Category Archives: Main Page

2006 Starts on Hight for Tiller's Folly!

Leave a reply

2006 Starts on Hight for Tiller's Folly!

One year… maybe… Tiller's Folly will play at Gung Haggis Fat Choy.
I have known Laurence Knight since 2002, when we met at a CAPACOA conference in Ottawa.  We hit it off immediately, and I have been a Tiller's Folly fan ever since.  TF has a penchant for BC history, and I have been encouring them to write a song about Chinese Canadian pioneers in BC.

Enjoy, Todd
parlour

2006 Starts on High for Tiller's Folly!

January 20, 2006

Greetings!
BRUCELIVE
The year 2006 is starting off on high for Tiller’s Folly’s
Bruce
Coughlan, Laurence Knight, Nolan Murray, and Eric
Reed.

“McCullough’s Wonder” a Bruce composition from A Fine Kettle
of Fish, the DVD/CD package, has been
earmarked as one of
the essential 75 Canadian folk songs by iTunes.

Tiller’s Folly’s A Fine Kettle
of Fish, DVD featuring a fall 2004
concert at Steveston’s historic Gulf of Georgia
Cannery, has
been signed to a five year cross Canada broadcast
agreement
with The Knowledge Network. It will be shown three
times in
March with the premier on March 2 at 8:30PM.

Buchan Bluegrass, the
band’s
fifth CD, is scheduled for release
in the United States this month with Burnside
Distribution
Corporation and in Scotland in March with Scotsound
Distribution.

“Tranquility” from the Off the Beaten Path CD – another Tiller’s
Folly project featuring Nolan at the helm – made it to
the
second round of the International Songwriting
Competition.
(Finalists to be announced at the end of January
2006.)

Last November the band had a successful showcase
at National
Association for Campus Activities West (a buying
conference for
Western US Colleges.) In February, Tiller’s Folly will
be
showcasing at the Folk Alliance in Austin, Texas.

Tours have already been booked throughout Canada
and the
United States, with a European tour in October.

As Tiller’s Folly heads toward its tenth anniversary,
2006
promises to be the most successful year yet! We
thank you for
all your support.

To see videos of the band, please visit Sonic
Bids and A Fine Kettle
of Fish. MP3s are also
available at Sonic Bids and our website.

With Robbie Burns Day quickly approaching, we've
made
“There'll Never Be Peace Until Jamie Comes Hame” our
song of
the month. To download the free MP3, please CLICK HERE. You'll also find
the lyrics and a brief explanation of the tune there.

Visit Our Website

Thanks for reading!

Sincerely,

TILLERSEPIA
Laurence Knight

Tiller's Folly
phone:
604-541-9798

Letter to Vancouver Sun: No Head Tax is Voluntary

Leave a reply

Letter to Vancouver Sun: No Head Tax is Voluntary

My friend Victor Wong also happens to be executive director of the Chinese Canadian National Council. This is the group that helped to start organizing head tax payers and descendants in the 1980's to appeal to the federal government for redress for the 62 years of legislated racism against ethnic Chinese immigration to Canada from 1891 to 1947.  This systemic racism included not giving voting franchise to Canadians of Chinese ancestry born in Canada, such as my Grandmother who was born in 1910 in Victoria BC.  Victor writes a very good rebuttal to people who say that the Chinese pioneers paid the head tax voluntarily and didn't have to come to Canada.  I feel that his arguement is weak, because it ignores the fact that no other ethnic group had a head tax placed on them, and is and was, and still remains blatantly racist.
– Todd

Letter to Vancouver Sun:

 
After
the CPR was built and the Chinese labourers excluded from the Last
Spike photo, the Canadian Government moved swiftly to restrict Chinese
immigration by imposing the racist Head Tax. Some suggest that this tax
was “voluntary.” But no tax is voluntary: the GST, income tax, property
tax are modern day examples. In 1923, the Canadian Government imposed
the Chinese Exclusion Act to prohibit further Chinese immigration. Did
the Chinese “voluntarily” subject themselves to the Chinese Exclusion
Act?
 
The Head Tax and
Chinese Exclusion Act are unique pieces of legislation in that they
specifically target a racial group and with an expressed purpose to
restrict and then prohibit further Chinese immigration. The Canadian
Government collected $23 million in head tax levies, a sum with a
present value of over $2 billion today. These laws served to subject
the Chinese community to overt and systemic racism well beyond its
repeal in 1947: families were separated for generations, some remain
separated even today.
 
