Roy Miki and Fred Wah reading at Robson Square for National Poetry Month

The following message is just in from New Star books.  I was at
the book launch for Roy's new book.  It was great!  Sushi and
sake were served.  This is Roy's first book of poetry following
“Surrender” which received the Governor's General Award for Poetry.

The Gateway: Canada still has its skeletons

Here's an interesting article about Canada's history from http://www.thegatewayonline.ca/canada-still-has-its-skeletons-20070329-463.html  

Canada still has its skeletons

While
may be a tolerant and diverse nation today, this wasn’t always the
case—and though some of it is well documented, you may not know about
these gems

Maria Kotovych, Opinion Staff

Thursday, 29 March 2007

Contrary
to popular belief, studying history is more than just memorizing a
bunch of facts and dates. Nor is Canadian history boring by any means:
we’ve had our share of sex scandals, revolutions, labour unrest and
flashy celebrities. Sadly, Canada has also had its share of racism too.
Lots and lots of racism.

We’ve all heard of the residential
schools, the Chinese head tax, the Exclusion Act and the Japanese
internment camps during WWII. Despite the attention that these
historical events have received, there are still many others that are
more obscure—in other words, not the kind of stuff you’d see in the
CBC’s “Heritage Minutes.”

By 1938, Prime Minister Mackenzie “I
see dead people” King had put a severe restriction on the number of
Jewish refugees that Canada would accept, poo-pooing the idea that
Canada’s immigration policy should worry about this trifle called
“humanitarian concerns.” Between 1933–1939, 800 000 Jewish refugees
left lands occupied by the Nazis. How many did Canada accept? 4000. In
1938–39, Canada accepted only about 2500 Jews, one of the worst records
of the Western countries. The denial of sanctuary to Jewish refugees
from Europe remains one of the most shameful episodes in Canadian
history.

Even when the existing Jewish community in Canada
offered to finance all of the refugees’ costs, King didn’t budge. In
1939, a ship called the SS St Louis (carrying 900 Jewish passengers
from Europe) was rejected first by Cuba, then the US and finally by
Canada. The ship was forced to return back to Europe, and you can
probably guess what happened to those people.

This wasn’t the
first time Canada denied passengers entry for racial reasons either.
Before the SS St Louis, there was the Komagata Maru. In 1914, this ship
brought nearly 400 Punjabis to Vancouver. These individuals (who,
coming from India, were actually British subjects) were refused entry
to Canada. They were turned away under the guise of the “continuous
journey” requirement that Canada’s Immigration Act had implemented six
years earlier under the direction of Frank “white is right” Oliver.

The
“continuous journey” requirement stipulated that any vessel travelling
from Asia had to come directly to Canada without making any stops;
since the Komagata Maru had been chartered in Hong Kong, the people
aboard this ship hadn’t made a direct trip from India, so they were
turned away. This requirement makes as much sense as telling someone to
drive across Canada without stopping to pee, and was equally impossible
to achieve.

Before Americans had Rosa Parks, Canadians had
Viola Desmond, whose story sadly remains more obscure than that of
Parks. In 1946, Desmond, a Black woman from Halifax, went to see a
movie in New Glasgow, NS. She was unaware of the theatre’s
segregationist seating policy: Blacks in the balcony, Whites on the
main floor.

Desmond tried to sit on the main floor; however,
she was told that she hadn’t paid the appropriate amount of tax for the
more expensive main-floor seat and that she would have to sit upstairs
instead. Despite her offers to pay the difference in tax (one cent),
the theatre refused to sell her the more expensive ticket. Desmond
didn’t budge, so she was arrested, tried (without a lawyer present) and
fined for “tax evasion.”

During this trial, nobody said
anything about the theatre’s segregationist seating policy, so her case
was handled like a simple incidence of tax evasion. Later, Desmond
tried to appeal to Nova Scotia’s Supreme Court, but she lost.
Segregation didn’t become illegal in Nova Scotia until 1954.

