It was hoped that the head tax spouse ex-gratia cheque would
arrive in time, so that a photo copy could be buried with Mrs. Der, so
that she could take it to show her husband in the afterlife, as is
Chinese custom of “burning paper money” to take with the deceased.

Mrs. Der was the oldest head tax spouse that applied for the ex-gratia
payment.  She was the feisty 101 year old who climbed 2 flights of
stairs to attend a head tax redress meeting in November 2005.  She
met Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Secretary of State Jason
Kenney.  They had both promised to get a cheque to her.

Unfortunately the couriered package did not arrive in time for the
wake.  It has been since discovered that the courier arrived at
the house while everybody was attending the wake.  The cheque was
recieved by the Der family later on Friday evening.

The following is from Victor Wong, executive director of CCNC

hi everyone:

Sid Tan and I represented CCNC at the Mrs.
Der' s funeral service yesterday. She was surrounded by family and
friends and a strong contingent from HTFSC (Daniel, Cynthia, Fanny,
Foon, and George). Mrs. Der's grandson, gave a moving eulogy: Mrs. Der
had brought him over to Canada at age 7 and raised him while assisting her husband at their restaurant business in Northern Alberta. They chose Canada and we are stronger for it.

The
Federal Government had informed me on Wednesday morning that Mrs. Der's
cheque had been released and couriered to the family however, as of
10am Friday, the family members had not received it and they had to
leave the house for the service. 

“The Government Failed Mrs. Der AGAIN” became the rallying theme yesterday at her wake.

Ronald Leung who was representing BC Minister Chuck Strahl did
deliver a message to the family from the Prime Minister. The family did
receive the cheque last night when they returned home but I have to
wonder if there is some joss in this: maybe a wink from Mrs. Der or
maybe Mrs. Der was playing a little trick on this Government.

More
than 480 spouses have made an application and we understand that about
first 100 cheques for the spouses will be released in the next 2 weeks.
Already 41 of 44 head tax payers have received their payments.

 

Mrs. Der and her family are the first to receive a spouses' cheque.

We'll remember her always. May she rest in peace.

Victor Wong