In March, Heritage Minister Bev Oda and I
launched our consultations as one


of the first actions of the new
Conservative government.  We met with the


leadership of major Chinese
Canadian organizations from across the country,


including both the CCNC and
the NCCC.




Since then we have held a series of open, democratic town hall
consultations


in Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal, and
Halifax, together


with a virtual meeting with community members in St.
John's, Fredericton,


and Charlottetown.




These meetings have been
well-advertised and well-attended, with over 2,000


people attending. 
Everyone who has wanted to express themselves directly at


these meetings has
been able to do so. I am not aware of a single person who


was unable to offer
their opinion at these meetings.




We have done everything possible to
make these meetings accessible for


members of the community, from
providing transportation to seniors, to


simultaneous translation in both
Cantonese and Mandarin.  We have also made


a point of giving special
honour to elders in the community, and encouraging


them to tell their
stories.




In addition to the public meetings, Minister and Oda and I have
solicited


and received hundreds of letters, emails, and phone calls with
peoples'


suggestions, and we have held many private meetings with groups
or


individuals in the community.  For instance, in Vancouver I was
deeply moved


to meet with a dozen seniors and hear the often tragic personal
stories of


how families were divided and humiliated by the effects of racist
government


policies.




The extent and nature of these consultations
between the Government of


Canada and the Chinese-Canadian community is
totally unprecedented.  The


public meetings have also been a valuable
part of the reconciliation process,


giving those who were affected by the
Head Tax the opportunity to


speak directly to their government.




I am
gratified with the support that these consultations have received
from


members of the Chinese community.  In fact, Mr. Li's column is the
only


criticism that I have heard.  Perhaps that is because he was paid
by the


previous government to help with its failed approach to the issue,
which


included no grassroots consultation, no apology, and no redress, and
which


resulted in a deep division in the community.




After years of
Liberal inaction on the historic wrong of the Chinese Head


Tax, Chinese
Canadians finally have a government that is listening to them


directly, and
which will soon act in good faith to seek to heal the wounds


of the
past.




Sincerely,




Jason Kenney, MP


Parliamentary Secretary to
the Prime Minister

Vancouver head tax Community Meeting May 6 in Chinatown

Sid Tan welcomes people to
the meeting for “Sons and Daughters of Head Tax”.  George Jung (BC
Coalition) and Victor Wong (CCNC) are seated, while Susan Jang
translates. – photo Todd Wong


Head tax payer Charlie Quan stood up in the audience of almost 300
people, and was applauded.  A 95 year old head tax payer’s spouse
also stood up to applause and acknowledgment from the crowded room at
SUCCESS building in Choi Hall.

“Redress Head Tax Payers now!” and “NCCC doesn’t speak for me!” shouted
from the television set, as video footage of the November 26th protest
against the ACE Agreement in Principle, greeted the assembling
crowd.  Volunteers were quickly adding more chairs to the
auditorium, as people continued to file in.

Almost 300 people attended the community meeting organized by ACCESS
(Association of Chinese Canadians for Equality and Solidarity), and the
BC Coalition of Head Tax Payers, Spouses and Descendants. Sid Tan,
ACCESS president and 20 year veteran of the redress movement, started
off with a passionate appeal for inclusion of families in any redress
settlement.  He then briefly explained the history of the redress
campaign and said that he didn’t think that the promise of apology and
individual compensation for head tax payers and spouses would happen so
quickly

Libby Davies gives her long standing support for head tax redress – photo Todd Wong

Members of Parliament Libby Davies (Vancouver East), Ujjal Dosanjh
(Vancouver South), BC Member of Legislative Assembly Jenny Kwan
(Vancouver Mount Pleasant), each addressed the crowd,  Libby
Davies recalled the early efforts by NDP MP Margaret Mitchell to bring
redress for the Chinese head tax.  She emphasized that it was
about fairness and justice and pledged her support and the federal NDP.

Ujjal Dosanjh
admits the Federal Liberals moved forward on the ACE program without
consensus throughout the Chinese community – photo Todd Wong

Ujjal Dosanjh echoed much of what Davies had said.  Ujjal
acknowledged that the previous Govt had not proceeded with a
consensus and stated that he would support redress for HT payers,
spouses and descendants.  He stated that the first time he
realized that the Chinese Canadian community held divergent views from
the proposed Agreement in Principle for the ACE program, was when he
attended the November 26th signing where the BC Coalition had held
demonstrations throughout the day.  He also stated his long held
positions of support on the head tax
redress issue beginning with his days as a government MLA, which asked
the Federal government to act and resolve the issue.

Jenny Kwan tells a touching story about a woman whose father's head tax certificate was burned at his burial – photo Todd Wong

MLA Jenny Kwan encouraged everybody to keep up the fight for a fair and
honorable redress.  Kwan said she had just talked with a woman who
had just left the meeting because she didn’t think her family would be
eligible for redress because they had  burned her father’s head
tax certificate at his burial,  She spoke both in Cantonese and
English, acknowledging the many seniors in the audience, and also later
translated for both Dosanjh and Davies as they listened to some of the
speakers.

