Joy Kogawa opposes Bill C-333 - ACE program "so-called Chinese head tax redress package"

Hi Todd,

This is almost exactly what happened with Japanese Canadian redress. My new/old novel, "Emily Kato" (a re-write of Itsuka and just published) describes the panic when  government tried to pull the rug out from the redress movement. But we did stop it.

Here's a copy of the letter that Tam asked for and that went off this morning. It may not make it, of course, into the Globe & Mail. 

Joy

Letters to the editor
Re: Money for grievances, Nov. 19.

June Callwood, Dr. Joseph Wong, Michele Landsberg, and many other people of conscience have added their support to the Ontario Coalition of Chinese Head Tax Payers and Families plus the Chinese Canadian National Council. The strenuous efforts of these organizations to have the Head Tax redress resolved in an honourable manner have thus far been thwarted by the federal government.
Two decades ago I was passionately involved in the Japanese Canadian struggle for redress for the actions against my community during and after World War II. The aspect of the struggle that was for me the most arduous was the endeavour to have the government recognize the legitimacy of our national organization. More than once in its haste and impatience to resolve the issue, events were staged by government officials to undercut the community's need for an inclusive, open and healing process.

Today, this same unseemly haste and disregard for the passions and needs of the affected people are once more evident in the issue of the Chinese Head Tax. Surely there is time enough to heed the many voices across the country, pleading for the healing of those who were directly affected and those who have been working across the country on this matter for many years.

I am reminded again as I was twenty years ago of the words of the prophet Jeremiah. "They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying 'Peace, Peace,' where there is no peace."

Joy Kogawa