Public Service Alliance of Canada BC

Source: The Vancouver Courier, May 11, by Cheryl Rossi-Staff writer

When families who were affected by the Chinese Head Tax celebrate 60 years of citizenship Saturday, they’ll be recognizing how far they’ve come in gaining rights and respect for Chinese people in Canada.

But according to Sid Tan, co-chair of the Head Tax Families Society of Canada, they’ll also highlight problems migrant workers face today as echoes of what their families endured.

“The issues of guest workers, the issues of seasonal and temporary employment, live-in caregivers and domestics, all these issues are not that different from what the early Chinese suffered,” said Tan. “These are people that are good enough to come to Canada and do the dirty and menial work or the work that a lot of Canadians won’t or aren’t willing to do, and they have no rights. There’s something wrong with the picture, and a hundred years ago this is what happened to the Chinese.”

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Head Tax Families Society of Canada will mark the 60th anniversary of full rights and the vote for the Chinese in Canada. The Canadian Citizenship Act, which went into effect in the spring of 1947, defined the franchise as part of citizenship status.

• Time: 9AM, Saturday May 12, 2007
• Place: Memorial to Railway Workers and War Veterans Keefer and Columbia (NE corner), Vancouver

The Head Tax Families Society of Canada is today’s Canadians on a twenty-three year struggle for an inclusive redress with justice and honour for affected head tax families. Go to www.headtaxfamilies.org for more information.

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“Farmworkers are Canada’s forgotten workers. They work in the fields and harvest the crops that feed us. They work in slave-like conditions for 12-14 hours a day and are paid piece rate. They travel in overcrowded buses to the fields or live in converted chicken coops. Many suffer chronic health problems because of exposure to pesticides during every working day.” - CFU spokesman Charan Gill, June, 1994

When farmworkers in British Columbia’s fertile Fraser Valley started organizing in the 1970s, the main issues were low pay, poor housing, unsafe working conditions, exclusion from labour and safety legislation, lack of childcare and racial discrimination. Those are still the major issues today for the 28,000 workers in the fields.

• Related: New regulations important step to protect farmworkers from employer abuse, says Sinclair, but they remain second-class citizens
• Related:BC farmworkers deserve protection not exploitation

Just outside Vancouver, considered one of the world’s “most livable” cities, farmworkers, mostly immigrants from Punjab, India, and most of those women, work long hours in the open fields harvesting the food we eat. They work in the third most hazardous industry in the province, behind logging and mining. The mortality rate is seven times higher than in the manufacturing sector.

Read (lots) more at www.vcn.bc.ca/cfu/

In celebration of ExplorASIAN 2007, the CBC Radio Studio One Book Club is pleased to present Jen Sookfong Lee on Wednesday, May 2, 6:30 to 8 pm, at the CBC Broadcast Centre.

Her debut novel The End of East has been garnering great reviews from across the country. It’s an evocative portrait of three generations living in Vancouver’s Chinatown, spanning most of the last century.

Here’s your opportunity to discuss the art of writing, and the struggles of young writers, with one of Canada’s newest literary stars!

The only way to get in, is to win! For all the details and to enter online, go to www.cbc.ca.

VDLC Education Committee presents a public meeting with Kent Wong:

How can Labour Work More Effectively in Asian Communities

Friday, March 30, 7:30 pm, Maritime Labour Centre, Boardroom 1

Kent Wong is the Director of the Center of Labor Research & Education at UCLA. Founding President of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (fist national organization of Asian union members & workers). Kent regularly addresses labour, community, civil rights, university & student conferences across the US and is involved in developing international labour solidarity in the Pacific Rim.

Please RSVP to Keziah at the VDLC Office: office@vdlc.ca

Update: The CLC has informed us the conference has been postponed. We will provide the new dates as soon as we receive them.

“Building our Power – Building our Presence”: CLC 3rd Aboriginal Forum and 3rd Aboriginal/Workers of Colour Conference

The face of Canada and our workplaces is changing like never before.Over the next twelve years, the canvas of Canada will undergo an unprecedented change, particularly for Aboriginal and communities of colour. The demographic projections are powerful.

The Aboriginal population is growing more than twice as fast as the rest of the population in Canada. Among First Nations and the Métis, 50 percent of the population is younger than 18. Among the Inuit, 50 percent of the population is younger than 15. No other Canadian source of labour can begin to meet the rising needs of numerous trades and professions over the long term.

