St. Andrew's Day - Gung Haggis Fat Choy style

St. Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland.  St Andrew was one of Jesus' twelve disciples and he lived and worked as a fisherman in Galilee. He was the brother of Peter, another of Christ's disciples.

A few days ago... Maggie Shiels of the BBC Radio Scotland program "Scotland Licked" asked me if I had any plans for St. Andrew's Day.  I had to confess that I hadn't thought about it.  But I promised I would celebrate now that she had brought it up.

So... how did Toddish McWong celebrated St. Andrew's Day?  By forgetting to wear my kilt - but with the freezing temperatures and yesterday's snowfall still hanging around the upper elevations, I didn't dare. 

St. Andrew was a fisherman, so for dinner I ate fish.  Well actually it was sushi, and it was during a meeting for the Save Kogawa House committee.  Next I went to see the musical show celebrating the music and dance of South Africa, called Umoja, "the spirit of togetherness."  Amazing! Filled with incredible songs, drums, music and dance... I will write my review later.

The most important thing I did on St. Andrew's Day was go to my favorite drinking establishment in Vancouver - Doolin's Irish Pub, where we celebrate "Kilts Night" on the first Saturday of each month. My buddy Rod and his brother Rick were my drinking partners as we celebrated with Guinness.  We had the Irish Nachos made with potato chips... covered with cheese, sour cream, onions, diced tomatoes...

Doolin's is fun - the waitresses all wear short plaid skirts, and I recieved greetings from Evan the manager, Christine Van, the promotions manager, and Jenny our waitress.
Bear,Me, Dallas and Raphael at Kilts Night
Vancouver really doesn't celebrate St. Andrew's Day.  There's a mention in the Georgia Straight by Jurgen Goethe about a limited release Scottish Ale by Granville Island Breweries.  A few of the local Scottish societies are having St. Andrew's Day dinners.  But nobody's invited me yet.  Maybe they're afraid I might bring my accordion.

It was way back in 1955 on St. Andrew's Day in 1955, 21 Scottish Canadians groups finally opened the United Scottish Cultural Centre at Fir and 12th Avenue in Vancouver. (In July, 1986, the centre would move into a new home at 8886 Hudson in Marpole.)  Apparently there was a party there on Nov 26th, Saturday Night - but nobody told me. 
- Joe McDonald on flute
Mad Celts was providing the entertainment - and Joe McDonald band leader is my regular piper for Gung Haggis Fat Choy.... and he didn't tell me!

Chinese Head Tax: Protest in Vancouver Chinatown

We chanted loud and proud.  We walked up Pender St and down Keefer St.  We were interviewed by radio, TV and newspaper journalists.  We waved at the Primeminister. We were ordinary Canadians who just happened to be Chinese.  We were descendants of head tax payers and we were supporters of a cause.  We were senior citizens, we were Baby Boomers, and we were Generation X.  We were all asking for an apology and for redress.

Somehow on Saturday, I ended up being a protest organizer.  I have never done this before.  Yes, I have organized  Chinese Robbie Burns dinners for 600, and organized dragon boat races for thousands.  I have been an advocate for mental health, cancer programs, Terry Fox Runs, dragon boat and Chinese Canadian issues - but never before have I picked up a megaphone and urged the crowd to chant "Apologize Now" - nor direct a crowd in a peaceful demonstration when the Prime Minister was arriving at an event.

I woke up Saturday morning, and went down to Home Depot to buy some correplast to make placards.  I arrived at the Chinese Cultural Centre courtyard at 10:45am and Sid Tan, shouted out "The power of two!" to onlooking media types.  I immediately asked Sid for the markers he promised and started making signs, as Sid would shout out "The power of Three", and "Now we are Four!"  Our crowd would grow steadily to 50, then 60, and more. People would bring banners and signs saying "BC Coalition of Head Tax Payers and Descendants", "Head Tax Redress is only Fair", and "NCCC Doesn't Speak for Me."

My signs were little history lessons which said:



It was great to see so many people out on Saturday.  Lots of cameraderie despite not being able to speak English or Cantonese to everybody... but it didn't matter... there were lots of smiles.  We tried our best to translate English and Cantonese for each other.  We shared our stories and we helped each other out.

