phone, asking him how the
baby was coming along.  His parents had walked into the library
where I was working that day, and I had showed them a picture of me
holding my own new niece born on Halloween morning.

“It might be New Year's Day,” he replied.

Rod
and I have been friends since about 1994 when he moved into a shared
accomodation with us beside Burnaby Lake.  Rod attended my first
“friends only” Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner in 1998, following a Chinese
New Year dinner in our home in 1997.

Rod
and Mimi met in 1997, when I convinced Rod to join a dragon boat team
that I was coaching.  Mimi was already one of the paddlers on the
team.  Four years later, in 2000, they held their wedding at the
Alcan Dragon Boat Festival site. After the festival had shut down for
the evening, Rod picked up Mimi at the Science World water ferry dock,
with a dragon boat full of ex-team mate paddlers.

I
was best man, MC, and music director.  As the dragon boat was
paddled back to the Plaza of Nations dock, with Rod steering, and Mimi
sitting in her wedding dress, I played O Solo Mio on my accordion from
the steps above the dock.  It was a beautiful wedding.  The
reception was fun too, filled with friends and family.

Congratulations
to Rod and Mimi for having the first 2007 baby born in Vancouver's
Lower Mainland. A baby born of Chinese and English (and maybe Scots)
descent!

Rod sent me this e-mail:



Hey Toddnik. Thanks for the email eh!

What a kick New Years has been. I am amazed how many people watch the
news as total strangers keep coming up to me and giving me their
congratulations. Who would have predicted…



One thing I would have added to your
biography is how you managed to get me to join the team – very
reluctantly! Fortunately you persisted and voila! A child is born!




See this story from 24 Hours:

By ROBYN STUBBS, 24 HOURS


It's a girl!

A proud – and understandably tired – Burnaby couple was busy
celebrating yesterday after the birth of their daughter went down in
the books as the Lower Mainland's first baby of 2007.

Weighing in at eight pounds, Tasha Margaret Barham made her
grand entrance at 12:03 a.m. on Jan. 1 at New Westminster's Royal
Columbian Hospital.

She's a “good baby so far, not fussing at all,” said mother
Mimi Yui yesterday, adding the labour was painful but thankfully quick
at just three-and-a-half-hours long.

Yui and her husband, Rod Barham, already parents to
20-month-old Thomas, both thought three minutes past midnight would be
too late for Tasha to be the New Year's baby, but “with kids,
everything is a surprise,” said Barham with a smile.

Chinese Canadian Head Tax issue one of 2006's top events

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Chinese Canadian Head Tax issue one of 2006's top events



So was it? or wasn't it?

The Chinese head tax issue made
top newsmaker in every chinese media's year end review.  But was
rarely seen in English Language media year end summaries. 

Top
Chinese-Canadian stories listed by Susanna Ng includes Head Tax redress
apology plus the resignation by Michael Chong over recognizing Quebec
as a “nation” within a united Canada.  see Susanna's Chinese in Vancouver: Year end review  and her stories on Chinese Head Tax.

But
Chinese head tax should be more than just an “ethnic issue.” It is a
Canadian issue.  Canadian parliament charged a head tax from 1895
until 1923 when parliament creeated the “Chinese exclusion act” which
lasted until 1947.  That's 52 years of legislated racism! Oh…
plus an additional 49 years without an apology – not to mention a tax
refund.

Chinese
language media was a leading force in the head tax issue, covering it
almost  every day during the election campaign after November
25th, when 200 people protested the Liberal signing of the ACE program
– see
Chinese Head Tax: Protest in Vancouver Chinatown.

English Language media still seemed slow on this issue, often relegating it to ethnic issue side bar stories.  The first real head tax story in the Vancouver Sun was from Toronto head tax descendant Brad Lee who wrote The liberals bungle a great opportunity to do the right thing: This was followed by Daphne Bramham's Dec, 2 column
Compensate Chinese immigrants fairly:  I didn't see an actual news story in the Vancouver Sun, until Dec 8 when
Stephen Harper and Conservatives jump on the Head Tax apology band wagon.   


