New Westminster must redress the wrongs done to its Chinese

[wahyinghung]

Saying sorry is so hard that it took generations before we apologized for the internment of Japanese-Canadians, the Chinese head tax and Indian residential schools.

But whoever said "sorry" is the hardest word never tried reconciliation.

New Westminster -- British Columbia's original capital -- has a particularly bleak and sorry history, especially when it comes to the Chinese. This year, as it celebrates its 150th anniversary, it has a chance for redemption.
It has the opportunity to restore some dignity to the dead and their descendants, beginning with a nearly forgotten cemetery.

And in doing so, it could become a model for other cities. Two years ago this month, when Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized and described the head tax and 1923 Chinese Exclusion Act as "malicious" and "a grave injustice," he also pledged $34 million for projects aimed at historical recognition.

Since then, Bill Chu, founder of Canadians for Reconciliation, has uncovered even more about how New Westminster has effectively erased the Chinese from its history.

The Chinese arrived, along with the gold rush, in 1858, establishing themselves along Front Street. By 1884, New West had the largest Chinatown in the province. About 1,680 Chinese lived there, compared with only 100 in Vancouver.

There were Chinese merchants, laundries and market gardens. Yet B.C. legislators did what they could to get rid of them. They denied them the right to vote, own property and even to work. Some even more draconian laws were overturned by the courts.

In 1898, fire swept through 60 blocks of the city. Chinatown was destroyed but was quickly re-

established uptown. It was another decade before local politicians found a way to get rid of it and its residents.

In 1919, the fire marshal declared Chinatown a fire trap and ordered its demolition. The Chinese moved on; the hatred lingered.

It was New Westminster MP W.G. McQuarrie who introduced the Chinese Exclusion Act, which effectively curtailed immigration until 1947.

But it didn't end there. In 1948, a school was built over the Chinese cemetery, even though a bulldozer operator reportedly unearthed a coffin.

When the Chinese Benevolent Association closed its office in 1979, it donated the property and building (which over the years had housed a school, a hospital and a home for the elderly) to the city, which almost immediately demolished it.

Up until this year, the New Westminster Preservation Society had hoped the city would at least preserve the site as a reminder of the once-thriving Chinese community. But it didn't. The site has been designated a dog park.

Today there is no hint of those early Chinese settlers in New Westminster.

"We're not asking for monuments," Chu says. "We'd [prefer] the non-physical to the physical. We're not asking for money or retribution."

Instead, Chu has asked city council for three redemptive actions: An annual Chinese heritage week that includes educational programs and community celebrations, supervision of any excavations in the historic Chinatown district by an archeologist to ensure preservation of any artifacts, and a simple marker at the cemetery site.
The New Westminster school board has yet to finalize its plans for three new schools, including a replacement for one that sits on the pioneer cemetery where an archeologist says the remains of several hundred people may be buried -- Chinese, Sikh, Japanese, first nations as well as the destitute, the insane and the guilty who had been institutionalized in local prisons and hospitals.

"We don't want to encounter any human remains," says Jim Alkins, the board's consultant. "So where there is significant ground activity, we will build in the lower risk areas."

As for a memorial, that is a decision the board has yet to take.
It's unlikely that many of the remains are Chinese since the practice was to dig up the remains and rebury them in China.

But as Chu says, none of them should be disturbed.

"Someone," he says, "has to speak for humanity."
http://www2.canada.com/vancouversun/...e2f38fce44&p=1

[impactX]

Haunted school.

[Gt-R R34]

i did not know this...all i can say is.. wow

[Qmx323]

BOO! HAHA! YOU WHITE BOY SEE CHINESE GHOST BE SCARE RIGHT?! HAHA SILLY WHITE BOY, I MAKE YOUR MASH POTATO INTO RICE.

just fuckin' witchya'll. This is actually a pretty cool thing they're doing, might even go to the heritage fair

[bengy]

Great, now every minority can start looking up more shit to throw in the white people's faces. Especially white people who have nothing to do with it all.

[Qmx323]

Originally Posted by bengy

Especially white people who have nothing to do with it all.

i do feel you on that line, it was the past and shit needs to be let go.

[misteranswer]

Originally Posted by Qmx323

i do feel you on that line, it was the past and shit needs to be let go.

Well, considering what they're asking for, it seems all they want is for it not to be forgotten.

[Qmx323]

Originally Posted by misteranswer

Well, considering what they're asking for, it seems all they want is for it not to be forgotten.

Hmmm. When I said "let go" I didn't exactly mean "forgotten" I mean, you can let go of past offenses towards you but not forget it.

[ctsport]

Originally Posted by bengy

Great, now every minority can start looking up more shit to throw in the white people's faces. Especially white people who have nothing to do with it all.

