Terry Fox Run in Richmond BC always has a great community support

Miss BC and McNair High School cheerleaders encourage Terry Fox Run participants and give high-5's as they cross the finish line at the Richmond run site at Garry Point Park on September 13th, Sunday.

Volunteer Lindsay Pagnucco holds up one of the many Terry Fox Run t-shirts on sale near the registration tent.

Bagpipe Noel Chalmers, Dr. Andrew Wang and Terry's Team member Todd Wong

Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie walks with the crowd to the start line.

Platform party for the 2009 Terry Fox Run in Richmond BC: Terry's Team member Todd Wong, warm-up leader, Mayor Malcolm Brodie, John Yap MLA, Dr. Andrew Wang (Terry Fox Lab), Councilor McNulty, Miss BC Sandra Gin, Noel Chalmers (bagpiper).

Dr. Andrew Wang of the Terry Fox Lab in Vancouver gave a brief but excellent talk about how the monies raised are used at the Terry Fox Lab for cancer research - describing some of the important research that they do.

April 6th is Tartan Day the whole world over.  And now there is Scottish Week.

The Centre for Scottish Studies, at Simon Fraser University, organized a conference on "Robert Burns in Transatlantic Context."  I was invited by Dr. Leith Davis to perform on the Tuesday evening, and give a presentation on Wednesday afternoon, and attend the closing reception on Thursday evening.

Tartan Week in Vancouver was also the final stop for Scottish Parliamentary Minister of Culture, Michael Russell, who started his week at the Tartan Day parade in New York City, visited Toronto, Vancouver, Victoria, then Vancouver again.

Toddish McWong meets Michael Russell, Scottish Parliamentary Minister for Culture, External Affairs and Constitution,
Scottish Development International - photo T. Wong

Last year I was featured in a Vancouver Sun story about Tartan Day.  Vancouver Sun: The next celebration - Toddish McWong helps to spread the word about Tartan Day  

Then I helped organize a proclamation by the City of Vancouver: Tartan Day (April 6) proclaimed in City of Vancouver, April 3

This year the major events were organized by Dr. Leith Davis, director of the Centre for Scottish Studies, SFU.

The week started out with a Tuesday evening of music and song for the "Musical Celebration of Burns in North America," featuring Jon Bartlett and Rika Reubsaat, performing "Burns Songs in BC", and also Kirsteen McCue and pianist David Hamilton performing Burns Songs by Serge Hovey.  This was really interesting because Kirsteen is from Scotland, and she explained that these were the musical arrangements that Burns himself had used, but were only discovered a few years ago.

Todd Wong apologizes for being unable to "roll" his "r's" due to Chinese DNA which has no "r-sounds"in the Chinese language.

Leith asked for a performance of "The Haggis Rap" or "Rap To A Haggis", in which bagpiper Joe McDonald and I rap the immortal Burns poem, "Address to a Haggis."  I introduced it by saying that Joe and I had performed this on CBC national television, and our MP3 version had also been played on BBC Radio Scotland two years ago.  Meanwhile, Joe had found a haggis in the kitchen.  Gung Haggis dragon boater Debbie Poon followed Joe into the hall carrying the haggis.

Joe McDonald pipes in the haggis for Scottish Week.

We closed off the evening by leading a singalong of Auld Lang Syne with the first verse and chorus in Mandarin Chinese.  Then dragon boaters Steven Wong and Debbie Poon helped lead some "volunteers" in a Chinese dragon parade, complete with two children carrying the Chinese lion masks.  It was fun, and lots of people thanked us afterwards with positive compliments.

On Wednesday there was a Community Research Forum on "Burns In BC."

Jon Bartlett and Rika Reubsaat started the forum by talking about the history of Burns dinners in BC.  They were followed by Robert Barr who gave a history of the Vancouver Burns Club.  I followed with a history of Gung Haggis Fat Choy, its origins and its cultural fusion context.

