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Cheque presentation in Toronto for surviving head tax payers.

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Cheque presentation in Toronto for surviving head tax payer

The first stage for the Chinese head tax redress, of ex-gratia payments for surviving head tax payers, continued with a cheque presentation in Toronto today.

The next stage will include payments to surviving spouses of pre-deceased head tax payers.  This will include several of my maternal grandmother's sisters who live in the Toronto area.  Even though my grandmother and her 13 siblings were born in Canada, my grandmother and her sisters married men who paid the head tax and came to Canada, prior to the Chinese “Exclusion Act” of 1923.

Payments to surviving head tax payers and spouses will amount to 0.6 % of a total 81,000 head tax certificates, as many payers and spouses have long since passed away.  The government says they will not give ex-gratia payments to the estates of the head tax familes, but the Chinese Canadian National Council is asking for all head tax certificates to be treated equally.

In my own family, both of my father's parents died during the 1960's.  His father arrived in Canada at age 16, around 1882.  My father's mother arrived in Canada around 1910 at age 16, after the Chinese head tax had been raised to $500 in 1903.

Victor Wong, executive director of the Chinese Canadian National Council writes the following:

A huge turnout today at the cheque presentation.

Minister Oda presented cheques to 4 individuals who made it in person Bing Yen Tom, Betty Fong (Lee Toy Kew), Frank (Poy Fong) Lim and Gook Fung Tom (see govt news release).

Colleen, Joseph and I represented CCNC, Karen and Kristyn were there from CCNCTO, George, Susan, Har Ying, Doug, Binh and Rebecca from Ontario Coalition and many of our volunteers. We invited Jack and Maria from CCCO (CBC-Canada). I think there were 17 people present from our end and there were a handful of representatives of the Congress as well.

Some media questions (actually most) were on the issue of descendants redress. The Minister reiterated the Govt position and seemed quite firm that the door was closed.

CCNC and redress groups will continue to press the federal Government to redress all head tax families. The June 22nd redress announcement covers just over 10% of the head tax families registered with us and represents only 0.6% of all of the individuals who paid the Chinese Head Tax or Newfoundland Head Tax.

CCNC continues to work with other redress groups including the Ontario Coalition of Chinese Head Tax Payers and Families (Ontario Coalition) and Head Tax Families Society of Canada (formerly the B.C. Coalition of Head Tax Payers, Spouses and Descendants) in the campaign to redress the Chinese Head Tax and Chinese Exclusion Act.

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Toronto-area Chinese head tax payers receive ex-gratia payments today

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News Release Banner

Canada's New Government Provides ex gratia
Payments to Greater-Toronto-Area Chinese Head Tax Payers

TORONTO, December 15, 2006 – The Honourable Beverley J. Oda,
Minister of Canadian Heritage and Status of Women, today presented redress
payments to four Toronto-area residents who paid the Chinese Head Tax. Bing
Yen Tom, Betty Fong (Lee Toy Kew), Frank (Poy Fong)
Lim and Gook Fung Tom each received a cheque for
$20,000.

“I am proud that Canada 's
New Government is continuing to fulfill its commitment to Chinese Head Tax
payers by providing these symbolic payments,” said Minister Oda.
“With the delivery of ex-gratia payments to living Head Tax payers,
we are taking one more step toward recognizing past experiences and hardships
and to contributing to healing in the Chinese Canadian community.”

On October 20, 2006, Minister Oda participated in a ceremony in
Vancouver to present
the first ex-gratia
payments. These payments follow from the official apology to Chinese
Canadians for imposition of the Head Tax, made by Prime Minister Stephen
Harper on June 22, 2006, on behalf of the Government of Canada.

On December 1, Canada 's
New Government announced that individuals who were in a conjugal relationship
with a Head-Tax payer who is now deceased may apply for ex-gratia
symbolic payments of $20,000.

The Head Tax was imposed on Chinese immigrants entering
Canada from
1885 to 1923. A similar tax existed in the Dominion of Newfoundland between
1906 and 1949, before the province entered Confederation.