Vancouver Sun took pictures.  Epoch Times, Sing Tao and World Journal all showed up at the Chinese Cultural Centre courtyard.  There were security guards at the CCC Multipurpose Hall who did not let our Coalition in the doors.  the NCCC had invited many Chinese community organizations and their members from across Canada - but they did not invite our group or the Chinese Canadian National Congress which had registered over 4000 individual head tax payers and descendants.  So we protested and we asked Minister of Multiculturalism Raymond Chan to come speak with us and answer our questions.

Lots of onlookers came by and asked us questions.  We explained the facts.  They said they sympathized with us.  We saw some of the conference goers peering out at us from behind the doors.


We spontaneously decided to take it to the streets and marched up Pender St, across Main St, then down Keefer St. and back to the CCC Courtyard.  All the while a Global TV cameraman filmed us and interviewed Sid Tan - event organizer. 

We decided to take a little break and get some buns and water for everybody.  This is when the police arrived and started asking us what we were doing.  Very calmly and politely we told them, as we continued updating our signs in anticipation of the Prime Minister's arrival.  We changed some of the signs to read "Liberals Sold us out!"  "PM Martin breaks his promises." 

In front of the SUCCESS front, I was interviewed by Toronto Star and CKNW 98 Radio.  Sid was interviewed by many more... CBC television was there... The PM's security tried to move us back from the front entrance and off to the side -but we pretty well held our ground. More and more people showed up.  People I never expected to see in a protest.  People from many aspects of the community.  Very respectable people.  And we shared our signs, smiled and chanted some more.

We moved to better line up along the street and make sure the PM saw our newly renovated signs when his limosine pulled up.


When Prime Minister Paul Martin did show up, there was a lion dance with drums banging loudly.  PM Martin was quickly hustled into the SUCCESS building where he shook hands with boy scouts then went into the meeting to speak to the NCCC and the organizations they had gathered to highlight their ACE program for redress - which neither apologizes nor gives individual reparation.

Outside we chant some more, sign up more names on the petition, exchange phone numbers.  I grab the megaphone and thank everybody for coming.  I announce that "We were interviewed by the Vancouver Sun, Toronto Star, Global TV, Ming Pao, Sing Tao, Fairchild and many more.  We have demonstrated that we are a community.  We have asked for apology and redress.  And we have been heard!  Congratulations everybody!"

It was an exhilerating day...
I hope some pictures of the event come our way soon....

See Alex Mah's short video film of the event:

On November 26, 2005, government compliant groups met at the Chinese Cultural Centre in Vancouver to put forward a "no apology, no compensation" agreement-in-principle between the National Congress of Chinese Canadians and the Liberal federal government represented by Multiculturalism Minister Raymond Chan.

Individuals and community groups, representing head-tax payers, their spouses, descendants and supporters organized a leafletting and information line at the conference and subsequent photo opportunity attended by Prime Minister Paul Martin at the SUCCESS complex in Chinatown.

Head Tax Protest: Redress: and a good time was had by us...Saltwater City reporting

Sid Chow Tan is the organizer of the BC Coalition of BC Head Tax Payers and Descendants.  He wrote this e-mail describing Saturday's protest outside the NCCC conference at the Chinese Cultural Centre. This was the conference where the NCCC had flown their members from across Canada and put them up in hotels with money from a $100,000 grant.  Basically photo ops with Raymond Chan and Prime Minister Paul Martin. Hopefully they don't use the head tax redress payments for their conferences and organizational costs.

Sid writes below:

Yo all

Simply, the soul-suckers could not face us. The Prime Minister did not glance at us. The Multiculturalism Minister and National Congress people snuck out other doors. Set-up started at 10:30am. We remained together at the CCC square, picking up numbers. A half an hour into leafletting, we were a hundred and more. I'm hoping photos will start coming in.

We could not attend the NCCC meeting and so held our  own. Placards appeared. After occupying the square for an hour, the group spontaneously decided on walk through Chinatown with Global TV. We went up Pender onto Main, down Keefer and back to the square.

This was a visual feast and galvanizing moment. We took up a collection and got buns and water, Some socializing and gabbing and a decision was made to welcome the Prime Minister at 2:00pm at SUCCESS. The group halved to the hardy.

Then somehow, we started picking up people, practised our chanting and started to have fun. If nothing else, it was already a successful day. 

At SUCCESS, the media following the PM started showing up. We stared to suck up coverage with chanting and our numbers. Then a big loud lion dance.

The PM was inside in three eye blinks, looking straight ahead. There was quite a crowd by now. We spent another half hour petition signing, answerings the public's question and doing alot of smiling and laughing.