The Head Tax
redress issue is one of the few community-drive election issues. Over
and over again, our seniors have reminded us that the issue is not
about the money per se but more about human dignity. Our youth have
asked “Are we not doomed to repeat these or similar mistakes if we just
brush things off as a history lesson? Where is the education value in
providing no redress to the very people who endured the 62 years of
legislated racism?”
 
The
Head Tax and Chinese Exclusion Act were immoral laws, even in their
time as non-Chinese who spoke out against its racist nature. During
this election campaign all Parties have agreed to a Parliamentary
aknowledgement and apology, and the Conservatives, NDP and BLOC have
agreed to an inclusive process to finally resolve this longstanding
issue.  As one of my colleagues asked: “If the Head Tax and Chinese
Exclusion Act was morally wrong, then what is the morally right thing
to do?”
 
With the Lunar New Year upon us, this is the time for family, reconciliation and hope.

Victor Wong

Guess who is coming to Gung Haggis dinner? Author Grant Hayter-Menzies

Leave a reply


Guess who is coming to Gung Haggis dinner?  
Author Grant Hayter-Menzies

Lots of people discover Gung Haggis Fat Choy through various means: on a website, on a poster, through radio, on television, in a newspaper or maybe through a friend.  Here's a letter from somebody, very excited to becoming a Clan Gung Haggis initiate.

Dear Todd,

My partner (who's actually Scottish) and I (grandson of a Scot) will be having our first GHFC experience next weekend, and as I Googled today I found this lovely article in The Scotsman:

http://heritage.scotsman.com/traditions.cfm?id=75492006

… and I'm all the more excited!  Your philosophy of interculturalism is exactly like that espoused by the Chinese-American writer Princess Der Ling, about whom I have written the first biography (and for which am trying to find a publisher!).  A woman who showed the Empress Dowager Cixi how to do the two-step at the Summer Palace in 1903, and gave the Kwang-hsu emperor pointers on American slang, would have loved GungHaggisFatChoy. 

Les
and I look forward to meeting you, too!  We will be wearing T'ang
jackets with Glengarry caps (and our clan badges: his is McLaren, mine,
obviously, Menzies) – and I'll have that antique fan in hand…  I will look for you and introduce myself – I will have my autographed Mei Lanfang Beijing Opera fan in hand, so you can't miss me :o) 

All best to you – Xie xie!

Grant Hayter-Menzies

PS: I am an American but will be moving to Victoria to join Les next month, if I can just get my landing papers between now and 31 January… Les predicts it will occur right on Robbie Burns Day, and he (Celt that he is) seldom has the wrong premonition :o)

http://www.nwchina.org/menzies.html

All best – Grant
http://www.authorsden.com/grantmmenzies


Georgia Straight names election candidate recommendations + conversation with Charlie Smith

Leave a reply


The Georgia Straight names election candidate recommendations

Funny thing happened
as I was writing this article.  Georgia Straight News Editor
Charlie Smith phoned me.

“Todd I've been seeing your face pop up on tv all over the place.”

“Oh Charlie, I just wanted to make a statment about head tax.  It
is such an important issue for all Canadians, but especially for me as
a 5th generational Chinese-Canadian.  My grandmother is 95 years
old, and her father and husband paid the head tax.  The Liberals
really bungled the head tax redress by not including head tax
descendants.  That's why I agreed to do the NDP television
ad.  I truly feel that the Liberals have forgotten to speak to
“real Canadians.” Their bureaucrats followed their instructions to only
find organizations that agreed to their pre-conditions of No Apology,
and No Compensation.  That was a terrible predicament to put our
Chinese Canadian veterans in, who have always asked for an apology, yet
no compensation.  They wanted to see an apology in their lifetime,
and all they got was a psuedo admission of regret.”

Charlie and I have a good conversation, and he asks me questions about
how I feel that no Chinese Canadian candidates may be elected from the
Vancouver Lower Mainland.  I tell him that with candidates like
Libby Davies and Bill Siksay who have good handles and outreach into
the Chinese communities, I feel confident that we have their ear. 
I think many people in the Chinese community feel that Raymond Chan did
not stand up for Chinese Canadians on the head tax redress issue. 
He could have resigned his position in protest – but he followed the
party line.  But give credit to Raymond Chan, he did bring a
redress settlement to the House, even though it was a gutted private
members bill first brought up by Conservative Inky Mark.  And head
tax redress will finally get its due soon – although not the way
Raymond Chan intended.

