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Chinee not welcomed here.
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Even if you managed to go to University, you can’t join my office. No heathen celestials welcomed in B.C.
It was well known that it was difficult for a Chinese to become a Doctor. Almost impossible for a Chinese to become a Lawyer, in fact, no Chinese were allowed to join any profession here in Canada. “Take your University degree and seek opportunities in the U.S., because Chinamen are not welcome here in Canada”.
And being the democracy that Canada is, Chinese cannot vote here in Canada. In fact, from 1927 to 1947, no Chinese were allowed to immigrate here – Canada. That was the order of the day for your everyday Joe Chinaman.
“The luck of a Chinaman” and a “Chinaman’s chance“- were terms once used to describe persons down on their luck …akin to today’s “a snowball’s chance in Hell“. So what happened?
A number of Canadian born Chinese volunteered for the war effort during the world’s last big conflict. And since this was Canada, NO Chinese were allowed to join the Canadian Forces. So many brave young Chinese Canadian boys and young Chinese Canadian girls joined Britain to go around this blemish… to fight for our Canada. And these young people came from the very few families in town who had children, for Canada’s earlier rules had discouraged the production of Chinese flavoured family members (eg. wives and kids) and others (eg. potential mates) from entering Canada for over a generation (21 years), with the Chinese Exclusion Act and the expensive Chinese Head tax before that.
It was our Chinese-Canadian soldiers who were there first, and liberated the POWs interred in Hong Kong. They even saved the life of a young girl who eventually grew up and wrote the “Ann of Green Gables” novel.
from the Chinese Canadian Miltary Museum
“Loyal to Country”
is the motto adopted by our cherished Chinese-Canadian Veterans, and is the tagline for the Chinese Canadian Military Museum Society (Vancouver). Many Chinese-Canadians fought proudly along side other Canadians – eventually earning the admiration and respect by their colleagues. We were just like one of them.
A great number of these young Chinese Canadian men gave their lives for our Nation. And then finally when the great war was over, Canada finally smiled and gave all Chinese-Canadians the right to become citizens, not with full rights though… it was not until 1967 that we were finally given this respect.
Thanks to leaders like the late Douglas Jung, war Vet and Canada’s first Chinese Canadian MP, we had a voice in the Canadian wilderness.
There are not many of these Vets still alive today. So at every opportunity, we participate in their events and reflect on the work they earned for all Canadians. So all new Chinese Canadians should realize the decent opportunities now presented to them were in fact, earned over blood, sweat… along with some good leadership and cerebral matter.
This knowledge should be a requirement on their Citizenship tests. Maybe it’d go a long way to help heal the rift between some Canadian borns and some (not all) of their newer Chinese-Canadian cousins.
How times have changed.
Now our Armed Forces is having a devil of a time trying to recruit within the Chinese and other visible hyphenated communities. Here’s what was published this week on the Asian Pacific Post:
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The Asian Pacific Post writes this week:
Editorial: Canadian Forces
Fri, August 10 200
The question is provocative.
It is one that can create cruel debate and wrong conclusions. But it needs to be asked.
Why are all the Canadian soldiers being killed in Afghanistan white?
Where are our new Canadians from China, India, Japan, Korea, the Philippines and the rest of Asia?
Sixty four of the 66 Canadian military personnel killed in Afghanistan since the start of the mission in 2002 are white Canadians. The other two are black Canadians.
There is something not right with this picture.
Walk in downtown Vancouver, Toronto or Montreal and you will be greeted with a glorious mosaic of cultures, mingling and mixing, sharing and caring, fighting for and defending all things Canadian.
Look at the queue of soldiers heading into a Hercules transport bound for Afghanistan – it is overwhelmingly white and male.
This stark contrast clearly illustrates that visible minorities are vastly under-represented in the Canadian Armed Forces. It is a entirely different world from that found on our home soil.
Of the 1.6 million new Canadians between 2001 and 2006, the vast majority — 1.2 million — were new immigrants, mostly from Asia.
Roughly one out of every five people in Canada, or between 19% and 23% of the nation’s population, will be a member of a visible minority by 2017 when Canada celebrates its 150th anniversary, according to the latest ethno-cultural population projections.
Under the scenarios considered for these projections, Canada would have between 6.3 million and 8.5 million visible minorities 12 years from now.