The day exceeded my expectations by ten-fold. We got the names and numbers of a lot of supporters. Lot's of multi-tasking. I can't begin to thank all the people.

Our banner looked good and most were feeling fine. We tried to do group building and definitely sucked up media. At our level of organisation, much more can be and will be done. We can have much hope and inspiration at what our seniors and their families accomplished today. This is only the end of the beginning. The legislation lasted over three generations. It may take that long for a just and honourable redress.

The subject line says it all. More later.

Take care. anon Sid

Head Tax Redress: Gabriel Yiu and Raymond Chan speak on CBC Radio Early Edition

Gabriel Yiu and Minister of State (Multiculturalism) Raymond Chan were both interviewed on CBC Radio Early Edition this morning by host Rick Cluff.  They spoke about the current head tax issues.  My comments are in italics.

You can hear the interview on-line
http://www.cbc.ca/bc/story/bc_chan-head-tax20051128.html


Gabriel Yiu said the following:

- Chinese Canadian community response so far is one-sided. On Sat, Fairchild Radio & Channel M's open-line shows (3 hours), not a single caller supported Liberal's handling of the matter. 

(The issue has actually been very hot in the Chinese media for the past 2 weeks – Mainstream media has been slow to explore in-depth issues or to give more than a wire story except CBC Radio.)

- On Sunday,  Sing Tao (page A2), one of its headlines said "Martin gives political promise, will apologize to Chinese if elected". 

(This headline is translated from the Chinese - and was attributed to NCCC chair Ping Tan, who said this to the NCCC conference.  The Liberal position is that an acknowledgment is as close to an apology as Chinese Canadians will get.  Martin is clearly politicizing the issue.  It has already been debated in standing committees at parliament.  Only the NDP and Bloc Quebecois debated against the language that the Liberals and Conservatives are trying to ram through as Bill C-333 put forward by Conservative MPs Inky Mark and Bev Oda.  NDP MP Margaret Mitchell first tried to resolve head tax issues in the 1980’s.)

- CCNC has been working on the Headtax Redress for over 20 years and it represents over 4000 Headtax payers and they've been shut out of the government settlement.

(Chinese Canadian National Council formed after the 1979 W5 issue when it was recognized that a national voice for Chinese Canadians was needed. CCNC was also the organization that started registering headtax payers and descendants since 1984.  The NCCC has not claimed that they have registered any head tax payers.)

Raymond Chan basically attacked Gabriel Yiu next stating:

- Gabriel Yiu is not only a commentator, he is a NDP
 candidate

(FACT: Gabriel Yiu has been a Chinese media commentor for many years and has also contributed to mainstream media such as the Vancouver Sun, CBC Radio, Ming Pao and many others. Yiu is NOT a candidate in the upcoming federal election, but did run in the provincial election as an NDP candidate – same colour as Ujal Dosanjh before he joined the federal Liberals to become a Senior Cabinet minister compared to Chan’s junior portfolio.)

- Gabriel Yiu is misleading the community
(How is presenting the views of the community misleading?  Chan must be desperate to resort to personal attacks rather than to feature the facts).

- Chan denied any community opposition and said the settlement is well represented by a great many Chinese organizations

I was one of 75 people protesting on Saturday outside on the NCCC conference at the Chinese Cultural Centre and at SUCCESS when Prime Minister Paul Martin arrived.  We chanted, and we held up placards and were interviewed and filmed by Vancouver Sun, CKNW 98, Global News, CBC TV News, Ming Pao, Epoch Times, Sing Tao.

Guess Chan wasn’t listening when many of the organizations listed on the Liberal press release complained that they did not give NCCC permission to use their names, or wasn’t aware that NCCC national chair Ping Tan severely critized NCCC director Tsai Fung Chan Lee for openly criticizing NCCC's approach, and urged its executive chairman Ping Tan and the federal government to reconsider their approach to the Head Tax issue.

Raymond Chan is WRONG on many facts!
I believe that Raymond Chan is seriously misleading the public. He listed a number of organizations such as the Chinese Cultural Centres of Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, and SUCCESS - an immigrant services organization.  The directors of these groups are primarily  immigrants who arrived in Canada since 1967, not actual head tax payer descendants.  These groups are interested in the cash grab that is available to them - not for rightful redress to head tax payers.  Chan lists a number of projects for these organizations such as "museum projects, youth education, restore historical building to remember railroad workers, Toronto Cultural Association wants to build momentuum for their centre."  All these projects should be eligible for already existing programs in Canadian Heritage or Multiculturalism.