But also notable was the coverage by the Georgia Straight's Charlie Smith. Head tax unites activists,
Georgia Straight: Harper Stickhandles Redress as well CBC Radio did a number of audience call-in shows + interviews with head tax redress activists. 

At
year end of 2005, Chinese head tax was listed in the top ten by a
number of Asian newspapers, citing it to have both importance for
Canada, as well as global importance.  Last year, this time, the
Chinese Head Tax emerged as the sleeper issue for the January 2006
Federal Election.  Three Conservative candidates broke from Stephen
Harper's former No Apology stance, to join with the NDP, Bloc Quebecois and
Green Party.  Then with the Liberals facing themselves behind the
Conservatives in polling, Liberal PM Paul Martin mumbled a so-called
personal apology about head tax on Fairchild Chinese language radio
station, but would not commit to a formal governmental apology – nor
did he repeat the same “apology” for English language media.   see:Political debate heats up over Chinese head tax.

Then on June 22nd, the 
Head Tax Apology Ceremony
finally happened.  In the days leading up, English language media
finally got on the head tax band wagon, literally, by putting reporters
on the head tax redress train from Vancouver to Ottawa. 

In October, The Vancouver Sun even put together a list of 100 Influential Chinese Canadians in BC…
listing head tax activist Sid Tan.  But while the Sun made it
their lead feature on the front page, they relegated a story about Charlie Quan receiving the first head tax redress cheque to backwater pages in the West Coast section.  Even the Globe & Mail had made it the lead story in their BC edition.

But
Head Tax redress groups say the Conservative government hasn't gone far
enough for a just an honourable redress, only honouring 0.6% of a total
81,000 head tax certificates that were issued from 1885 to 1923. 
Only surviving head tax payers and spouses will receive a $20,000
ex-gratia payment.  And it took the government months and months
to settle on the definition of a spouse, even asking that

“Proof must be provided that the person was ordinarily residing with the
Head Tax Payer in a conjugal relationship of some permanence that would
be, as an indication, for at least a year.”  see  Head Tax – Applicant's Guide


Meanwhile,
the Conservative cabinet ministers and MP's make a big photo
opportunity of presenting the ex-gratia payments to senior citizens in
the '90's, at great distress and effort on behalf of this very aged
seniors.  My own maternal grandmother is 96 years old, and is much
too weak to be trotted out for display.  And the irony is that
there will be NO ex-gratia payment for her father's head tax
certificates because he died back in the 1920's.  Any family whose
head tax paying parents or their spouses died prior to the
Conservatives reaching power in February 2006 is out of luck.  Too
bad… so sad…

Chinese-Canadian head tax redress is still burning up the blogs.  Susanna Ng has created a poll listing Top news of importance to CC society in 2006. And yes… head tax is leading the polls.

David Wong also writes about it for his year end observation the-tax-on-giving-head on his blog titiled  The Ugly Chinese Canadian and “struck a nerve” with many readers getting many comments including my own.

If
anything, the head tax redress campaign served as a wonderful history
lesson for all Canadians.  It also exposed past racism as well as
present bigotry and ignorance.

Will the Conservative government follow through on the two stage redress process proposed by the Chinese Canadian National Council, or will they stall at only honouring 0.6% of head tax certificates?

Will
the Liberals under Stephane Dion step up to the plate, eager to one-up
the Conservatives, after opening up the redress can of worms with their
appallingly underwhelming ACE program for acknowledgement,
commemoration and education of head tax redress, not even considering a
formal apology or individual compensation which the Mulroney
Conservatives did for Japanese-Canadian internment redress?

Will
the NDP, Bloc Quebecois and Green Party, continue to support individual
compensation for head tax descendants whose original payers left them
in care of the head tax certificates, hoping that one day there would
be a tax refund?