Information
:


Chisholm Pothier
Director of Communication
Office of the Minister of Canadian Heritage and Status of Women
819 997-7788

Donald Boulanger
A/ Chief, Media Relations
Canadian Heritage
819 994-9101

Canadian Club: Christmas through the Century – a fashion show and dinner event

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Canadian Club: Christmas through the Century – a fashion show and dinner event

Christmas Through the Century
Thursday, Dec 14, 2006
Plaza 500 Hotel
500 West 12th Ave.

7pm registration and reception
8pm Christmas Through the Century.
Cost: $20 including GST

The
Canadian Club Vancouver is celebrating its 100th anniversary.  I
am happy to be a board member.  We had a wonderful 100th Anniversary Gala in November.

Check out this final celebration of our festive year!

· December 2006 – Getting in the holiday spirit:  Ivan Sayers will take us on a
voyage through the past century, showing us marvelous period cotumes,
worn by his models. His costumes come from women who could afford the
very best of everything.Ivan gives us a fascinating peek at the lives
of people in our city over the past century. he shows us what the women
were wearing, describes the reason for their designs and they reflect
the changes in society. Register here.

Vancouver Sun 2002: Toddish McWong marks Bard's birthday – the newsclipping

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Vancouver Sun 2002:
Toddish McWong marks Bard's birthday – the newsclipping

Here's the story that the Vancouver Sun's Pete McMartin wrote about me
in January 2002.  I just sent it to Toronto to be included for the
CBC Generations documentary.

It was a fun interview, and we went to the Vancouver Sun for the photo
shoot.  My friend Sonia Baker co-hosted the 2002 dinner with
me.  Neither Scottish nor Chinese, Sonia was actually born in
Holland.  If you watched the movie “The Mummy,” you heard Sonia's
voice… she voiced the Mummy. “Errrrrgggghhhh!!!!”

2002 was the first year the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner attracted major
media attention.  I did an interview with Bill Richardson for CBC
Radio's flagship afternoon show “Richardson's Roundup,” for which Sonia
and I read the Jim Wong-Chu poem “Recipe for Tea.” It is a poem written
for two voices and describes how tea travelled from China to
Scotland. 

VTV (which was became City TV) sent a reporter and cameraman to the
dinner at the Spicy Court Restaurant.   Highlights of the
newscast included hearing the entire restaurant chanting “We want
haggis,” as well as seeing and hearing a verse of Robbie Burns “Address
to a Haggis,” read with a Chinese accent by Raymond Chan, who was inbetween member of parliament stints at the time.

Just over two hundred people attended that 2002  dinner in the
midst of a snow storm, an increase over the previous year's dinner of
one hundred attendees.  The following year we moved the dinner to
Flamingo Restaurant on Fraser Street, where we hosted 390 people. 
Now we host 450 to 550 people at Floata Chinese Restaurant in Chinatown.

I'll try to find a better photo scan for this news story. 

Generations Rev. Chan Yu Tan: Editing being done for the CBC documentary on Rev. Chan and descendants

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Generations Rev. Chan Yu Tan:
Editing being done for the CBC documentary on Rev. Chan and descendants

The Rev. Chan Yu Tan family is being featured in the CBC documentary series Generations. 
Editing has now been ongoing since November.  The producer is
Halya Kuchmij, a multiple award winning veteran producer, who has worked
on past CBC
projects such as Man Alive and The Journal.  She is now with the
Documentary Film
Unit – where she produced Life and Times of Northern Dancer, Who's Lorne
Greene, Tom Jackson: The Big Guy, Chernobyl the Legacy, Mandela I &
II, and many many more.

It is part of a CBC series that focuses on the histories of families
through the generations.  Past episodes of Generations include: 100 Years in
Alberta; 100 Years in Sasketchewan; A Century on the Siksika Reserve.

Halya is convinced this “our project” is going to rock!  She is
amazed at the almost 120 year long family history that started when Mr.
Chan Sing Kai first came to Canada at the invitation of the Methodist
Church of Canada in November 1888.  There are now 7 generations of
Chan descendants throughout North America, descended from eldest
brother Rev. Chan Sing Kai, who later moved to California, Rev. Chan Yu
Tan (my great-great-grandfather who retired in New Westminster), and
Aunt Naomi who had moved to Chicago.  Aunt Phoebe is the 4th
sibling who stayed with the Chinese United Church in Vancouver, and
became affectionately known as “The Bible Lady” – she never married.