The $23 million originally collected from original head tax payers was further worked off by themselves and their descendants who basically gave up years of their lives to pay for initial loans to pay for the tax.  They lived separated from families over generations. The total impact from 1885 to 1947, then further until 1967 when restrictive immigration laws were relaxed, may never be totally known.

Chan also said the Chinese Canadian veterans are almost all head tax payers.
WRONG! most were born in Canada, and many were head tax descendants, and guess what? They weren't even allowed to fight for their country until England asked Canada for Chinese speaking soldiers, and even then Chinese Canadians still couldn't vote in Canada.  The veterans have always asked for only an apology - not for compensation.  Jan Wong of the Globe & Mail reported on Saturday that the veterans were pulling out because no apology is being given.

Chan says that the government cannot look at ethnic redress issues in isolation - "We have to worry about, we have to consider all the other claims by other ethnic groups that have claims to the government..."
WRONG - the Chinese head tax is a unique situation, because only ethnic Chinese were taxed from $50 to $500 from 1885 to 1923 when Chinese immigration was banned until 1947, and then very limited until 1967.  No other ethnic group was taxed for immigration nor excluded, at consideral cost to community and families.

Chan says that a "responsible" government cannot give away individual compensation for a past wrong such as head tax.  WRONG! In 1988 the Progressive Conservative federal government under Prime Minister Brian Mulroney signed a Redress package with Japanese Canadians that included $21,000 individual compensation.  The CCNC and the BC Coalition of Head Tax Payers are simply asking for a Tax refund of what the government acknowledges was wrong.  The United Nations in 2004 asked Canada to apologize and make individual reparations, which New Zealand did.

Chan says the Chinese Community has never come together like this before: 
WRONG!  In 1979, Chinese ad-hoc committees sprouted up across Canada to protest CTV's W-5 program which aired a misleading story called "Campus Giveaway." It was the CCNC that grew out of this unified movement.

Unfortunately Gabriel Yiu did not get a chance to dispute Raymond Chan's statements.  Chan repeatedly said that Gabriel Yiu was "lying" and "misleading the public" when it was clearly  Raymond Chan who is out of touch with the community and needs to take Chinese Canadian history lessons.  I recommend Paul Yee's "Struggle and Hope: The Story of Chinese Canadians." It's a good easy read written for young adults.

You can find my name listed on the bottom of page 85 just above Raymond Chan's in the Chronology: The Chinese in Canada.  Raymond is listed for being an MP appointed to Secretary of State for Asia Pacific Affairs whereas I am listed for being awarded the Simon Fraser University Terry Fox Gold Medal for my personal battle with cancer and for efforts to create racial harmony.

Please ask CBC Radio to present more in depth stories on Head Tax Issues where the interviews can clarify their positions and also include the actual descendants of head tax payers - not just the more recent immigrants of the "Chinese community". 

The CBC Radio Early Edition Talk Back phone number is 604-662-6690.

Globe & Mail: Jan Wong writes on Chinese head tax and Grandpa Wong

I first met Jan Wong in Beijing in October 1993.  I found her at her Globe & Mail Beijing bureau chief office, and we talked about Terry Fox, Canada, her American husband, Svend Robinson getting kicked out of China - and me speaking at the Terry Fox Run at the Canadian embassy in Beijing.  Jan is very cool.  She has written the books Jan Wong in China and Red China Blues, describing her time as the first Canadian foreign student in Communist China.

The following is her story in the Globe & Mail.

"Give the money to us" - Who gets the $2.5 Million federal payout announced this week for Chinese Canadians.  Jan Wong reports on a taxing question.

Globe & Mail

By JAN WONG

Saturday, November 26, 2005 Page M2

What would Grandpa Wong think?

Last week, the National Congress of Chinese Canadians thought it had a good news story. In the wake of similar federal agreements with the Italian and Ukrainian communities, the congress triumphantly announced it had beaten out two other Toronto-based organizations to negotiate a $12.5-million payout from Ottawa for the head tax once levied on Chinese immigrants when they entered the country.

But then reporters began asking awkward questions. Why did the deal exclude an apology? Why was there no compensation to those who paid the head tax? And why, on the eve of a federal election, was so much money going to a single organization that sent out squads of volunteers to campaign for a Liberal candidate running in Toronto's Chinatown in the last election?