All I can say is this:
I will continue to
support head tax redress for descendants whose ancestors are
predeceased for the present Conservative ex-gratia program.
I will continue to blog and attend head tax issues and events.
I believe in social justice, and that each head tax certificate should be treated equally.

The
Chinese Year of the Dog is not over until February 18th, when the Year
of the Pig takes over.  2007 was a good year for Chinese head tax
redress.  It's been a long time since Margaret Mitchell first
raised this issue in Parliament back in 1984. 

Who would
have thought that it would take 24 years before the 1923 Chinese
Exclusion Act would repealed in 1947?  Who would have thought that
it would take until 1988, 46 years later, when the Japanese Canadian
would receive redress, after their homes and property were
“confiscated” from them from 1942 to 1945.

New Year's Day Roadkill on the highway from Vernon

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New Year's Day Roadkill on the highway from Vernon

Roadkill is usually defined as animals hit and killed by cars and left dead on the road or highway. 

On my drive today from Vernon BC, on my way back home to Vancouver, I was amazed at the unusual road kill today.  We expected New Year's Day to be heavy with traffic – but did not expect the sights that we saw.

MJokinen-Snow Shoeing (Goshawk).jpg (165160 bytes)
Goshawk eating a winter white rabbit – picture from www.albertadirectory.net
 
There was a hawk on Hwy 97, alongside Kalamalka Lake.  Very unusual to see a hawk as roadkill.  The outstretched wing was large – too large for a raven.  Hopefully it wasn't one of the eagles that I had seen partaking in a mating ritual earlier in the week.  This past week I had also seen a goshawk, recognizing it immediately because of its speckled plummage.  But this roadkill hawk had brown feathers.  It could have been a red tailed hawk or even an eagle.  This raptor had  probably been scavenging on some rat, squirrel or racoon that was already roadkill.  It was probably so happy having fresh food that it didn't see the oncoming car.  Bye-bye Mr. Hawk.

My second thought was to grab some of the feathers for my friend Suzi, a wildlife biolgist.  Suzi collects roadkill.  It's actually her nickname.  Fresh roadkill can actually be eaten.  It's usually a healthy animal, and hopefully free of disease.

My next thought was to take a picture of it.  Very unusal to see a large raptor bird as roadkill.

The weather grew blustery as we were leaving Kelowna and Westbank.  As we climbed the Okanagan Connector  Hwy 97C, heading west, the snow was falling heavily.  The snow plow was out.  Cars drove carefully, as only the right line was cleared to the asphalt.  Flashing lights greeted us up ahead.  A white sedan had spun out of control and was now facing backwards against the snowbank beside the road.  Definitely a reminder for safe driving.

Heading south from Merrit BC, down the Coquihalla Hwy, the snowbanks were tall on the mountain road, about 3 feet high.  The trees were covered with snow like frosted icing on cakes.  A shiny red pick-up truck was turned upside down.  Maybe it was somebody's new Christmas present, and they went too fast on the icy snow covered road. 

The driving conditions got worse as we passed the Coquihalla toll booths.  Icky slushy brown snow on the road.  It was raining heavily by the time we got to the snow sheds.  The windshield wipers couldn't go fast enough to clear all the rain. 

Just past Hope, Chilliwack was still 10 km aways… And the traffic slowed down to a crawl.  We were expecting a busy New Year's Day traffic rush back to Vancouver – but not this far up the Fraser Valley.  Uh oh… flashing lights up ahead.   A Police car  was parked by the side of the road.  Just past it, were the charred remains of a small 4-door sedan.  It looked like a VW Jetta.  The car hood was open.  Steam was rising from the car.  It was all one colour – charcoal grey.  Not a good way to start off the new year.  And again, we had driven by too fast for me to grab the camera.