We also discuss how Sherry Shaghaghi is the first Iranian-Canadian
candidate for a federal election.  “She is a star
candidate.”  It's important for ethnic candidates to develop
exposure, even though they may be running in unwinnable ridings such as
North Vancouver.  But think of what it was like for Doug Jung to
run for election as the first Chinese Canadian MP in 1957.

More importanly Charlie Smith and I also discuss what I have found to
be amazing during this
election is that the Chinese community, has a new identity through the
hard work of incredible 1st generation immigrants such as Thekla Lit,
Bill Chu and Gabriel Yiu, with Canadian born Chinese like myself. 
He has such high praise for them all, and especially Sid Tan, whose
mother in China was separated from his father in Canada for
decades. 
I especially have a greater appreciation and understanding of Chinese
language immigrants and the Chinese media too.  And that is a good
thing.

The Georgia Straight includes the Chinese Head Tax redress amongst important elections issues such as
the future of health care, child care, the cost of postsecondary
education, crime, police surveillance powers, ,
immigration, Canadian military priorities, and the desire for less
corruption in Ottawa.  They also state that “it’s
unthinkable to elect federal politicians who opposed ratifying the
Kyoto Protocol and who are so threatened by gay and lesbian marriages
that they feel they must be banned.”

Recommendations are listed in 19 Lower Mainland ridings where none of the choices have
denied that human activity is contributing to climate change nor want to deny same-sex
marriage.

My personal view is that I cannot support the Liberal position on the
head tax apology, or rather lack of proper apology and failue to
compensate remaining head tax payers and spouses.  After
scratching out Conservative candidates who are
anti-same-sex-marriage… there's generally only the NDP and Green
Party left.  But we still need some good Conservative and Liberal
reps in the House…. hmmm…. who will it be?

Highlights include:

We’re not recommending Chan because he fumbled the Chinese head-tax issue, refusing to give an official apology.


Libby Davies, who was first elected to Parliament in 1997, has had more impact than most opposition federal politicians.


Bill Siksay deserves to be reelected after his party forced the federal
Liberals to amend their budget to replace corporate tax cuts with
tuition assistance and funding for housing.


Mary Woo Sims, the former
chief commissioner of the BC Human Rights Commission, is a hero to some
in the gay and lesbian community for her record as a defender and
promoter of human rights.

As B.C.’s attorney general in the late 1990s, Dosanjh did more than any
of his predecessors to advance the rights of gays and lesbians and to
allocate public resources to combat domestic abuse. No one can accuse
Dosanjh of lacking personal courage.

For 25 years as an NDP MP in Burnaby, Svend Robinson repeatedly
demonstrated that he was willing to do all of this and more on behalf
of his constituents.


We’re recommending Shaghaghi, a clinical counsellor, over Stephenson
because of her extensive record of community service and her party’s
record in the recent Parliament.

Dawn Black is a progressive politician who will fight for the concerns of low-income residents in the riding.

Burnaby Now: Bill Siksay backs Head Tax Redress

Leave a reply
Burnaby Now: Bill Siksay backs Head Tax Redress

I have known Bill Siksay since '88 to '90 when he was Sven
Robinson's constituency assistant in Burnaby Douglas.  At the
January 16th press conference and Statement of Support signing by
candidates supporting Head Tax Redress, I asked the candidates if any
of them were direct head tax descendants or had family members who were.

Bill Siksay gave this reply as reported in Burnabynow newspaper”

“The
head tax was a terrible chapter in Canadian history,” Siksay said. “It
was an unjust law that caused incredible hardship for many, many
people.
“I had
family who lived in Canada at that time, which means, in fact, that I
had family who were head-tax collectors,” he said. “This isn't just an
issue for Chinese-Canadians, this is an issue for all Canadians to take
responsibility for what happened in the past.”

Siksay
noted that the Liberals and Conservatives voted to water down the
original head-tax redress bill in Parliament to remove the word
'apology' and replace it with a statement of recognition.
“They took a weak bill and made it worse,” Siksay said. ”
Siksay
also noted that the NDP has been at the forefront of the issue since
the early '80s, when former MP Margaret Mitchell introduced the first
proposal on the matter.


Siksay
said he believes redress and compensation are vital to ensuring that
Canada moves forward as a strong and proud country that acknowledges it
was built on the backs of immigrants.

The
Liberals are the only party still refusing to endorse or commit to
individual compensation, and no Liberals attended the ceremony.  Conservative Darrel Reid of Richmond who said while he supported head tax redress, his party's position was not to sign.