We should also stop mentioning the Holocaust because its all behind us , or the silent Holocaust Japan inflicted on China (the Rape of Nanking), oh wait, the Japanese government do systematically erase all mention of it's war crimes against the Chinese. The Japanese today have no clue what happened in WW2, and rightfully so, they are busy people and these inconvenient truths are so depressing.

We should stop teaching history too because it's all about war and oppression. What a downer! What's the point anyways? It's not like wars and all that bad stuff are still going on today.. oh wait. Meh, whatever, I have more important things to worry about... Like tonight's hockey game! Now that something everyone can relate to!

[Chuck Norris]

Why can't we all just agree to be equal?

Ironically things like this are exactly what specifically makes us realize how different we are and creates anger, resentment, and divides us as a people.

This world is so fucked up and it's getting worse.

[!Yaminashi]

Originally Posted by Chuck Norris

This world is so fucked up and it's getting worse.

Well said
There should be commercials where this sentence is plastered on tv screens for 3 minutes at a time, just to rub it into everyone's face so maybe someone will realize it

Oh wait, that'll just be 3 minutes of anger when everyone is waiting to get back to the hockey game

[rsx]

Uneducated, backwater folks would have a negative reaction to anything from the 'past' they tend to become defensive. This is also very evident in insecure, uneducated people. Try having a debate with a spuddy (stupid buddy) he'll end up taking it personally.

Folks like you and I, hopefully, see this as a recognition of past events, not an incendiary topic to incite anger and hate. We read and learn about history as to not repeat it. Simple as that.

[Sid Vicious]

Originally Posted by Chuck Norris

Why can't we all just agree to be equal?

Ironically things like this are exactly what specifically makes us realize how different we are and creates anger, resentment, and divides us as a people.

This world is so fucked up and it's getting worse.

Right, cause we all know how great the world USED to be!



you're a dumbass

[CRS]

Originally Posted by bengy

Great, now every minority can start looking up more shit to throw in the white people's faces. Especially white people who have nothing to do with it all.

There is so much fail in this post.

[CRS]

Originally Posted by Sid Vicious

Right, cause we all know how great the world USED to be!



you're a dumbass

Well, today, the torture styles are a lot more advanced but still very similar in the same way that it was terrible.

It is just that back then it was publicly accepted but now it isn't.

[ZhangFei]

Originally Posted by Chuck Norris

Why can't we all just agree to be equal?

Ironically things like this are exactly what specifically makes us realize how different we are and creates anger, resentment, and divides us as a people.

This world is so fucked up and it's getting worse.

He's a communist! Get him!

[q0192837465]

As long as we'r heading in the right direction, theie sufferings are not in vain

[El Bastardo]

Originally Posted by Sid Vicious

Right, cause we all know how great the world

you're a dumbass

In four hundred years I'd love to see how people looked at early millennial society, with their persecution of religion, their worship of media, their need for consumer electronics, their consumption of awful foods.

Put it in perspective.


Also, just because there was a little torture going on back then it doesn't mean thats what day to day life was like. What if people in four hundred years look at Al Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, and everything that Mugabe has been doing and said "Wow, thats what life was like in 2009".

[StylinRed]

oh no...... not more whining!!!

serious note that sounds really fucked up (what happened) although some of the accusations seem to be grasping at details which can't be proven or grasping at straws like the bulldozer operator supposedly finding a coffin, and accusing the fire marshal of malicious behaviour by declaring the zone a fire hazard; bc legislation to deny property ownership??? id like to read evidence of that since there being 2 chinatowns (the destroyed one and the rebuilt one) seems to say otherwise

what is asked though doesn't sound unreasonable (and i think that's because of the lack of evidence to their version of events although i can be completely wrong)

[Sid Vicious]

Originally Posted by El Bastardo

In four hundred years I'd love to see how people looked at early millennial society, with their persecution of religion, their worship of media, their need for consumer electronics, their consumption of awful foods.

Put it in perspective.


Also, just because there was a little torture going on back then it doesn't mean thats what day to day life was like. What if people in four hundred years look at Al Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, and everything that Mugabe has been doing and said "Wow, thats what life was like in 2009".

actually, public executions throughout the middle ages were highly attended public spectacles. not to mention the fact that their were wars on pretty much a daily basis due to religion, land and social conflicts.

we've always been murderous bastards, its just we now have better tools to kill each other with.

[jeffh]

fuck off
thank you,

pretty soon everyone but ol whitey is gonna have tax cuts and reserves and memorials and all that other horseshit
bleeding hearts are ruining this country

[TekDragon]

Originally Posted by Qmx323

i do feel you on that line, it was the past and shit needs to be let go.

Not let go. Forgiven, not forgotten.

[WakeMeUp]

Hardly the most demanding thing i've seen asked for in this self-guilt obsessed country, but nothing should happen. So a small amount of Chinese immigrants were not treated that well way back. Well, at least Canada let you into the country in the first place. Meanwhile Japan was killing Chinese by the millions!