Victor Wong
listens to Cynthia Lam make a point, following the meeting, as
interested head tax descendants listen – photo Todd Wong

Victor Wong, CCNC executive director explained the two step process
proposed by the CCNC, where an apology and immediate compensation would
be made to surviving head tax payers and spouses by July 1, 2006,
followed by a process to determine compensation to the direct sons and
daughters of head tax payers as well as community redress.  Victor
thanked SUCCESS for letting use the hall (same place where Martin
signed the Aip).  He presented the revised framework and
CCNC's position: $21K for HT payers and spouses, $10K for sons and
daughters.

George Jung, presented the BC Coalition position which is to include all
descendant claims (not only sons and daughters), a range of $10K to
$20K, a package of $100 million with the majority for individual
redress.  The seniors like the approach of one single figure and
inclusion of everyone and demonstrated this support in a standing vote.

Members of the audience were invited to speak to the speakers and the
audience.  Several people expressed that they wanted more
descendants to be included and that redress should not be limited to
only head tax payers and spouses, as most have already passed
away.  In general, the speakers were:

George Jung hands out head tax registration forms to the outstretched arms of head tax descendants – photo Todd Wong

The crowd was very appreciative of the efforts made by the redress
activists and participants.  After the meeting, many people came
to the stage to receive registration forms for head tax certificates
and asked questions about how to find documentation if they no longer
had the certificate.  They were told that microfilm is available
at the Vancouver Public Library as the History department has now
published an information sheet on how to look for head tax
information, which is linked on the VPL Chinese Canadian Genealogy web pages.

http://www.vpl.ca/ccg/

The TRUTH about Head Tax liability questioned on Parliament on May 5th

As
we know from the last federal election campaign.  The Liberal
Party's Secretary of Multiculturalism, Raymond Chan, kept telling the
public and the Chinese media that IF the government made an APOLOGY for
the Chinese head tax, it would then be liable for UNLIMITED finananical
payments. 

This was also echoed by Liberal leader wanna-be Hedy Fry, who had referred to the Chinese Canadian head Tax campaigners as “those people with their little issues” – recorded on CBC
TV news in the first friday in January.  Even when I questioned her position at an all-candidate's meeting.  She said “An apology
had been made.”  I asked her about individual compensation. 
She said no
compensation.  “It would be a mistake to give compensation because every
group would be asking for compensation. Where would you stop?”

Raymond Chan was nowhere to be seen at the Vancouver area Head Tax community consultations
with Parliamentary Secretary Jason Kenney, even though the Gateway
Theatre is in Chan's home riding.  But I did bump into Darrell
Reid the Conservative candidate who ran against Chan, and seemed very
sincere in helping to develop redress for Chinese Canadian Head Tax
payers, spouses and descendants.

Media Advisory: For
Immediate Release – May 5, 2006

“Don't Exclude Us Again” say Sons and Daughters of Chinese Head Tax Payers:

ACCESS Convenes Community Meeting for Just and Honourable Redress


Vancouver BC – The Association of Chinese Canadians for Equality and
SolidaritySociety (ACCESS) will convene a community meeting today on
Chinese head-tax/exclusion redress.

Among the speakers will be Victor Yukmun Wong, executive director of
the Chinese Canadian National Council and veteran redress advocate, and
George Jung, convenor of the BC
Coalition of Head Tax Payers, Spouses and Descendants. Elected
representatives of the Conservatives, Liberals and New Democrats have
been invited.

Where: SUCCESS Choi Hall
       28 West Pender Street, Vancouver
When:  2:00PM  May 6, 2006

On April 21, 2006 in a public meeting in Richmond on redress for the
Chinese head-tax and exclusion, Parliamentary Secretary to the 
Prime Minister Jason Kenney stated the government would make an
announcement sometime inmid-May on the longstanding injustice of
62-years of
oppressive legislation from 1885 � 1947 targeted at the Chinese in Canada.

Organized in 1990, the BC Coalition of Head Tax Payers, Spouses and
Descendants is a grassroots group reactivated in early October. Its
basis of unity then was to oppose a Conservative Private Members Bill
(C-333) and the subsequent Liberal government's Agreement in Principle
with the National Congress of Chinese Canadians. It's current basis of
unity is meaningful and significant redress immediately for surviving
head-tax payers and spouses and appropriate redress to families by July
1, 2007.

CCNC is a national human rights organization with 27 chapters across
Canada. Established in 1979, it has campaigned since 1984 with other
redress-seeking groups including the BC Coalition of Head Tax Payers,
Spouses and Descendants (BC Coalition), Association of Chinese
Canadians for Equality and Solidarity (ACCESS), Ontario Coalition of
Chinese Head Tax Payers and Families (Ontario Coalition), and Chinese
Canadian Redress Alliance (CCRA) for Chinese head-tax and exclusion
redress.

ACCESS is a not-for-profit anti-racism, human rights and social justice
society as well as a community television corporation. It is an
affiliate of the Chinese Canadian National Council and a member of the
National Anti-Racism Council of Canada and STATUS Coalition. ACCESS
works with other equality seeking organizations to fight racism and
discrimination, to advance the rights of citizens and migrants living
in Canada and to press the federal government to redress the
Chinese head-tax/exclusion.

– 30 –

Contact:
Sid Tan – 604-433-6169/604-783-1853

Victor Wong –
647-285-2262