For communities of colour, the next dozen years will also see a dramatic rise in numbers. By the time Canada celebrates its 150th birthday, one in five persons will be a person of colour. Similarly, the new Canadian labour force will see more young people of colour than ever before. Consider that Generation X (18-34 year olds) is a cohort of 20 million persons and 20 percent are of colour. Generation Y (5-15 year olds) is the most racially diverse cohort in Canadian history, with one in three a person of colour.

Now is the time to build on our growing numbers, power and political potential.

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Every year Canadians are invited to take part in the festivities and events that honour the legacy of Black Canadians, past and present, during Black History Month.

This is a time to celebrate the many achievements and contributions of Black Canadians, who, throughout history, have done so much to make Canada the culturally diverse, compassionate and prosperous nation we know today. It is also an opportunity for the majority of Canadians to learn about the experiences of Black Canadians in our society, and the vital role this community has played throughout our shared history.

• Read more at the Canadian Heritage website and the PSAC national website.

Celebrate Black History Month with the PSAC! Dinner & Film Screening of The Road Taken - A Portrait of Black Sleeping-Car Porters

• February 13, 2007
• dinner @ 5:30 PM | film @ 6 PM
• PSAC Vancouver RO, 200-5238 Joyce Street

Film: The Road Taken - A nostalgic ride through history, this film documents the experiences of black workers who worked as sleeping-car porters on Canada’s major railways from the early 1900s through the 1960s. The film will be introduced by Irma Mohammed, BC Fed Director of Education & Black Labour Activist

• Read more about the Brotherhood of Sleeping-car Porters at wikipedia.

I think the story of the porters is a story of the pain and the beauty of survival. – Clifton Ruggles (teacher and artist whose father was a sleeping-car porter)

All members are invited to this forum. Please RSVP by February 7th to Amal Rana, 604.430.5631 or ranaa@psac.com, as a catered dinner will be served.

PS to probe why minorities don’t get jobs : Despite one-in-five benchmark, only 10% of applicants land posts

The watchdog of Canada’s non-partisan public service is launching an investigation into why visible minorities aren’t landing jobs in the public service in anywhere near the large numbers that apply.

But Maria Barrados, president of the Public Service Commission, said the one-in-five hiring targets for visible minorities that have been promoted since 2000 may be too high, and the study will help determine what the rate should be to ensure their numbers within the bureaucracy reflect the Canadian workforce.

“My preoccupation is how long will it take us to get a more representative public service,” she said in an interview.
“Those benchmarks were set in a very different environment and we have a much higher turnover now, and with that higher turnover, what kind of target should we be setting? … I am not sure 20 per cent is the right number.”

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Visible-minority immigrants are slower to integrate into Canadian society than their white, European counterparts, and feel less Canadian, suggesting multiculturalism doesn’t work as well for non-whites, according to a landmark report.

The study, based on an analysis of 2002 Statistics Canada data, found that the children of visible-minority immigrants exhibited a more profound sense of exclusion than their parents.

Visible-minority newcomers, and their offspring, identify themselves less as Canadians, trust their fellow citizens less and are less likely to vote than white immigrants from Europe.

The findings suggest that multiculturalism, Canada’s official policy on interethnic relations since 1971, is not working as well for newer immigrants or for their children, who hail largely from China, South Asia and the Caribbean, conclude co-authors Jeffrey Reitz, a University of Toronto sociologist, and Rupa Banerjee, a doctoral candidate.

Continue reading at the Globe and Mail.

“Making the Filipino Community Count in British Columbia”: A BC-wide Gathering of the Filipino Community and Beyond

On February 9-11, 2007, the Philippine Women Centre of BC (PWC-BC) and the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC) will host a BC-wide gathering of the Filipino community. Appropriately themed “Making the Filipino Community Count in British Columbia,” the gathering aims to advance the community’s full participation in BC and to contribute to the strengthening of social cohesion in a multicultural society like Canada.

The Filipino community in BC and Canada continues to rapidly grow in numbers. There are an estimated 500,000 Filipinos in Canada, making them the fourth largest visible minority group in the country. Filipinos are the third largest visible minority group in B.C. and the second in Vancouver.