Candidates who attended and signed the
Support Declaration are:

NDP: Neil Smith, Bev Meslo, Ian Waddell, Libby Davies, Bill
Siksay, Peter Julian, Mary Woo Sims & Svend Robinson.

Green: Doug Perry, Christine Ellis, Ray Power, Ben West,
Jean-Philippe Laflamme, Sven Biggs & Silvaine Zimmermann.

Canadian Action: Constance
Fogal

Candidates who did not attended but signed
the Support Declaration in advance by fax/email:

NDP: David Askew, William Jonsson, Dawn Black & Penny
Priddy (not from the above 11
ridings).

Green: Richard Gordon Mathias, Roy Whyte

Conservative: Paul Forseth

TOTAL CANDIDATE SIGNED THE SUPPORT DECLARATION: 23 (NDP-12, GREEN- 9, CONSERVATIVE-1,
LIBERAL-0

 

Gabriel Yiu election commentary: Past recommendations, Present Decisions

Leave a reply
Gabriel Yiu election commentary: Past recommendations, Present Decisions

Gabriel Yiu is a new friend whose thoughtful comments, insight to
Chinese language community and presence I have enjoyed while working
together on the BC Coalition for Head Tax Payers, Spourse and
Descendants.

I share here, his commentary that he sent to me in an e-mail.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm pleased to
share with you my recommendation for this federal election, something I've
been doing in the past 10 years.  Agree or
disagree as you may, democracy is about rational discussion and informed
decision.

 
Cheers,
Gabriel
 
———
 

Past Recommendations, Present Decisions
Gabriel Yiu, 20.1.2006 Global Chinese
Press
 
I have been providing media commentary on current affairs since
1995.  In almost every election from
then on, I have given my analysis and recommendation to my listeners and
readers.  Here are my election
recommendations in the past ten years, for the record.
 
Provincial election 1996. I urged voters to support the B.C. Liberal
Party, because I saw a great many problems in the way NDP Premier Glen Clark
governed the province. 
Clark was
re-elected, but at a terrible cost, for it led to the devastating defeat of his
party in the following election.
 
Federal election 1997.  I
recommended that my listeners vote for the Reform Party, mainly because I could
not accept a party that worked to separate the country, Bloc Quebecois, taking
up the mantle of Official Opposition.
 
Federal election 2000. Even though I was very dissatisfied with our
arrogant and authoritarian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, I equally distrusted
the capability of the leader of the Canadian Alliance, Stockwell Day.  Day was the rising star in that election
and won a historic 80,000 votes in B.C. 
Prior to the voting day, I openly stated that I simply could not make a
choice between those two leaders and I was not making any recommendation at
all.  After the election, some of
the most senior CA MPs, extremely dissatisfied with Day’s incompetence, left the
caucus and formed a new block in the House.
 
Provincial election 2001. In view of the great fall of the NDP, I
vehemently discussed the important role of opposition in the legislature and
urged the public to consider voting for the NDP.  The election resulted in merely 2 NDP
seats left in the House.
 
Federal election 2004. I was not involved with the media that year and
did not offer any suggestions.
 
Provincial election 2005. Greatly discontented with the B.C. Liberals’
extreme right-wing government (the lack of opposition being a major cause), I
joined the NDP and ran for office. I was not a commentator, but my position in
that election was very clear.
 
In this federal election, 2006, I recommend voting for the
NDP.
 
The Liberals have been governing for 13 years. They are a party that has
lost its way, and they offer no new ideas. 
They have lost sight of ideals that can run and sustain this
country.  They are merely fighting
to cling to power.  The Liberals’
corruption must be punished; otherwise, that kind of malpractice will spread
across the country.
 
Prime Minister Martin often boasts of his great achievement in abolishing
the federal deficit.  But the
negative aspects of this “great achievement” should not be overlooked.  In order to balance his budget, Martin
drastically cut government spending and grabbed the surplus from the
Unemployment/Employment Insurance Fund and put it into the treasury.  With the drop of interest rate, the
interest payment on the $600 billion national debt also decreased
significantly.  As Romanow’s report
has indicated, funding shortage is one of the major causes of the decline of our
public health system.  Our cities
have been facing a great many problems which could also be traced to the lack of
government funding.  As for the
UI/EI fund, the Liberal government’s continuous effort to tighten legibility
requirements has created an enormous surplus of $48 billion.  This fund belongs to the working people.
Instead of reducing the premium or increasing support for the unemployed
workers, Martin simply seized it.
 