Compare these numbers with the Canadian military and you will find that less than 3 per cent of its 132,000-strong regular and reserve forces are visible minorities.
The Department of National Defence says its target is to increase this to nine percent – but given the current rate of recruitment of visible minority soldiers, that is close to impossible.
It’s not that the Canadian military isn’t trying hard to correct this imbalance and populate its ranks to be reflective of the society it is sworn to protect.
You can rest assured that the Indo-Canadian pilot, the Japanese-Canadian gunner and Chinese-Canadian medical officer are all being singled out as the poster children for recruitment purposes.
They are being used as role models to dispel fears of racism and other undeserving taboos about the military.
But it is apparent that Canadian minority groups are shunning our military.
A random sampling of the ethnic communities in B.C., for the purpose of this opinion piece, drew some unfortunate responses.
“I don’t think Chinese families see careers for their children in the military,” said a Richmond-based political activist.
At a Vancouver Sikh temple, a group of devotees were in unison – “we did not come to Canada to fight”.
“No way.. I brought my sons here so they did not have to join the national draft,” said a South Korean businessman.
The prevailing attitude is that joining the Canadian military meansfighting and going to war.
There was little recognition of duty, valor, peacekeeping, disaster aid and the right – no, the obligation of Canadian citizens to defend the values we all came to Canada for.
If we as new Canadians do not hesitate to fight for equal rights, we must also not hesitate to defend those rights.
Our strength as new Canadians must not only be measured in economic terms.
We must permeate and be present in all aspects of Canada.
That includes the Canadian Forces.
I did not know that Chinese Canadians during earlier part of the Second World War could not not join the Canadian Armed Forces, but instead enlisted in the British military. Interesting. Ironic, that some of the Black airmen who later joined became the backbone of the Tuskagee Squadron had flown previously under the Canadian Air Force because the US Army did not allow to fly.
About the present situation in the Canadian Forces, the UK has a similar problem. I think really has a lot to do with state of the military for the past thirty years. From the 1970s until only very recently joining the Canadian Forces was not really attractive. That is not just for minorities but for white people as well. You can tell by the academic admission standards of RMC (Royal Military College). I doubt it would be as difficult as getting accepted in McGill, Queens or Waterloo. Compare the situation in the US, where getting into the Air Force Academy is just as difficult to get into as MIT. And West Point average SAT scores are similar to Harvard’s.
You get alot of good quality candidates into RMC who want to serve their country. But you don’t get a lot of academic high flyers/over achievers like you do entering West Point or the US Naval Academy.
Even recent white immigrants from Eastern Europe ans Russia, I think they are just as unlikely to want their kids to join the Canadian Forces as ethnic minorities. Imagine living in a country like Russia where the being poor conscript in Eussian Army is worse then being a slave, where stories of conscripts being sold by their superiors as prostitutes are real. Then you have immigrants from countries like Korean and Taiwan where conscription is mandatory and much of the time is spent digging ditches and meaningless patrols. Basically it delays entering the work force by two years. .
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Several considerations:
The problem is that Canada has no real military policy, look at what happened in Bosnia, Somalia and with whats going on in Afghanistan now. I’m all for doing the peacekeeping and nation building thing but when our leaders just blindly send troops to every trouble zone along side NATO without any thinking or planning like come on…
Then look at the state of Canada military after decades of cutbacks…
Finally look our country’s immigration policy. We do nothing to encourage any sense of civic nationalism, most visible minorities to live in their own bubble in insulation from mainstream society (with us being the few exceptions) and we allow people to use and abuse Canada’s citizenship (radical Sikhs, Tamils, Arabs, Chinese…). Like come on what do you think is going to happen…
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Same goes for the Japanese Canadian people. We’re pretty well assimilated now, with most multigens gone hapa.
Not many of us are interested in the forces. Especially knowing how the feds keep on playing the immigrants game to remain in power. And like the story says, no immigrant will put up his kid into the forces.
This Harper regime is totally warped. And now shuffling his cabinet in hopes of election planning. As usual he’s planning only for today, for his own self interest while the future of the country goes to hell.