Brothers Chan Sing Kai and Chan Yu Tan, were born in Guangzhou China,
and raised to be scholars by their fathers.  They helped to
organize the first Wesleyan Mission School among the Chinese in Hong
Kong.  Their father was also a Christian missionary, having spent
many years as a Chinese Scholar with Rev. Piercy, the pioneer Wesleyan
missionary who contributed greatly to the Chinese translation of
“Pilgrim's Progress.”

Chan Sing Kai became the first Chinese to be ordained in Canada, and
was instrumental in the formation of the Chinese Mission which was
located on Carrall St. in Vanocuver – just blocks down the street from
Vancouver's historical centre of Gastown. 

In 1896, Chan Yu Tan arrived in Canada at 33 years of age, as a lay
preacher.  He took on the role of pastor of the Chinese Methodist
Church and brought with him his wife Chan Sze Wong and six children: Solomon, Kate, Jack, Rose, Luke
and Millicent.  Kate is my great-grandmother.



The 50th Anniversary of the Chinese United Church in Victoria.  My
great-great-grandfather, Rev. Chan Yu Tan is 4th from left. 
Beside him stands his elder brother Rev. Chan Sing Kai (5th from left).
photo courtesy of United Church Archives.

The Generations Rev. Chan Yu Tan project is not yet “officially titled”
– but the theme will be community service which was lived graciously by
Rev. Chan Yu Tan, and now shared by some of his descendants. 

Interviews were done on Vancouver Island
by Halya with two of Rev. Chan Yu Tan's grandchildren: Victor Wong, son
of Rose (Chan) Wong; and Helen Lee daughter of Kate (Chan) Lee, my
grandmother's sister, who lived with Rev. and Mrs. Chan Yu Tan while
they lived in Nanaimo, serving the Chinese United Church there. 
Uncle Victor Wong is a WW2 veteran and is currently president of the
Chinese Canadian veterans unit in Victoria.

Great-grandchildren interviewed by Halya were Janice Wong (grand-daughter of Rose Wong), Gary Lee and Rhonda Larrabee
(grandchildren of Kate Lee).  Last year, Janice wrote a book
titled CHOW: From China to Canada: memories of food + family, which
shared not only recipes of her father Dennis Wong, but also stories of
Rev. Chan Yu Tan and his son Luke Chan, who became an actor in
Hollywood.  Rhonda is the chief of the Qayqayt (New Westminster)
First Nations Band, which she resurrected from obscurity.  Gary is
a a longtime community builder who has been involved with many
community organizations, as well as having been a child actor.

Also interviewed were Rev. Chan Yu Tan's great-great-grandchildren Tracey Hinder
and myself.  Tracey was the BC regional winner of the inaugural
Canspell spelling bee contest, and is a great example of our family's
future generations.

Georgia Straight: Head-tax redress incomplete

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Georgia Straight: Head-tax redress incomplete

The federal Conservative government is only recognizing 0.6 percent of the 81,000 head tax certificates that were paid from 1895 to 1923.  They are ignoring any head tax certificates, where the head tax payers or the spouses have died prior to the Conservative government came to power in February 2006.  They will not recognize the head tax certificate that my great-grandfather Ernest Lee paid because he and his wife Kate Chan, have long since passed on.  They won't recognize the head tax certificate that my grandfather Sonny Mar's uncle paid for, because he died without leaving any survivors. 

$25 million more than paid for the $23 million cost of the Canadian Pacific Railway, for which Chinese labour built the most challenging and deadly stretches through the Fraser Canyon and the Rocky Mountains.  And the federal government will only give a $20,000 ex-gratia payment to living head tax payers or their spouses – provided they were still alive by February 2006.  If they died prior to that… too bad – so sad.  That is just plain wrong.  A head tax certificate is a valid certificate.  The government has long since recognized it was a wrongful, immoral and shameful tax, only imposed on ethnic Chinese, in a racist attempt to keep them from coming to Canada.  It was also used as a cash-cow to supplement government coffers, until the “Chinese Exclusion Act” was imposed from 1923 to 1947.