Ping Tan, a Toronto lawyer who heads the NCCC, started getting tetchy. He publicly scolded Linda Tse, a Fairchild Television correspondent, when she asked several pointed questions at his press conference. "You don't ask questions like that," he snapped.

Toronto First Radio, a Chinese-language station with a popular suppertime call-in show, never got invited to the press conference in the first place.

No wonder. A few weeks earlier, the host of the show, Simon Li, had posed this loaded question to listeners: Do you think this is a sponsorship scandal in the Chinese-Canadian community? "A majority of callers said the only difference is it is taking place in the Chinese community, not Quebec," says Mr. Li, 25.

One major difference is that no one is suggesting that any criminal conduct has occurred. It's a harsh comment, meant to reflect concerns about Liberals favouring their supporters, but it demonstrates how divisive the issue of head-tax redress has become among Chinese Canadians.

Further complicating matters, the government, which could fall as early as Monday, this week downplayed any suggestion of a done deal with the NCCC. A spokesman for Raymond Chan, multiculturalism minister, said on Tuesday that his department was merely "reviewing" the application from the organization.

But on Thursday, Mr. Chan did sign an agreement in principle with Mr. Tan -- for just $2.5-million. And a multiculturalism program under his purview provided Mr. Tan's group with a $100,000 grant for airfare, hotels and meals for a national conference this weekend in Vancouver to discuss how to spend the money.

So far, Mr. Tan says, the group has no specific plans for the payout money. But one thing is certain: It won't be used to compensate the families of Chinese Canadians who paid the tax, in compliance with the government's stipulation that no individual redress payments be made.

Officials with Mr. Chan's office, who say that the NCCC is the only organization that actually applied for redress money, issued a press release that included a list of dozens of community groups that support the deal. But one organization listed -- a Chinese-Canadian veterans group called Army, Navy & Air Force Veterans in Canada -- disassociated itself from the congress, specifying it wants an apology as part of the government's settlement.

Another group listed is, in fact, one of the toughest critics of the deal -- the Chinese Canadian National Council, which has lobbied since 1984 for direct head-tax redress. "We want something for the head-tax payers and their families," said Victor Wong, executive director, whose group didn't apply for the federal money because it disagreed with the government's conditions. He says the council plans to file an injunction to stop the payment to the Congress, and stage protests today in Chinatowns in Toronto, Montreal, Edmonton and Vancouver, where Prime Minister Paul Martin is expected to meet with Mr. Tan and other congress officials.

Mr. Tan hopes his organization will eventually see even more money. "This is the initial funding," he says. "We have an agreement to negotiate for more."

In this pre-election flurry of feel-good largesse, the federal government bypassed the one group formed to represent the victims, the Ontario Coalition of Chinese Head Tax Payers and Families. The group has signed up 4,000 payers and their families since the 1980s. It estimates that only a few hundred head-tax payers, at most, are still alive.

Like the callers to Mr. Li's radio show, the head-tax coalition alleges that another Liberal scandal is in the making. "They will transfer $12.5-million of taxpayers' money to political cronies," Susan Eng, the coalition's co-chair, said at a press conference last week before the lower amount became public.

Pressed at the time for specifics about cronyism, Ms. Eng came up short. But at Mr. Chan's Liberal nomination meeting last Sunday in Richmond, B.C., congress members and officials packed the hall, including many who didn't live in the riding, according to several witnesses.

So what would Grandpa Wong make of all this? He and other family members of mine paid a total of $1,300 -- about $23,600 in 2005 dollars, according to the Bank of Canada inflation calculator -- to enter Canada. Grandpa Wong and my grandmother each paid $500 in 1915. My other grandmother, who arrived in 1902, paid a lower head tax, $100, as did her stepson and daughter-in-law. Her husband, Grandpa Chong, arrived in 1881, before Ottawa dreamed up the tax. One of about 9,000 coolies recruited to build the Canadian Pacific Railway, he paid a different tax -- after the last spike was driven in -- to stay in Canada and find a new job. But that's another story.

Canada discriminated against aboriginals, Japanese, Germans, Italians and Ukrainians, to mention just a few. The government devised regulations to keep out Africans, Indians, Jews and a host of other non-Aryan types. But only the Chinese were singled out for a punitive admission fee -- and issued receipts. From 1885 to 1923, more than 82,000 Chinese immigrants to Canada paid an estimated $23-million to the government. (In 1923, the head tax was replaced by the Chinese Immigration Act, the Orwellian name for a law that barred virtually all Chinese immigration until its repeal in 1947.)