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Although I have been disappointed with Stephen Harper as Prime Minister in some ways, I still think he is by far the best of the four party leaders.His actions are not those of self-interest, but of someone who loves this country and wants to lead it back to the potential we once had to become one of the great nations of the world, and a force for good. And after years of Liberal neglect, he is building up the military–that is, if the 3 other parties will allow him, for like it or not, we need to be able to defend ourselves in armed battle.
I think that there has been unfair criticism on this blog site about Harper and his attitude toward homosexuals. He has always upheld the rights of gays to all the privileges held by heterosexuals; it is only on the matter of calling their union “marriage” that he disagrees. And I do, too. It’s only a small matter, only a symbolic thing, but I think it’s important.
Heterasexuual unions and homosexual unions are not equal for the obvious reason that the survival of the human species depends on the union of man and woman. Since even homosexuals are are the result of this union, can’t they cut a little slack in their hollering for equal rights for minorities, and just let the majority keep this definition as their own?
And if you guys don’t think having babies is important, just read the concerns being expressed on this very blog by you guys about too many immigrants coming to Canada who aren’t integrating! How many kids do you happily integrated Canadians have among you? The three of you should have a total of 7 kids all together, just to keep the population from decreasing. Do you? I know so many bright young people in their mid thirties to mid-forties who have NO kids!
All over the developed democratic world, the native population is aging. Quick quiz: What countries have enough young people to spare for suicide missions?
And getting back to the much maligned Harper, who of the four leaders allowed his party a completely free vote on gay marriage, a question of conscience?
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Umeboshi, you view Harper as the best option of the 4 major parties.
I feel that a leader’s credibility falls upon the vantage point of vested interest from those who are making the judgement.
Thus if I were a whiny, self pitying, victim mentality, bleeding heart wanker, I’d choose Layton. As for Dion and his predecessors, they’ve already given Canadians a show on how to in-fight and retain control at all cost a la Cretien vs Martin, and sponsorship. Martin also showed smart business people on how to avoid taxes with his shipping company’s Liberia registration. As for Duceppe, it’s obscene that a provincial based, separatist party gets federal recognition. But then, good on Duceppe and his party for reminding all Canadians of the many historic misdeeds and raw deals the people of Quebec has had to endure. …how many of us remember the “night of the long knives?
I would have given Harper more respect if he did not follow his predecessors’ habits of placing so many obvious sycophants – untalented and unqualified sycophants, into his party as “Advisors” and as candidates.
As for immigrants keeping up our population. That may bear some truth, but someone really needs to have a look at how our social system is being sucked dry. Rumour has it that BC’s health care system is in dire straights due to many immigrants who come to BC for the medical and social support, but hardly contribute to it (they don’t live here or they avoid paying taxes).
I’ve a reliable information pipeline into our Healthcare system and the talk of the sucking dry of our system is causing immense concern.
This is one of the most important issues all the Fed leaders have to look at – the price Canadians are and will pay due to their pandering to a block vote.
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Hey people get back on topic here!
The question that this article poses is a serious one that can have major repercussions for all minorities for generations to come. That includes chinks, gook, niggers, pakis, spics and sand niggers. So shut the fuck up and read.
From white Canada’s perspective they see us to some extent as being outsiders. We use this country’s rights and privilages to benefit ourselves; yet when Canada has to fulfill it military obligations under NATO, the UN peacekeeping and NORAD or to defend itself who are the grunts, NCO’s, officers, sailors and pilots in the armed forces? The answer is White Canada.
With the exception of the Chinese and Native veterens of the World Wars no minorities have ever really fought and died for this country. Now back then we had a excuse not to fight for Canada since Canada treated us so badly but now that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms is here we have no excuse to live in our own little ethnic ghetto and not do our duty as citizens. The generation of CC’s that fought and shed blood for Canada WWII are almost gone and that respect we had from White Canada to be considered as equal citizens which was paid for in their blood, will die with them. Once that is gone we have to start acting and living like citizens to ensure that we get our rights and privilages; and if everyone on this blog does not like it well tough shit that’s the way it is. We live in a representative democracy; there are 20x more white guys then there are chinks and this means that if we want our rights we have to fight and earn it.
For the white guys when they look at the news from Afghanistan, do you know what they see? They see their boys carrying the flag for Canada, they see their boys fighting, dying and killing Islamofacist scum and they feel proud.