Sadly,
xenophobia, if not outright racism, still occurs in our country
today—Hérouxville, anyone? This tells me either Canadians don’t know
their history, or they simply refuse to learn from it.

Mrs. Der funeral on Friday – head tax spouse cheque failed to arrive

CCNC Executive Director

Oak Bay News: Cemetery recalls racist past

– story features Victoria Councillor Charlayne Thornton-Joe

Cemetery recalls racist past

Sharon Tiffin/News Staff Charlayne Thornton Joe with a picture of her grandfather at his grave at Harling Point at the Chinese Cemetary Sunday. By Thomas Winterhoff News staff Mar 30 2007 Oak Bay's Harling Point is home to spectacular ocean views, as well as a disturbing reminder of our region's racist past. Victoria Councillor Charlayne Thornton-Joe leads a public tour of the site;s Chinese Cemetery this Sunday (April 1). In Victoria's pioneer days, hundreds of Chinese labourers came to B.C. to work on the Canadian Pacific Railway or seek fortune in the gold fields. As the original Chinese immigrants passed away, many were buried in Ross Bay Cemetery but prevailing racist attitudes meant people of Asian descent were relegated to an area along the waterfront. “That area was for 'aboriginals and Mongolians'  That's how they listed the Chinese,” says Thornton-Joe, whose Chinese heritage prompted her to learn more about those early immigrants. Because Dallas Road didn't yet exist, those sections were also frequently flooded by ocean waves. During one violent winter storm, many Chinese and Japanese graves were swept right out to sea. Members of Victoria's fledgling Chinese-Canadian community, under the leadership of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, began to search for a burial site where their dead relatives could rest in peace. Their first choice, located near Christmas Hill, was purchased in 1891. The area was predominantly farmland and nearby residents soon made it clear they didn't want a cemetery for “foreigners” in their neighbourhood. “What the Chinese community did was have a mock funeral to see whether there would be any concerns,” explains Thornton-Joe. “Some of the farmers showed up with guns and told them to move on.” The benevolent association later bought the Harling Point property, which was thought to have good feng shui. Another mock ceremony was held to test the public mood, but this time the police were on hand to keep the peace. Between 1903 and 1908, the Chinese community exhumed most of their relatives¡¦ remains at Ross Bay and transferred the bones to the Oak Bay location. After the last of about 400 burials took place in the 1950s, the Chinese Cemetery fell into disrepair. In the early 1990s, local residents began working with the municipality and the benevolent association to restore it. Thornton-Joe was involved in that process, in part because her grandfather is buried there. “This is my tie not only to the Chinese Cemetery, but also to what brought me to Canada in the first place,” she says. As a child, Thornton-Joe helped her mother sweep off her grandfather's grave and learned how to bow properly to show respect for ancestors – an annual tradition known as ching ming. Together, mother and daughter tidied up the plot, cut the grass and made offerings of incense, flowers and food. “We believe that our ancestors watch over us,” says the Victoria councillor, noting that a sense of continuity between generations is very strong in Asian cultures. Thornton-Joe still visits her grandfather's grave regularly to honour his memory and ask him to watch over the family. With the assistance of UVic professor David Lai, members of the Chinese-Canadian community lobbied for the federal government to declare the cemetery a National Historic Site – a feat achieved in 1996. In the years that followed, broken or sunken gravestones were fixed or realigned, a footpath was laid down, a gate was added and a fence erected along the edges of the cemetery. Interpretive panels, added in 2001, teach visitors about the contributions made by early Chinese settlers. “The only reason there are Chinese cemeteries, Chinese schools and Chinatowns is because of the racism of the day.” On a more personal level, Thornton-Joe says she only learned to fully appreciate her ancestors' traditions after she grew up. “As someone who was born here and encountered racism in my childhood, I rebelled against my culture,” she explains. “Personally, I hope my grandparents, whom I never met, will look down and realize that I'm no longer ashamed.”