Globe & Mail: Flights of fancy – Eagle watching in Brackendale BC

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Globe & Mail: Flights of fancy – Eagle watching in Brackendale BC

image


Here's a picture of eagles in Brackendale BC from www.nusalya.com/brackendale/index.htm

globeandmail.com: Flights of fancy: Getting an eagle-eye view

Special to The Globe and Mail. BRACKENDALE, B.C. — With only their famous white heads …

The main viewing area for these iconic birds is at Eagle Run, …

Here's the 2004 article: globeandmail.com: Wings over Squamish

This is a great story about eagle watching in Brackendale BC – just north of Squamish.  It is incredible to see 500 eagles sitting in the trees at River Run viewing site.  Over the years I have seen eagles in the trees, in the river and in the snow.  Sometimes the salmon carcasses
in the Squamish and Cheakamus Rivers are frozen solid.  Other times, the temperature
is above freezing and they stink like the rotting fish they are.

Thor Froslev is an incredible visionary.  It is through his 1994 efforts to create the Brackendale Eagle Reserve was realized as a 550 hectare Class A Provincial Park in 1996.

10 years ago for New Year's Day 1997, with Rev. Susan Hunt, I helped initiate a tradition to visit the eagles on New Year's Day and create a ceremony for starting the year with a New Year's vision, using the eagles as a metaphor. 

Susan Hunt has continued this tradition, and the group meets at 10am at the Brackendale Art Gallery Chapel.  The ceremony includes music, a brief talk about visioning with eagles, and bringing new vision for the New Year.  An offering for the Eagle Watch program is made.  I wish I could go this year – but I am up in Vernon BC.

image
Brackendale Art Gallery Chapel in 1997 for the inaugural gathering of the New Year's Day Eagle Watch.  Todd Wong is standing in back row.  Thor Froslev (owner of Brackendale Art Gallery) is 3rd from right.  photo courtesy of Susan Hunt.

Susan sent me this message:

One of the big
events of the season is our Annual Eagle Watch, January 1st.

It is important
to remember to dress appropriately by layering clothing. Our west coast climate
can surprise us when we are least expecting it, and we have learned through
nine years of traveling to Brackendale on New Years Day, to be prepared for
anything.

You will need your
binoculars, camera, warm boots, mitts, hat, scarf, and appropriate under
garments to stay warm.

Yes…this
is our 10th Anniversary for the New Years Day Eagle Watch, and we
want YOU to come and join in the celebrations. We will have a full two hours of
music, sharing and meditations (An offering to the Chapel is much appreciated).
The Chapel is held for us each year by the kindness of
Thor Froslev , owners of the
facility. We appreciate their Love and Care of our New Years Day event. Lunch
will follow in the attached Tea House with lots of hot soup and warm bread to
fill your tummy (Cost for lunch can be between $10 to $15.00).

Susan Hunt can be reached at www.gardenofmiracles.com

The 21st annual Eagle Festival and Count is Sunday, January 7th, 2007
Check out this link:
http://www.brackendaleartgallery.com/Festival.html

Christmas & New Year's in Vernon 2006

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Christmas & New Year's in Vernon 2006

There's lots to do at Christmas time in Vernon, BC.  Our favorite things include walking in the snow with the doggies at Kalamalka Lake Park and ice skating at Silver Star ski resort.  The last time we were in Vernon was July 2006 when we were dragon boat racing with the GHFC dragon boat team.  But as if on cue… it started snowing on our late afternoon arrival on Dec. 26th.  The next morning awoke to 4 inches of the fluffy white powder snow that the Okanagan region is famous for.


Todd and Deb enjoy skating at Silver Star – photo T & D

Silver Star is a western mining town themed ski village.  Here there are some of the best runs in the BC Interior.  My parents used to bring our family here to ski when I was a wee tyke when I was in grades 5, 6, & 7.  It was many many years later in April 06, before I skiied Silver Star again.  This year we went ice skating on the man-made lake, around and around the “islands.”  We drank hot chocolate and ate poutine, before going to see the “Best of the Bamff Film Festival” being shown at the Silver Star Auditorium, as a benefit for the local Search & Rescue.