Then these white guys walk out the door and see a bunch rich, decadent and effeminate Chinks, pakis and sand niggers street racing in a kraut mobile or a rice rocket and having a grand ole time as if they think that they are entitled to the world and everything in it. Once the white guys see this they are going to get disgusted by it and he is going to start wondering why their boys are dying on cold, dry and harsh mountains of Afghanistan while other citizens like the pakis, chinks, sand niggers and etc do absolutely nothing for God, King and Country. This wondering will turn into anger and the white guy is going to think that their boys are doing all the fighting and dying for Canada; once this happens the white guys are going to look at us, see us as being a bunch of parasites who should be disposed of since we are unpatriotic citizens. The white guys are not going to say it but the slights, the insults, the prejudice will once again creep up quietly until it all blows up and a backlash against all minorities will start up again and our right to be treated as equal citizens will disappear and the state of CC rights will degenerate back into the way it was in the 19th and early 20th Century.
What I’m saying is what the article on the lack of minorities in the military is the real issue at hand here. If all minorities insist on living in their own decadent little bubble and show a ‘Paris Hilton’ like vapidness about our responsibilities as citizens then will lose our rights and privilages as such. If we do not become members of important institutions which keep the country running like the military, the government, schools, police, civil service and etc. Then we are going to be shunned and discriminated by the white guys. And the sad thing is that by any moral standard the white guys would be right to do so after all if you want to be treated with equity then you doing things and live in a way that earns you the right to be treated with equity and respect.
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JM, Cool your jets! You are absolutely right, and I couldn’t agree with you more. The point you make is one I’ve made over and over myself.
Here, for example, is an email I sent to Victor Wong of the CCNC with a cc to Olivia Chow:
“Subject: Re: “Families owed head-tax reparations” –Feb 20 globe and mail
Date: Wednesday, February 21, 2007 10:53 PM
Dear Mr. Wong,
Thank you for your response.
I see that you and I have a very different sense of values.
I would not exchange the rights and freedoms I enjoy as a Canadian for any amount of money, symbolic or otherwise.
In WWII, over 40,000 brave and selfless Canadians paid with their lives so that you and I and your 4000 plaintive head-tax redress seekers could enjoy the good life that we do. Have you ever considered what a debt of gratitude you owe to these Canadians? Have you ever considered the pain and loss felt by their parents, wives, and children? And considered what life might have been like for if Japan and Germany –surely the most racist regimes of the time–had won ?
Don’t you think the dicriminatory head-tax was”redressed” a million times over by their sacrifice?
If we are sincere about wanting a just and tolerant society, Mr. Wong, we must first be fair and kind and generous ourselves.
Sincerely,
Lois Hashimoto”
By the way, 227 Japanese volunteers fought with the Canadian Infantry in the first World War.
My father was one of them. He was one of the fortunate ones who was neither wounded or killed. 32 were killed in action, and 41 were wounded. 11 subsequently died from their wounds.These men volunteered partly for adventure, but also for the reason you are exhorting: to prove that Japanese immigrants could become worthy Canadian citizens.The military in BC wasn’t having any of this, so the volunteers went to Alberta to enlist.They went overseas in 1916, and did not return until after armistice.
Despite my father’s military service, our family was interned by the Canadian government during WWII. However, he did not express any bitterness over this. He was much more horrified by the bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japan in an undeclared war. He knew too well the horrors of war. He knew, in a way we didn’t, that there were others suffering far greater injustices and loss and pain than we.
You and I are fighting for the same thing, JM, but you’ve got to go beyond the the Chinese Community, because the real problem now is that there are too many White Canadians who have bought into the myth that they alone are guilty of racism, and are afraid to speak out when it’s one ethnic minority or another behaving obnoxiously.
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Thanks umeboshi. Many good points you raised.
Early on, when this blog was first hatched, a reader whom I had commented on another blog – had been tainted as being a “racist”. Well, as it turned out, the fellow actually had some good observations and was not the racist that some had thought. His comment in response to an early blog post here on “the diversity and minority industries” (somewhere embedded in this blog), was something like “I didn’t know there were Chinese Canadians like you”.
We have to speak out.
You see, the whole head tax redress effort was interesting. Interesting in the way how it’s original intentions got corrupted along the process.