My grandparents might have had a claim for redress, but they died decades ago. Even if I wanted repayment of their $23,600, it would probably work out to the price of three Starbucks lattes by the time I finished divvying it up with my zillions of cousins, second cousins, their children, and their children. The rest would go to lawyers and accountants -- oh, wait; we have a dozen of those in the family, too. The point is, we're all here and flourishing; thank you, Canada. But I can't and shouldn't speak for others.

Jack Chong, a retired postal sorter, has kept his father's $500 head-tax receipt, dated April 9, 1914, and numbered 87126.

"We want the government to say they were wrong, to apologize," said Mr. Chong, 73. "Why don't they give the money to us? Instead, they throw the money to the Congress."

For 91 years, Har Ying Lee's family has also kept her father's head-tax certificate. Mrs. Lee, 69, said her father worked as a laundryman, briefly returning home to marry and start a family.

The Chinese Immigration Act forced him to leave them behind when he came back to Canada. Mrs. Lee said her father saw her once when she was an infant, and not again until she was 22 and had arrived as a bride in Canada. "My mother is still alive. She's 97," said Mrs. Lee. "My father told me it took him so long to come up with the head-tax money that he hoped my mother would have a long life to get the money back. She wants the head-tax money back. We need direct compensation from the government."

George Lau, a thin, energetic man, is a co-chair of the Ontario coalition of head-tax payers. His father paid the head tax in 1924. Now, at 74, Mr. Lau fears time is running out for redress. He points out that Mr. Tan came to Canada from Malaysia as a student in 1968, after the era of the head tax. "They were not impacted," said Mr. Lau, speaking of people like Mr. Tan. "They shouldn't be given sole responsibility for handling this money."

A Common Man's Guide to Loving Women Firehall Arts Centre November 11 to December 3, 2005 written by Andre Moodie directed by Denis Simpson starring Awaovieyi Agie, Kwesi Ameyaw, Peter John Prinsloo and Hayden Thomas Where can you find four sexy black men, who are hip, urbane, and live in Vancouver's trendy Yaletown neighborhood? Well... believe it or not - at the Firehall Arts Centre on the corner of Cordova St. and Gore St. in the Downtown Lower Eastside. Denis Simpson directs the Andrew Moodie play "A Common Man's Guide to Loving Women. Set designer Derek Butt has created a beautiful urbane condominium that every person would want to live in. A wide screen tv with a kick-ass sound system, complimented by a very cool dining set complete with clear acrylic chess set. This is not some "gangsta crib in the 'hood."   more »

I am Canadian:  I take the oath at Canadian Citizenship court.

"O Canada, I stand on guard for thee...."

It was my first time at Canadian citizenship court.  As a 5th Generation Canadian, I really never had a reason to go.  My parents were born in Canada, my grandmother was born in Canada.  My great-grandmother came to Canada as a baby in 1899. My great-great-grandfather came to Canada in 1896.

Eighty people stood in the room, some holding Canadian flags, some wearing Canadian lapel pins.  Citizen court judge Sandra Wilking presided, and give an inspirational speech about what it means to be a Canadian.  She talked about the responsibilities about becoming a Canadian, and giving back to this new country.  She acknowledged that some people came from countries that were ravaged by war, while others came from countries at peace - but all have come to Canada for a better life.

At the end of her address, each row stood up in turn stating their name and raising their right arm.  Then we all stood up together and took an oath to serve Canada.  We next sang O Canada.

Then, Judge Wilking introduced me to the people about to be sworn in as citizens, as a member from the Canadian Club.  She also introduced me as a 5th Generation Canadian who works tirelessly in community service, and as an arts advocate.  Then she did something she almost never ever does.  She gave me a plug for Gung Haggis Fat Choy!  Judge Wilking just thinks my multicultural Robbie Burns Chinese New Year dinner is a most Canadian event, and that every Canadian should attend.  You could see the smiles on people's faces, and the stifled laughters at her description of haggis won-ton, and the blending of Scottish and Chinese cultures into something uniquely Canadian.

