Today is Roy Mah Day… 
memorial service is 2pm at Chinese Cultural Centre

Roy Mah on May 12th, at the 60th Anniversary Dinner for Canadian Citizenship, organized by Pacific Unit 280 – the Chinese Canadian veterans.  I am standing with my friends Gloria Leung, Claudia Ferris and Ramona Mar who all worked on the Chinese Canadian Military Museum dvd “Heroes Remembered.”  Ramona is Roy's niece, and we are joined by Roy's wife Lynne. – photo Todd Wong Colleciton

It's great that Roy has been receiving so much attention in this last
year of his life. Stories in the G&M, Vancouver Sun and Georgia
Straight.

In 2002, we had a great story in the Vancouver Sun when the Asian
Canadian writer's Workshop awarded Roy the inaugural ACWW Community
Builder's Award. The following year Roy received the Order of BC.

Roy is truly a Canadian hero… no longer just a “Chinese-Canadian hero.”  In the CBC documentary, GENERATIONS: The Chan Legacy, my grand-uncle Victor Wong, acknowledged the importance of Roy's lobbying efforts to help gain the franchise for voting rights and citizenship for Canadian born of Chinese ancestry in Canada.

Chinese-Canadian history is finally being intergrated with Canadian
history – no longer separated as “ethnic media.” And Roy had a lot to
do with this… as a founding member of the BC Ethnic Press.

Roy Mah Day proclamation

At July 10th's Vancouver City Council meeting, Mayor Sam Sullivan declared July 12, 2007 as “Roy Mah Day” in the City of Vancouver. The following is a copy of the Proclamation:

“ROY MAH DAY”

WHEREAS
Mr. Roy Quock Quon Mah, born on March 29, 1919, received the Order of
British Columbia in 2003, passed away gently in Vancouver, BC on June
22, 2007; and

AND WHEREAS Mr. Roy Mah urged fellow Chinese Canadians
to join him in volunteering for service in WWII with the hopes of
winning a vote for his community and was awarded the 1939-45 Star, the
War Medal, the Burma Star and the Canadian Volunteer Service Medal; and

AND
WHEREAS Mr. Roy Mah was instrumental in lobbying Ottawa to grant the
vote to all Chinese Canadians and triumphantly voted for the first time
when he was 30 years old; and

AND WHEREAS Mr. Roy Mah founded
and published for 42 years the Chinatown News which became the most
influential English language magazine on the life of Chinese in North
America; and

AND WHEREAS A celebration of Mr. Roy Mah’s
remarkable life and contributions that helped transform Canada into a
multilingual and multicultural society will be held at the Chinese
Cultural Centre on July 12, 2007:

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Samuel Sullivan, Mayor of the City of Vancouver, DO HEREBY PROCLAIM Thursday, July 12th, 2007 as

“ROY MAH DAY”

in the City of Vancouver.

Samuel C. Sullivan,

MAYOR