I explained that BC is a young province.  While we are celebrating the 250th Anniversary of Robert Burns' birth, we only just celebrated the 150th anniversary of the colony of BC.  Vancouver is only 123 years old.  I explained that to me, the "Two Solitudes" of BC are the Scottish and Chinese.  Each arrived from an opposite direction, and lived in conflict.  I explained that if the Scots hadn't been in political power, there probably wouldn't have been a Chinese Head Tax or an Exclusion Act to keep the Chinese out of Canada.  To which many people applauded my statement.  I went on to say that many generations later, there are many Scots and Chinese intermarried, and sharing Scots and Chinese DNA, just like in my family.

I shared how I first wore a kilt for the 1993 Burns ceremony at Simon Fraser University, and how the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinners grew from 16 people in 1998 to 550 people in 2009.  A CBC television performance special was aired in 2004 and 2005.   And with the SFU Recreation Department, I helped create the SFU Gung Haggis Fat Choy Festival in 2005 with dragon cart races, and later with the human curling event.  It was a good talk that also included how I was chosent to play Robert Burns for the Celticfest's inaugural "Battle of the Bards" which I won against actors playing Dylan Thomas and W.B. Yeats.

Making Burns relevant in a global 21st Century, is what Gung Haggis Fat Choy events do.  The growth of copycat dinners in Ottawa, the Yukon, Seattle and Santa Barbara, demonstrate that Gung Haggis is reaching people in a positive way.  While promoting Burns, it also addresses multiculturalism and racism.

Thursday's Scottish Week finale is a reception for Michael Russell, Scottish Member of Parliament.

It's not everyday, you meet an important Canadian parliamentary leader in a pub on St. Patrick's Day...

- but Jack Layton was in Vancouver for Celticfest and the St. Patrick's Day Parade

Todd Wong, Jack Layton, Allan McMordie, Trish McMordie - photo T.Wong/T.Lam

We had spent 3 hours in the cold preparing and walking in the parade with the Gung Haggis Fat Choy Pipe & Drums, and Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team, carrying a parade dragon, lion head masks and dragon boat paddles.  We were cold, and in need of warm food and carbohydrate replenishment.  Jack Layton, federal NDP leader had been in the parade too.  He often comes in August for Vancouver's Pride Parade. Jack said he was also in Vancouver to attend an event for Don Davies, MP for Vancouver Kensington. 

I've known Don for a few years, when he first introduced himself to me at one of Meena Wong's dim sum luncheons (coincidence: Meena had been an assistant for Jack Layton's wife Olivia Chow in Toronto). Jack's wife is Chinese-Canadian MP, Olivia Chow, and they are also friends of Canadian author Joy Kogawa. Wow... Jack and Olivia are a real inter-cultural couple on a national scale!  Very Gung Haggis!  I had dim sum with Olivia in 2007, at one of Meena Wong's dim sum socials with Chinese head tax activists, see: Dim Sum with Olivia Chow in Vancouver

I asked Jack, if he had Scottish ancestry, which he affirmed. It was on Robbie Burns Day, January 25th 2003, he became federal leader of the NDP (New Democratic Party"). If Robbie Burns was the ploughman's poet, then Jack Layton must be the workers' parliamentarian.

Layton's views of social democracy, probably best represent Robert Burns's similar views - more than the other federal leaders. Burns was such a progressive thinker of the Scottish enlightenment, that many of his views were not published until after his death - they would have been considered "that radical".  Remember that during Burns' time, happening around him was the American Revolution, and the French Revolution, as Modern Democracy emerged.  But 250 years later they fit very much into a social democratic world.   Layton's great-granduncle, William Steeves, was a Father of Confederation. Layton's own grandfather Gilbert Layton was a cabinet minister in the Quebec provincial government, and his father Robert Layton was a Member of Parliament and cabinet minister. 

Just as Jack Layton was preparing to leave the pub, our bagpipers started playing some songs.  Jack took out his cell phone and started videoing them, then recorded a Happy St. Patrick's Day message.  Maybe this will appear on his web page.  I used my camera to record the action. 