I introduced myself as a director of the Canadian Club founded in 1906 to emphasize Canadian culture and identity when Canada was still very "British" in nature and manners.  But through the years, the Canadian Club has honoured Canada's best and brightest, it has nurtured its cultural evolution, as new waves of immigration have added to our cultural mosaic.  We have addressed the hurts of Quebec separatism, American imperialism, and First Nations issues.

I invited everybody to become active participants as Canadians.  Next, I thanked Judge Wilking for her inspirational address and shared with everybody in the room, that Judge Wilking had been an immigrant from South Africa, and she spoke true about committment to our communities, because she had been the first Chinese-Canadian woman to serve as a Vancouver City Councillor.  I hoped that everybody could be as inspired by Judge Wilking as I have been.

It was a wonderful day.  It was great to be part of helping people become Canadian citizens.

I AM CANADIAN!

"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." wrote Joy Kogawa to me in an e-mail....   more »

Head Tax issue: Todd's letter to the editors of the Vancouver Sun

To Kirk LaPointe
Managing Editor, Vancouver Sun

Hello Kirk,

Thank you for taking seriously my comments about the Sun's coverage of Canadian issues that just happen to have Asian names and faces behind them, and not just to feature Asian faces at Chinese New Year time.

I am a 5th generation Canadian, my picture and activities have been featured in the Vancouver Sun many times since 1993, for my Gung Haggis Fat Choy events, for being awarded the SFU Terry Fox Gold Medal, and for speaking as a Terry's Team member for the Terry Fox Run as a living cancer survivor.

I believe that the Vancouver Sun can offer a different perspective to the Chinese head tax issue.  I want to know what real community leaders such as Bob Lee, Milton Wong, David YH Lui, Lori Fung, Roy Mah and Bev Nann have to say.  Their pioneer forefathers all likely had to pay the head tax, their families were isolated by the Chinese Exclusion  Act.  These people have recieved the Order of Canada and or the Order of BC.

I want to hear from architect Joe Wai, writer Wayson Choy, historian Jim Wong-Chu.  How about "white" people that are important members of the Chinese community such as Dr. Jan Walls or Dr. Edgar Wickberg.

Kevin, here is the link to my blog article postings on Chinese Canadian Head Tax redress
http://www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com/blog/ChineseHead
TaxissuesGimWongsRideforRedress

What does writer Joy Kogawa think about the Chinese head tax redress issue.  Joy and Roy Miki both worked on the Japanese Canadian redress campaign and both are listed in Almanac's 100 Greatest British Columbians.

Here's a letter to me from Joy Kogawa below

Regards, Todd Wong


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.

Media Release: November 24, 2005  -  For Immediate Release

Government Bungling Confuses Canadians on Chinese Head Tax/Exclusion Redress: 4,000 Head Tax Payers and Families Call for a Just and Honourable Redress Now


Vancouver – The federal government is poised to sign an agreement with the National Congress of Chinese Canadians (NCCC) that humiliates and disrespects the few remaining Head Tax payers and their spouses.  Community groups say the NCCC is not representative of the Chinese Canadians calling on the government to engage in a genuine process of redress and reconciliation.  Only good faith negotiations with representatives for the last surviving Head Tax payers and spouses who are in the 90's or older will bring about the long overdue reconciliation and healing.

“We would all agree that Canada is a better country today because of the legacy of the Japanese Canadian redress. In that light, we respectfully request that the Prime Minister review the deliberations taking place regarding Bill C-333 and re-engage in negotiations with active participation of all Chinese Canadian communities,” said Grace Eiko  Thomson of the National Association of Japanese Canadians.  “Only a just and honourable settlement can bring about a healing process leading to full participation and pride in Canadian citizenship.”

Since 1984, over 4,000 Head Tax payers, spouses and families, each with Head Tax certificate, registered with the Chinese Canadian National Council (CCNC) to represent their claim to the Government.  The CCNC was not consulted about the agreement because the government set preconditions of "no apology" and "no compensation". This was unacceptable to those seeking direct individual acknowledgement, recognition and a tax refund.

"Paul Martin is doing the same to the aboriginal community at the First Minister   Conference: luring native elites and chiefs into accepting a dollar cap for a Ten Year Plan without consultation with grassroots groups and victims of residential schools,” said Bill Chu, chairperson of Chinese Christians in Action and Canadians for Reconciliation.  “It is shameful that a Chinese group (NCCC) with little history of fighting for Head Tax redress bypassed consulting the victims and is willing to accept whatever small funds offered with no intent of paying the actual victims."