Before the current awareness, we all recognized and acknowledged that the old Head tax was unfair, and said “those were the bad old days…”, but when the SOB politicians out there started to cut deals with immigrants – offering them a compensation package, that really pissed me and a number of HT descendants off.
These fricken maggots who had no connection to Canada’s early pioneer Chinese community, were cutting deals with Paul Martin. Sure, they had the odd vet and other window dressing, but when they appointed an immigrant from HK to prepare documentation (who happened to be a Liberal toadie) it became obvious that the Libs were playing the immigrant game.
It was appalling the opportunism from both sides. We even had a Canadian born Chinese guy here who was going to cut a deal with then minister Raymond Chan. It was madness everywhere.
Your father and others like him helped paved the road for respect, and earned our dignity in the face of incredible hardships. Now , it is unfortunate that most of the good work sacrificed by earlier Canadians have now been supplanted by the blatant opportunism by those involved in the victim industries. NO thanks to the kow towing by our elected leaders… of whom many only care about how to get elected/ re-elected.
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No Chinese joining the Canadian military? Bullshit. I’m leaving for CFLRS on Jan 7. In my cohort of officers joining this year from Ottawa, there were 9 candidates. One was a transferee, and of the remaining 8, 3 were Asian – 2 of which, including myself, were of Chinese descent. Neither of us joined to take advantage of subsidized schooling as we both had our engineering degrees. Chinese Canadians make up a small segment of the Canadian population to begin with, yet on average outperform our peers. We tend to graduate from university with scholarships or pay our own way through instead of joining the military as a non-commissioned member to reap the benefits of subsidized education. What is appalling is that with so many Chinese Canadian officers in the Canadian military, the highest rank that we have been allowed to obtain to this day is Lt. Col.
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Good for you Baphomet. And there we have it, the Canadian military probably wants to say that they want more enlistees of Chinese descent but would like to keep their senior brass white. Hence, there has never been a Canadian of Chinese ancestry in the Canadian military as a General.
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There will never be a Chinese General in Canada, nor a Chinese official opposition/Prime Minister. Simple as that.
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Well back in the 60,s during the height of the Vietnam war , I as a chinese born in Vancouver joined Canada,s
Navy. You tell white people you were in the Navy and they think It was the communist china Navy. Not to repeat all
the white ignorance but it was constant. For the new immigrants , it means a time of isolation at times and
stupidy , and hatre. But I would
do it again. I know I,am better than most white boys.
My father born in Vancouver who could not vote because he was chinese join the Canadian Army during WW2
70000 e
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“You tell white people you were in the Navy and they think It was the communist china Navy. Not to repeat all
the white ignorance but it was constant. For the new immigrants , it means a time of isolation at times and
stupidy , and hatre.”
Not white ignorance, just white people’s scheme of things in the white people’s Guide to the Galaxy.
How do you mix isolation with stupidity and hatred? They isolated you but they showed hatred towards you?
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Oh , if this keyboard dick JM was to slag me I would kick his fucking teeth in to.
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16v149ti:
Your post above doesn’t ring true. I know a few “Chinese” born in Canada and they always and I mean always, speak and write as well as, or better than, anyone else born in this country. Your writing isn’t like that.
“At the height of the Vietnam war”. So what ? The RCN wasn’t involved in that war. What ships did you sail on during your service ? What was your job on board ?
Oh, by the way: “if this keyboard d…., I would kick…” – is kind of an empty threat since you might be thousands of miles away from “JM” and you’ll never be able to find out who he is, or for that matter he – you.
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“Your post above doesn’t ring true. I know a few “Chinese” born in Canada and they always and I mean always, speak and write as well as, or better than, anyone else born in this country. Your writing isn’t like that.”
I don’t think that’s fair, considering the high school graduation rate of this country.
http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/alberta/Rate+Alberta+students+completing+high+school+rises/6844981/story.html
Some white people are still illiterate.
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Such a “victim”, are you a feminist too?
- My doctor is Chinese, educated at Queens
- Some of my co-workers are Chinese (way better than Pakis or Sand-Niggers or fucking females)
Stop crying & get back out there.
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“My doctor is Chinese, educated at Queens
- Some of my co-workers are Chinese (way better than Pakis or Sand-Niggers or fucking females)”
You are sexist, racist pig … we won’t fall for your divide-and-conquer scam.
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