A favorite traditional seasonal activity is going to see Caravan Farm Theatre, North of Vernon, outside of Armstrong BC.  This is really cool.  All the stages and sets are outdoors, and you ride in a sleigh filled with hay bales from set to set.  We went on Dec 30th, before it closed on Dec. 31st.   This was so much fun… riding on a winter sleigh, pulled by Clydesdale horses, under the moonlight.

The show was East of the Sun, West of the Moon – based on an old Norwegian folk tale.  And we saw actor friend Billy Marchenski playing the role of The Prince.  Billy was surprised after the performance when we popped into the Actor's lounge and said hello. 

The Militant: Canadian Chinese call for redress over head tax

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Here's an article from Dec 18th in the Militant

Canadian Chinese call for redress over head tax

I attended the Nov. 25th meeting – check my article:
   Head Tax Familes call  for Good Fatith negotiations- nearly 500 people show up

The Militant (logo)
 
   Vol. 70/No. 48   
       December 18, 2006

 
 
 
Canadian Chinese call for
redress over head tax



(front page)
 
BY STEVE PENNER
AND NED DMYTRYSHYN
 
VANCOUVER, British Columbia—Chanting, “Head tax redress,
justice now!” more than 300 people voted at a November 25 meeting to
demand compensation for every one of the 82,000 Chinese-Canadian
families forced to pay a head tax last century. Many of those attending
the event at the Chinese Cultural Center in Chinatown were in their 70s
and 80s.

The Canadian government imposed the racist head tax on all Chinese
immigrants to this country between 1885 and 1923. Initially $50, it was
raised to $100, then $500 in 1903, the equivalent of two years’ pay for
a laborer.

Frank Chan told the Militant, “People had to work for 10
to 15 years to pay off” the money they had borrowed to pay the tax. “If
they died, their family in China was still stuck with the burden of
paying the money back.”

In 1923 the Canadian government imposed the Chinese Exclusion
Act, which banned all immigration from China and remained in effect
until 1947. As a result, many of those who paid the head tax, almost
all men, were separated from their wives and children for decades.
Chinese-Canadians were also denied the right to vote and faced many
other racist laws and practices.

In June of this year, after a decades-long fight for justice by
Chinese-Canadians, Ottawa agreed to compensate about 400 surviving head
tax payers and their spouses. The Head Tax Families Society of Canada
(HTFS), which organized the November 25 meeting, noted that a bare 0.6
percent of families subjected to the head tax will be compensated.

Wayne Lee, an activist in the HTFS, said that the redress fight
is “important for today because it strengthens other struggles for
justice.”

Another activist, Ron Mah, said winning redress has been a
deeply felt issue for different generations of Chinese-Canadian
families. “I remember how as a boy our family always talked about the
need to pursue justice and how unfair the head tax was,” he said.

Vancouver city councilor David Cadman, who spoke at the
meeting, said, “Many people say this happened a long time ago. But
today in our society there are people who are still being discriminated
against.”

Several members of Parliament spoke, including New Democratic
Party (NDP) leader Jack Layton and former Liberal cabinet minister
Ujjal Donsanjh. Layton said the NDP supports the HTFS demands.

Sid Tan, a co-chair of the HTFS vowed, “We’re building a
movement of such strength” that it will “outlast the [Prime Minister
Stephen] Harper government and any other government” until justice is
achieved.

Grace Schenkeveld, English-language spokesperson for the HTFS,
presented Layton with 1,600 letters from descendants of head tax payers
and a petition demanding redress to be introduced in Parliament.

Dozens lined up to join the HTFS during the meeting. 

Vancouver Sun: Dec 30 page C9 – mention of Gung Haggis World Poetry

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Vancouver Sun: Dec 30 page C9 – mention of Gung Haggis World Poetry



Okay….  it's a small picture of me in the top right hand corner of page C9 of the the Vancouver Sun December 30th edition.
I missed it reading the newspaper earlier today, but my girlfriend pointed it out a few minutes before midnight.