Charlie Smith writes a good article in this week's Georgia Straight:

Head-tax redress incomplete

By Charlie Smith
Publish Date: December 7, 2006

Ninety-nine-year-old
Charlie Quan recently received the Harper government’s head-tax
reparations, but Grace Schenkeveld’s family waits empty-handed.

When
Charlie Quan, 99, recently received a $20,000 head-tax payment from the
federal government, he decided to throw a feast. Quan is one of a
handful of people still alive who paid the $500 Chinese head tax to
come to Canada. From 1923 to 1947, the federal government banned
virtually all immigration from China, separating families for decades.

Earlier this year, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that
almost 300 head-tax-paying survivors and their spouses would each
receive symbolic payments of $20,000. Harper also issued a federal
apology but stopped short of providing direct compensation to families
of deceased head-tax payers. Ottawa will also spend $24 million for a
recognition program.

On December 3, Quan celebrated at the Quan Lung Sai Tong Association
headquarters at 164 East Hastings Street, surrounded by more than two
dozen family members and friends. Quan and others burned incense to
give thanks to the Chinese deity Kwan Kung and enjoyed a sumptuous
Chinese lunch, including a whole pig, which is a symbol of good fortune.

Quan told the Georgia Straight that Kwan Kung—the protector
of warriors, writers, and artists—gave him hope to continue pressuring
the government. “I am very satisfied, very satisfied, very satisfied,”
Quan said. “Kwan Kung helped me a lot.”

Sid Chow Tan, cochair of the Head Tax Families Society of Canada, told the Straight that the lo wah kiu (old
overseas Chinese) look upon Kwan Kung as their premier spiritual
helper, admired for his righteousness and compassion. “He is known as
the deity who will throw you a lifeline when you have nowhere else to
turn,” Tan said.

Tan noted that Quan also called upon Kwan Kung to bring justice and
honour to all head-tax families because Harper’s redress package is
incomplete. According to the ?Chinese Canadian National Council,
approximately 81,000 Chinese immigrants paid $23 million in head taxes,
which works out to about ?$1.2 billion in today’s dollars.

“The government needs to have good-faith negotiations with head-tax
families,” Tan said. “Every certificate should be treated equally.”

Grace Schenkeveld, also cochair of the Head Tax Families Society of Canada, told the Straight
that her grandfather Wong Hoy paid the $500 head tax when he came to
Canada in 1919. Schenkeveld said that her grand­parents had three
children, born at six-year intervals because it took six years for her
grandfather to save enough money to return to China to visit his wife,
who was forbidden from immigrating because of the exclusion act.

“He told us when he came to Canada he worked as a houseboy,” she
said. “He was this guy who lived in the cellar of this mansion, being
paid $3 a month.”

Schenkeveld said her grandmother suffered a worse fate, dying in
China during the Second World War. At this time, her grandfather
couldn’t send money to the family, which was starving. Schenkeveld said
her father still talks about how he was once like those African
children with swollen bellies.

“My aunt talks about how she was starving so badly her hair fell out,” Schenkeveld said. “These were also victims.”

She added that she and her family weren’t able to move to Canada
until 1971. “My grandfather would say things like, ‘The last time I saw
your dad, he was a six-year-old boy,’” she said. “He said, ‘Are you
sure you’re the same man?’”

Her family won’t receive a head-tax payment because her grandfather
died more than 20 years ago. “We believe the Harper government should
treat all head-tax families fairly, with dignity and honour,”
Schenkeveld said. “And do something that’s right, and be brave enough
to do something that’s right. Because a lot of Canadians will feel the
same way. This is racism. We have to acknowledge racism, and it’s
wrong.”