The Conservative Party’s recent surge of support has little to do with
Stephen Harper’s leadership; it is merely an expression of people’s
dissatisfaction with the Liberal Party. 
As the Official Opposition in the last parliament, the Conservatives had
a dismal record.  Harper’s slips of
the tongue often diverted public attention from the Liberals’ problems.  In the areas of monitory the government,
new ideas and policy offerings, the Conservatives are way behind NDP, a party
with merely one-fifth of the seats of the Official Opposition.
 
The Conservatives managed to release new party policies in their campaign
almost continuously.  These policies
may be able to reflect the party’s beliefs and philosophy, but similar policies
have been proven a failure in the previous Conservative government in
Ontario.  There was a good reason why Mike Harris’
“Common Sense Revolution” was
used in the Liberals’ political
advertisement to attack Conservatives.
 
In the 308-seat parliament, the NDP occupies merely 19 seats.  Under the leadership of Jack Layton, the
NDP played a significant role in the last parliament.  It exercised its muscle in pounding on
the Liberals’ sponsorship corruption. 
The recent RCMP’s investigation on the Income Trust leak was also exposed
by the NDP.
 
The Liberals proudly talk about their child care program, but their 1993
promise could only have materialized due to the pressure of the NDP last
year.  Likewise, it was the NDP who
forced the Liberal government to cancel generous tax cuts to large corporations
and invest the money on advanced education, city building, public transit and
social housing.  Early in this
campaign, the premier of Alberta,
Ralph Klein, credited Jack
Layton with being the only federal leader with a genuine stand on protecting
public health care.
 
Canada
has been governed by the Liberal Party and by the Conservative Party, and they
both have intimate, intricate connections with large corporations.  Prior to 1993, the Conservatives had no
less corruption nor fewer scandals than today’s Liberals.  The NDP is the only party with the
mandate to defend the interests of the working people and fight for social
justice.  The Chinese head tax is a
good example. The NDP helped to initiate the redress movement in 1984. Although
political faces have been changing throughout these years, the party’s position
is firm and consistent. It has rightly earned applause from the
public.
 
 

CBC Radio and Metro News: Gung Haggis Media Alert: Look and listen for Toddish McWong

Leave a reply


 

CBC Radio and Metro News: Gung  Haggis Media Alert: 

 

Look and listen for Toddish McWong

Thursday afternoon I met with Metro News reporter Jared, Dragon
Martials Arts store on Pender St. at the Chinese Cultural Centre. 
This is where I purchased my Lion Head mask.  I never ever
imagined that the combination of Chinee Lion Head maskwith a red kilt
would become such an iconic symbol of “Gung Haggis Fat Choy” cultural
fusion…. but it did.  The image has become copied and blogged
around the world… from Calfornia to Canton, from Nova Scotia to
Scotland, from New Jersey to Simon Fraser University.

Jared took some pictures of me at Dragon Martial Arts, where I also
purchased a small child's lion head mask for my nephew.  I think
he'll like it.  We also took some pictures with the Lion Head mask
on the standing on the corner of Carrall and Pender St.  with the
Chinatown Millenium Gate designed my my cousin Joe Wai, in the
background.

Friday morning I am expecting a phone call from the hosts of the new CBC Radio program “Freestyle.”
They are looking for an update on the 9th annual
Gung Haggis Fat Choy” Toddish McWong's Robbie Burns Chinese New Year
Dinner.  I will have to tell them that I have friends from
Victoria to Halifax, Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto and Montreal who all
share in the Gung Haggis spirit, and may be hosting their own Gung
Haggis Fat Choy dinners, and raising a dram of whiskey to toast Toddish
McWong.

I am amazed at how many people across Canada have heard about Gung
Haggis Fat Choy.  Last year my 2nd cousin Katie in Toronto phoned
my Grandmother to tell her that she saw me on CBC TV's The National
with Peter Mansbridge.  Some people have heard me on Sounds Like
Canada with Shelagh Rogers.  Friends have been e-mailing me the
new story in www.thescotsman.com written by Christina Wallace who
hopefully will be attending this year's dinner from Everett WA. 
And next week, my friends in Montreal will read about me in Maisoneuve.

And maybe one day, we can all put aside our racial prejudices, our
religious differences, and our political beliefs, and all celebrate our
similarities and our common Canadian-isms over dinner.  Food and
song.  This is what brings people together.  And together is
how we build a nation. And everybody in our nation is family.  And
in family, nobody gets left behind.