“As Canadians, we should have the courage to face our past wrong-doings including the imposition of head tax and the Chinese Exclusion Act.  We should also urge our government to redress the head tax payers and families,” said Thekla Lit, a human rights and peace activist.  “Before anyone or group benefits from the money established because of the injustice to Chinese pioneers, they have the moral obligation to ensure the head tax payers, spouses and families get their refund of head tax first."

"The Chinese head tax redress has been dragged on for over a quarter of a century.  We shouldn't rush to an unjust settlement because of a upcoming election, said Gabriel Yiu, current affairs commentator.  “By shutting out the Chinese Canadian National Council, who represents over 4,000 redress claimants, the Liberal government is adding another disgraceful chapter to our national history."

“There is much anger and frustration at the federal government.  Before his election to the Commons, current Multiculturalism Minister Raymond Chan supported Head Tax payers, spouses and descendants at Chinese Canadian National Council meetings,” said Sid Tan of the B. C. Coalition of Head Tax Payers, Spouses and Descendants, director of CCNC and a grandson of  a Head Tax payer.  “His proposed agreement with the NCCC is unethical and humiliates the very people who overcame the racist legislation to enable him to serve in public office.”

The B. C. Coalition of Head Tax Payers Spouses and Descendants are head Tax payers, their surviving spouses, descendants and supporters.  They are joined in their demand for a just and honourable redress now by the Ontario Coalition of Head Tax Payers and Families, Chinese Canadian National Council, Chinese Canadian Redress Alliance, the Association of Chinese Canadians for Equality and Solidarity Society and the Metro Toronto Chinese and South East Asian Legal Clinic.

Go to www.headtaxredress.org to sign the on-line petition to stop the proposed agreement between the federal government and NCCC.  Without proper consultation with the over 4000 Head Tax payers and families registered with CCNC, any agreement on the on the Chinese Head Tax/Exclusion redress and reconciliation will be unethical.


-30-

Sid Tan, co-ordinator  604-433-6169
B. C. Coalition of Head Tax Payers, Spouses and Descendants

CBC Radio story on Head Tax issue - interview with Sid Tan of BC Coalition of Head Tax Payers and Descendants CBC Radio has a story on their website Compensation deal reached on Chinese head tax

Last updated Nov 18 2005 01:12 PM PST CBC News

Ottawa is set to pay millions of dollars in compensation to descendants of Chinese workers who were charged a head tax to enter the country. The government has agreed to acknowledge the tax was discriminatory and will pay $12.5 million into a new foundation. The agreement comes following negotiations with the the National Congress of Chinese Canadians, a group appointed to negotiate redress. CBC ARCHIVES: A Tale of Perseverance: Chinese Immigration to Canada "We have concluded the negotiations and now we are looking forward to signing the agreement with the federal government as soon as possible," said Pin Tan, of the Congress. The federal government imposed a $50 head tax on Chinese immigrants in 1885 after Chinese workers were no longer needed to work on the Canadian Pacific Railway. The amount was raised to $500 in 1903. In 1923 the head tax was replaced by the Exclusion Act, which barred Chinese immigrants from the country altogether until 1947. The tax was the equivalent of about two years' wages at the time. About 80,000 Chinese were singled out. It wasn't fully repealed until 1967. "The cabinet has approved an acknowledgment, commemoration and education program to make sure that Canadians understand those issues, those wrong things that were done to the communities in the past," said Raymond Chan, Minister of State for Multiculturalism. However, some head tax payers and their families are upset with the deal. The Ontario Coalition of Head Tax Payers and Families, which is representing 4,000 of them, is questioning why it has been shut out of negotiations with the government. It is demanding individual payments to Chinese who were charged the tax. "We think that no money should go out until it is settled," said Susan Eng, of the coalition. "There is widespread opposition in the Chinese community." INTERVIEW: The Early Edition's Rick Cluff speaks with Sid Tan, the Vancouver co-ordinator of the Head Tax Payers Coalition. The group is planning to sue the government to stop the deal. It says every Chinese-Canadian who paid the price for decades of discrimination should be given the chance to be heard. The Congress said it is willing to hear proposals about how the money should be spent. But the Canadian Taxpayers Federation is opposed to any money being paid out. "The danger is that it fosters other groups to come forward and also demand compensation and tax money," said John Williamson, of the Federation. "We'd kind of get into a cycle whereby it's one group after another."