Check it this video:

Saturday March 14 2:00 PM – 6:00 PM

Battle of the Bards - A Literary Pub Crawl and Grand Finale Three cheers! The Battle of the Bards is back for 2009, whisking you along on a flying tour of Granville Street’s best Irish pubs. Dynamic spoken word artists Sean McGarragle, Duncan Shields and Warren Dean Fulton channel W.B. Yeats, Oscar Wilde and Robbie Burns respectively as they duke it out to be crowned “top bard” in an on-the-move poetry slam-style contest, judged by members of the audience in each venue. The crawl culminates at The Cellar, where the bards will do final “battle” with Vancouver’s first official poet laureate George McWhirter presiding over the event. Expect plenty of artistic license as the performers offer their own hilarious perspectives on the masters with the help of improv fiddler Caitlan Read. Who will be this year’s “top bard”? Why don’t you be the judge!

Pub Crawl Round 1 - 2:00 PM @ Doolin's Irish Pub Round 2 – 2:45 PM @ Ceili’s Irish Pub Round 3 – 3:30 PM @ Johnnie Fox's Irish Snug No admission charge @ Pub Crawl venues Open Mic & Finale Event The Cellar, 1006 Granville St. @ Nelson 4:25 PM to 6:00 PM

Saturday March 14 2 shows: 2:00 PM & 4:00 PM

King o' Men - A Robbie Burns Stage Play & 250th Birthday Tribute Featuring John Hardie & Rob MacDonald A literary and musical costumed event that will send you spinning back in time to the glorious days of Scotland’s most legendary poet and lyricist. 2009 marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of Robbie Burns, a cultural icon in Scotland and around the world. This tribute features Rob MacDonald, a local piper, Chairman of “A Swarm of Drones” and a Burns aficionado. He’ll be telling the fascinating story of the life and times of Burns and playing some of the tunes Robert set words to. His performance will be followed by King o’ Men, an exciting new one-man play directed by writer and actor John Hardie and making its Vancouver premiere at CelticFest. The production imagines one of Burns’ closest and oldest friends reminiscing to a curious journalist following the news of the great poet’s final passing. This show will appeal to loyal fans of Scotland's favourite literary son as well as those who are new to Burns’ story and works. Here's what Chris White, Artistic Director of the Ottawa Folk Festival, had to say about a recent production of the play at the National Arts Centre: "With minimal set and few props, Hardie delivered the piece with enormous skill and subtlety, somehow managing to be humorous, informative and intensely moving all at once. The performance, which elicited an overwhelmingly positive audience response, is one that I will be forever grateful to have witnessed."

Tom Lee Music - Music Hall 3rd floor - 929 Granville St.

Sunday March 15
11:30 AM

6th Annual St. Patrick's Day Parade

Where can you find hundreds of thousands of people, all seized with Celtic fever? At the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, of course! This year the parade travels a new route along Georgia Street, beginning at Broughton St., ending up at the Celtic Village outside the Vancouver Art Gallery at Georgia and Howe. Round up your family and friends (and favourite green attire) and enjoy the spectacle of over 2,000 colourfully costumed participants, from pipers and drummers to acrobats and stilt-walkers. The price is still right – absolutely free!

Presented by Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association

This editorial cartoon ran in the Vancouver Sun, and has now been circulating the e-mails of certain Celtic/Gaelic-Canadian musicians....  with the added  quote:

"The Islanders and Highlanders came to this country of Canada---- discovered, settled and governed it. Pipes are used for just about all special occasions and this is the thanks we get!!!"

• The first time we saw Gregor Robertson in a Kilt in 2008 - was at the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner....
• City councilor Raymond Louie declared on Brother Jake's Rock 101 radio show, on January 25th, that Louie would wear a kilt for Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner....
• And city councilor Heather Deal came to Doolin's for the March Kilts Night, and made the motion (seconded by Louie) that City of Vancouver proclaim Tartan Day for April 6th,
• I put tartan sashes on city councilors Tim Stevenson, George Chow + Mayor Sullivan and a mini-skirt on councilor Capri - for a Tartan Day photo opportunity on April 4th.
• Parks Commissioner Stuart Mackinnon didn't even own a kilt, until after he joined the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team!