What to expect at the Gung Haggis Fat Choy 2005 Dinner

Leave a reply



What to expect at the Gung Haggis Fat Choy 2006 Dinner


Arrive Early:  The doors will open by
5:15 pm. All seating is reserved, and all tables are placed in the
order that they were ordered (except for special circumstances such as
a major sponsor hint hint).  We find this is the most fair, and it
encourages people to buy their tickets earlier to ensure a table closer
to the stage.  We expect a rush just prior to the posted 5:30pm
reception
time.  This is the time to go to the bar and get your dram of
Glenfiddich or pint of McEwan's Lager – specially ordered for tonight's
dinner.  Ohhh…. but we might be having a special sponsor for drinks.  Well working on it.

The premium
tables will have two bottles of wine on each table.  This is the
reward for purchasing tables closer to the stage and paying $10 more
each.  This also means that you don't have to stand in line for your first drink.

Buy Your Raffle Tickets:
We have some great door
and raffle prizes lined up.  Lots of books (being the writers we
be), gift certificates and theatre tickets + other surprises.  The
best book prize will be BC Almanac's Greatest British Columbians. 
And one of the Greatest British Columbians will be one of our special
performers… Joy Kogawa!

Please buy
raffle tickets… this is how we generate our fundraising.  We
purposely keep our admission costs low to $50 for advance regular seats
so that they are affordable and the dinner can be attended by more
people.  Children's tickets are subsidized so that we can include
them in the audience and be an inclusive family for the evening.

This dinner is the primary fundraising event for
both the Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop, publishers of RicePaper Magazine and the Gung Haggis Fat Choy Dragon
Boat Team. Please support our missions of supporting and developing emerging writers,
organizing reading events, and to spread multiculturalism through
dragon boat racing – or come join our teams!

The Save Kogawa House committee
was added as a beneficiary for the event, because I feel it is
important to save Joy Kogawa's childhood home from demolition.  I
have been working on the committee, and I am pleased that The Land
Conservancy has stepped in to partner with us and help lead the
campaign to turn Kogawa House
 into a National literary landmark and treasure for all Canadians.

The first appetizer dish will appear once people
are seated, and after the Piping in of the musicians and
hosts.  We will lead a singalong of Scotland the Brave and give
good welcome to our guests, only then will the first appetizers 
appear.  You want to eat, you have to sing for your supper!

From then on… a new dish will appear every 10 to 15 minutes –
quickly followed by one of our co-hosts introducing a poet or musical
performer.  Serving 60 tables within 5 minutes, might not work
completely, so please be patient.  We will encourage our guests
and especially the waiters to be quiet while the performers on stage.
Then for the 5 minute intermissions, everybody can talk and make noise
before they have to be quiet for the performers again.

This year's
dinner show will emphasize the show over the dinner.  In past
years, we have always tried to alternate food dishes with
performances.  But with the high quality of artists, we need to
highlight them… so this year… the show takes priority!

Expect the unexpected: I
don't want to give anything away right now as I
prefer the evening to unfold with a sense of surprise and
wonderment.  But let it do be known that we have an incredible
array of talent for the evening 


This includes the incredible children's entertainers Rick Scott and his buddy Harry Wong. 
I have seen them perform together at the Vancouver International
Children's Festival, and I have also seen Rick perform solo and with
his legendary folk trio Pied Pumkin.

The
harmonies and energy of The Shirleys will astound you.  I have
seen them twice so far… and each time my thoughts were…. “I want
them at Gung Haggis!”

Our non-traditional reading of the “Address to the
Haggis” is always a crowd pleaser.  I hand-pick members of the
audience to join us on stage to read a verse.  Past participants
have included former federal Multicultural Minister Raymond Chow, Qayqayt
(New Westminster) First Nations Chief Rhonda Larrabee, UBC
Director of the Chan Centre Dr. Sid Katz, a descendent of Robert the
Bruce, a doctor from White Horse, a UBC student from Scotland, somebody
doing a vocal impression of Sean Connery.

Who will it be for 2006?  We leave it up until the evening to decide.

The evening will wrap up somewhere between 9:00 and
9:30 pm, then we will socialize further until 10pm.  People will
leave with smiles on their faces and say to
each other, “Very Canadian,”  “Only in Vancouver could something
like this happen,” or “I'm telling my friends.”