Being Chinese in Canada by William Ging Wee Dere

Author:William Ging Wee Dere
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: China, Canada, Chinese Canadians, History, Social conditions, customs, Race, Race identity, Race relations, Memoir
ISBN: 9781771622196
Publisher: Douglas and McIntyre (2013) Ltd.
Published: 2019-03-01T16:00:00+00:00

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Despite all the support, the CCNC’s work on the redress campaign was interrupted following the clampdown of student protests in Tiananmen Square182 in Beijing, June 1989. The Chinese Canadian National Council previously had not dealt with issues outside of Canada and Gary Yee, president at the time, didn’t want to deal with “home country politics” or tell the Chinese government what to do.183 I shared Gary’s point of view. The CCNC had been founded as an anti-racist immigration and human rights organization focusing on Canadian struggles. However, the CCNC board included members who immigrated from Hong Kong and held the pre-1997 anti-China political views of the British colony and they wanted to take a strong stand against the Chinese government.

The CCNC came out criticizing the Chinese government and became the main clearinghouse for Ottawa’s funding and assistance for visa students from China who had been stranded in Canada due to the events back home.

The turn the CCNC took from concentrating on Canadian human rights issues to commenting on international human rights politics would have far more repercussions on the Chinese Canadian community than it would ever have on the Chinese government.

Committees to support the democracy movement in China sprang up in many cities across Canada. One of the more vocal ones, in Vancouver, was where Raymond Chan, later a minister in the Paul Martin government, cut his political teeth. I first met Chan in Vancouver in 1991. As I was trying to win him over to the redress campaign, he was trying to win me over to the democracy movement in China.

Flush with funding from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) to support the Chinese students, the CCNC produced a monthly Bulletin. In its inaugural issue of July 11, 1989, the CCNC publicized the services that it was providing for the Chinese students—services that they had never been able to get for Canadian human rights issues. The Bulletin said the CCNC had established “information, counseling and referral services for Chinese Visa students on their needs of immigration, employment, health and education.” Further:

The CCNC set up hot lines in five cities, Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, Edmonton, and Vancouver. A Chinese Secretariat of CCNC was formed to coordinate this emergency project. An Advisory Committee from the national executive was formed to monitor and evaluate the program.184

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