The Tyee: Michael Kluckner about the importance of Kogawa House and The Land Conservancy of BC

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The Tyee: Michael Kluckner about the importance 
of Kogawa House and The Land Conservancy of BC
Michael Kluckner is a writer/painter and heritage advocate.  He has done 
wonderful things to promote the heritage of BC, documented in his book
and his works titled  Vanishing British Columbia.  In a recent article by 
Charles Campbell in The Tyee, Kluckner talks about the importance of 
Kogawa House and the wonderful work by The Land Conservancy of BC.

see: http://thetyee.ca/Photo/2006/12/08/VanishingBC/

On the virtue of taking individual heritage preservation initiatives out of government hands:

“The
Land Conservancy is one of the partners in the heritage legacy fund,
and they're going out and doing things like this marvellous high-wire
act with the Kogawa house
[where Obasan author Joy Kogawa lived before the Second World War
internment of Japanese-Canadians]. In a sense, they are showing how
some public money, put into an endowment administered by a private
foundation, with private fundraising, can really make a difference. You
think of how significant the Kogawa house is as a site on the cultural
map of Canada. They're able to save this in the hottest real estate
market that Vancouver's ever seen.

“Politicians come and go, and
they're focused on their term of office. Stewardship is a longer-term
commitment. The National Trusts in Britain and Australia have never
been governmental organizations. There are governmental organizations
in England that perform really good roles, but I think the evidence is
that governments, whether they are left or right, can't be counted on
to have consistent policies that allow for stewardship.

“The
grassroots desire to save the Kogawa house — this is not something
that was seen by the Liberal or Conservative governments federally as
being important. But there were obviously people all over the country
who said 'This is important.' The people are ahead of the government on
that. A mechanism that allows this to happen is often much more
flexible. The reality is that in Australia, England, Scotland, you get
people's interests reflected through an organization more than you get
people's values reflected through a government. Governments have other
fish to fry.

“The city is somehow way more accessible to people.
What's missing is the idea of heritage that is more holistic. Going
back to the walk-up apartments on South Granville — somehow these
buildings have to be recognized holistically as being part of the
city's future as much as they are a part of the past.”

On British Columbia's two solitudes:

“But
then you get out into the countryside, and you've got the two
solitudes, the urban and the rural. In the city, most of the change is
due to development. The city's rich, and it can make choices, and most
of the time they are pretty good choices. But out in the countryside,
change is due to abandonment, and there's no money. And so that layer
of human settlement is just disappearing off the landscape, and I think
the province is impoverished due to the loss of that layer.

“In
terms of heritage planning and inventories, the province has actually
been quite proactive at finding money. And now the energy's going into
the so-called keynote buildings, because of the development of the
national register of historic places. Planning to a certain degree
works in communities that are organized. You see it in Kamloops and
Kelowna to a certain extent, in terms of retaining these layers.

“But
then there's these almost folkloric places. For example, Doukhobor
community villages in the Kootenays. There are just a handful now
instead of a hundred. This is the evidence of the largest communal
living experiment ever in Canada, and fascinating from that point of
view. You then get The Land Conservancy [of B.C.]
coming in and helping to buy one of the key places. The land
conservancies are one of the most positive of the initiatives that have
come along, and they've come along privately. The TLC is just a
remarkable organization. The Nature Conservancy of Canada is very good too. And they've gotten into cultural sites, as has the land conservancy.”

 For more article see: http://thetyee.ca/Photo/2006/12/08/VanishingBC/

Skiing on Grouse Mountain – lots of languages and cultures met and heard

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Skiing on Grouse Mountain – lots of languages and cultures met and heard

]
Todd Wong performs a
freestyle ski trick called a “tip roll” – while skiing on Grouse
Mountain on Wednesday – photo Richard Montagna.

It was FREE ski day at Grouse Mountain on
Wednesday.  I have always liked skiing at Grouse, especially since
I practically grew up skiing there during my North Vancouver high
school years.  We would take our skis to school, store them in our
lockers, then head up to the hill with our ski-buddies by bus or driven
by parents.

Back in the late 1970's it was very rare to see Chinese-Canadians
skiing.  Yes… Wayne Wong was still a big name in freestyle
skiing.  Skiing asians would be most likely multigenerational
Asian-Canadians – not new immigrants as skiing was generally a foreign
concept.  Occasionally, there would also be a few visiting
tourists from Japan.

