National Congress of Chinese Canadians joins call for more muted Canada Day

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – There are more calls for Canada Day to be a more reflective, inward-looking affair this year.

“The National Congress of Chinese Canadians (NCCC) stands with our First Nations friends in remembrance of the tragic loss of their loved ones, especially of the missing women and children and their unknown deaths in great numbers,” said David Choi, executive director of the NCCC.

He says Canadians do have many things to celebrate, including the Charter of Rights and Freedom, “but we must not forget what is happening in Canada at this time. And what the First Nations people have been telling Canadians, for a long time, about the missing women and about the horrific stories from the survivors of the … residential schools.”

Choi’s comments came the same day the Lower Kootenay Band announced the discovery of 182 remains at the former St. Eugene’s Mission School, which was previously known as the Kootenay Indian Residential School near Cranbrook.

It followed the discovery of 751 unmarked graves on the grounds of the former Marieval Indian Residential School in Saskatchewan. In May, 215 children’s remains confirmed by the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation in Kamloops a month earlier.

Choi says on July 1, Canadians can celebrate Canada Day “as if the discoveries have not been made,” or choose not celebrate and instead reflect on the dark chapters in Canadian history. He notes to the NCCC, there is a third choice.

“In light of recent discoveries of atrocities that have happened to the First Nations people, we must use this day for dialogue. We must use this day for a reflection of the First Nations history. We cannot have true reconciliation until we better learn the First Nations’ history that the First Nations people have been trying so hard to tell all Canadians … including the horrific stories that they have been telling the Canadian people and the government, and to urge them to seek truth of the past.”

Choi spoke Wednesday alongside Howard E. Grant with the First Nations Summit, a group the NCCC says has a close relationship with.

“When Chinese human rights were violated, mistreated, discriminated against, the First Nations people were the only people, as a group, that have extended their sincere kindness and compassion,” Choi said.

He adds the the two cultures have historically exchanged their know-how in culinary arts, farming, irrigation, and even sewing and clothes-making in Canada.

“They were shunned upon and discriminated against. and they found refuge in one another,” Choi said.

For his part, Grant says it’s important to educate new and young Canadians about the country’s true history.

“They needs to be placed into the core curriculum of K to 12 and mandatory for at least the first two years of university for every individual Canadian to learn the true history of Canada and British Columbia was built on the backs of the Chinese people and on the land stolen from the Aboriginal people,” he said.

Grant says he will not be celebrating Canada Day.

“I choose to be educated, and to revise, and to ensure that the world becomes a better place for all of us,” he said.

“I choose to continue on, but to continue on in a way that brings resolve to the aspirations of my parents and my grandparents, which is that Canada can be a better place for all of us.”

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• B.C. provides $12 million to First Nations investigating former residential schools

The NCCC was formed in 1992 as a group to fight the the Chinese head tax redress and for the apology from the Canadian government.

“But our work continues because it’s very apparent that racism exists today. Discrimination still exists today and there are systemic problems that still exist today,” Choi said.