Gung Haggis Fat Choy, the unique bicultural New Year's celebration in which dragons meet kilts, will present World Poetry at 7pm, Monday Jan. 15th at the Central Library, 350 W. Georgia.  Hosted by Todd Wong, Ariadne Sawyer and Alejandro Mujica-Olia, it will feature poets Shelley Haggard, Fiona Tin Wei Lam and Leon Yang, plus bagpiper Joe McDonald.  Call 604-526-4729.


Some clarification:

Alejandro will be out of the country, so co-hosts are Ariadne Sawyer and Todd Wong

Dr. Ian Mason of the Burns Club of Vancouver, will also be reading Burns poetry and talking about Robbie Burns.

Joe McDonald will be doing more than just playing bagpipes… Joe and I are planning to perform some singalong Scottish songs, as well as one of his contemporary songs and maybe… just maybe…  we will perform my creation, “My Haggis Lies Over the Ocean, My Chow Mein Lies Over the Sea.”

Tommy Shoyama dies – Great Asian Canadian helped create Canada's universal health care

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Tommy Shoyama dies – Great Asian Canadian helped create Canada's universal health care

Tommy Shoyama was born in Kamloops BC.  He was the editor of “The New Canadian” a Japanese-Canadian journal at the time of mass hysteria against the Japanese, and the internment of coastal Japanese Canadians.  After the war, Shoyama worked in Saskatchewan with Tommy Douglas, helping to create the universal health care system that became the template for Canada.  Shoyama was a nation builder for Canada following a time, when Canada and BC tried its utmost to destroy the Japanese Canadian community.

Here are some of the obituaries:


Guelph Mercury (subscription)		 Shoyama helped create universal health care
London Free Press, Canada – 29 Dec 2006
By CP. VICTORIA — Thomas Shoyama, who helped create the universal health care system as a deputy minister for Tommy Douglas, has died. …
Thomas Shoyama, widely respected civil servant, dies Regina Leader-Post
Veteran senior civil servant dies at age 90 Vancouver Province (subscription)
Thomas Shoyama played a key role in health-care debates Guelph Mercury (subscription)
CBC British Columbia – Canada.com
all 10 news articles »
Civil servant who helped build universal health care dies
A former senior official in Tommy Douglas's Saskatchewan government who played a
role in the creation of medicare
has died. Thomas Shoyama died Friday in …
www.cbc.ca/news/story/2006/12/28/health-pioneer.html – 27k – 2006-12-28

Pioneer of universal health care
Montreal Gazette (subscription), Canada – 23 hours ago
Thomas Shoyama, who helped create the universal health care system as a deputy minister for Tommy Douglas, has died. Registered …

Civil servant who helped create medicare dies at 90
Victoria Times Colonist, Canada – 27 Dec 2006
Thomas Shoyama,
one of Canada’s most respected civil servants, who helped create the
modern universal health care system as a deputy minster for Tommy Douglas …

New 2007 poster: Gung Haggis Fat Choy: Toddish McWong's Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinner

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New 2007 poster: Gung Haggis Fat Choy:
Toddish McWong's Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinner


Check out this new poster for 2007 – click on attachment below.

It is also running as an ad in Common Ground magazine, as this was designed by their graphics department, based on files for our original 2005 poster created by Jaime Griffiths.

Common Ground magazine is one of this year's event sponsors, and will once again sponsor our VIP table.  I think that this is a great relationship as Gung Haggis Fat Choy seeks to find common ground between Scots-Canadian and Chinese-Canadian history and cultures, as well as other Canadian cultures and histories.

Other 2007 sponsors include:
Firehall Arts Centre
Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop
Ricepaper Magazine

This dinner event is a fundraiser for:
Gung Haggis Fat Choy Dragon Boat team
Joy Kogawa House
Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop / Ricepaper Magazine