But on Wednesday I saw lots of skiing and snowboarding Asians.  I
heard Korean, Japanese and Mandarin spoken in the lift line-ups. 
I spoke with many young Asians who were students in Greater Vancouver,
and even one Korean father who bought a ski pass so he could ski with
his kids.  Vancouver's ethnic make up has changed a lot in the
past 30 years and so has the ski culture.  Snow boarders
outnumbered skiers 80% to 20%. 

On Dec 16th, the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team is having a
“snow day” event, to help us keep fit, have fun, and provide
non-paddling activities for a wonderful group of people.  We will
be snow-boarding and skiing on Grouse Mountain.

Head tax payer Charlie Quan's Thanksgiving Feast to celebrate ex-gratia payment

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Head tax payer Charlie Quan's Thanksgiving Feast to celebrate ex-gratia payment

The following article is by Susanna Ng from her blog www.chineseinvancouver.blogspot.com

Charlie
Quan's thanksgiving feast

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

image

(caption
1: Quan and his four generations and the roasted pig; caption 2: Quan burnt
incense with daughter-in-law and grandson.  Terry Quan stands in back row on left – He is Charlie's favourite grandson and accompanied Charlie to 1) Nov 26, 2005 Paul Martin meeting, June 22 Apology )

Charlie Quan invited dozens of friends and
community members to enjoy a roasted pig feast and to thank “Kwan
Kung” (a Chinese folklore deity) for blessing on redressing the head
tax.

The 99-year-old Quan will turn 100 in February. On Sunday, four generations of
the Quan's gathered at the Quon
Lung Sai Tong (ïðð¯À¾Æ²) and celebrated with
friends and community members,
including head tax advocates.

The feast included a special roasted pig (a must-have in
Chinese thanksgiving rituals), chickens and chau
mien. Quan said spending was nothing compared to celebrating with everybody.

imageQuan has 4 children
(2 are deceased), 6 grandchildren and 8 great grandchildren.

Quan's 44-year-old grandson said Quan buses to Chinatown
almost everyday from his home on Commercial
Drive . He visits friends and plays mahjong with
them. At 99, Quan is still strong and healthy.

http://chineseinvancouver.blogspot.com/2006/12/charlie-quans-thanksgiving-feast.html

Todd Wong, Intercultural Activist – article posted on Suite 101

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Todd Wong, Intercultural Activist
– article posted on Suite 101

Ann-Marie Metten is my fellow coordinator on the “Save Kogawa House” campaign, together with Anton Wagner in Toronto.  Kogawa House was eventually purchased by The Land Conservancy of BC and preserved for generations to come. Here are Highlights of Kogawa House campaign.

Below is an article that Ann-Marie has written about me for the activist website: Suite 101

Todd Wong, Intercultural Activist

Todd's blend of Scots and Chinese cultures forecasts a new way of being in the world

© Ann-Marie Metten

Todd dons a Lion's head mask - Photo Credit: Deb Martin

Todd
Wong encourages tolerance and acceptance by blurring the borders
between seemingly polar opposites–the Scottish and Chinese cultures

On
St. Andrew’s Day, November 30, 5th generation Chinese-Canadian Todd
Wong donned his kilt and sporran to join others of Scots descent to
celebrate the patron saint of Scotland. “Toddish McWong,” as he is
affectionately known, honours Canada’s Scottish descent when he raises
a toast to St. Andrew, whose bones were carried for protection to the
farthest reaches of the world—now known as Scotland.

Later in the season, Todd and his Chinese-Canadian family and friends
will continue a longstanding tradition of blending cultural traditions
in Todd’s annual Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner. Scheduled for the Sunday
evening between Robbie Burns Day on January 25 and Chinese New Year,
which falls on the second new moon after winter solstice, Todd’s dinner
brings together musical performances from both Scottish and Asian
communities. Wontons and spring rolls made with haggis and other dishes
that merge Scottish and Chinese traditional foods fill the 10-course
menu. More than 500 people are expected to participate in the 2007 Gung
Haggis dinner on Sunday, January 28….

See the rest of the article at http://activism.suite101.com/article.cfm/todd_wong__intercultural_activist.