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Via PSAC BC Human Rights Committee

This is the office building I work in. It would be good if the Union (PSAC) or union’s EO committee could issue a statement in support of the demand for name change. If not, then UEW. - Anne Marie Sleeman, UEW 20729

Japanese-Canadians want MP’s named removed from building: Accuse Howard Green of racist remarks in ’30s, ’40s

Japanese-Canadians are demanding Ottawa change the name of a building it named after a former Conservative MP known for his racist remarks in the 1930s and ’40s.

They say that honouring Howard Green is wrong and that Ottawa should change the building’s name.
“I was pretty shocked myself,” said Prof. Roy Miki at Simon Fraser University and author of Redress: Inside the Japanese Canadian Call for Justice.

“From a Japanese-Canadian point of view, he was one of the most feared politicians in Canada because he was pretty relentless in his hatred of Japanese-Canadians.”

Public Works Minister Michael Fortier announced in September that an eco-friendly federal building at 401 Burrard St. would be named after Green. A dedication ceremony was held at the 19-storey building, whose tenants include Environment Canada and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

“Howard Green exemplifies the notion of service to one’s country,” Fortier said at the time.

But yesterday, after criticism from Japanese-Canadians, Fortier said he will ask a volunteer committee that recommended the name to review its recommendation.

Fortier, who made the final decision, was not aware of Green’s past of making racist remarks, ministry spokesman Jean-Luc Benoit said.

The volunteer committee of community representatives evaluated more than 350 names and gave Fortier a short list including Green and Rosemary Brown, a former MLA and human-rights advocate, Terry Fox, artist Toni Onley, Pierre Trudeau and W.A.C. Bennett.

Mary Kitagawa, a member of the Greater Vancouver Japanese Canadian Citizens Association for Human Rights, said she wrote to Fortier in September asking for Green’s name to be erased from the building.

“What we want to do is have that name removed from that building because to us, he is not a hero by any measure,” said Kitagawa.

The National Association of Japanese Canadians has also written to Fortier and Prime Minister Stephen Harper asking for Green’s name to be removed from the building.

Newspaper stories from the ’30s and ’40s document Green’s campaign to oust Japanese-Canadians from B.C.
“Our stand is, and always has been, that we won’t have Japs in the province,” Green said in a Province article dated May 27, 1945. “The Liberal policy is to scatter them; the CCF want to scatter them and give them the vote. If they ever get the vote, nothing more will be done about them.”

In a Province article dated April 22, 1946, Green “warned of the danger that all Japanese might again be back on the coast.”

A Vancouver Sun article on May 17, 1945, quotes Green as saying “the Japs must never be allowed to return to British Columbia.”

The Public Works Ministry said earlier Green was chosen because he was a strong advocate of nuclear disarmament. He was also a First World War soldier and the second-longest serving MP from Vancouver, elected 11 times in Vancouver South and later Vancouver Quadra.

He died in 1989 at age 93.

source: Vancouver Province, Oct 25, pg A14.

via PSAC BC Human Rights Committee

Cracking the visible minority ceiling: Corporations face talent shortage, major study to target barriers

They helped women crack the glass ceiling in corporate Canada. Now, they want to do the same for visible minorities.

Catalyst Canada, a group that exposed the barriers to advancement for women at the highest corporate levels, announced yesterday the launch of a groundbreaking study into the problems facing talented minority employees who want to get ahead.

While not the first organization to examine this problem, the non-profit research group said it would take a deeper, broader look at an issue of emerging significance to employers, executive director Deborah Gillis said yesterday.

“What we know is Canada is facing a significant talent shortage. Many of our best-educated employees are getting ready to retire. We also know the face of Canada is changing,” Gillis said.

“If you combine the retirement of boomers with the fact that in less than 10 years visible minorities are going to represent one in five members of our workforce, we know this is a fundamental issue for Canadian business.”

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via PSAC BC Human Rights Committee
Vancouver BC - The Head Tax Families Society of Canada (HTF), successor group to the BC Coalition of Head Tax Payers, Spouses and Descendants (BC Coalition), will observe the turnaround of the Chinese head tax/exclusion redress struggle with a public forum. Invitees include Greater Vancouver Members of Parliament from the three parties represented in the House of Commons, the BC Attorney General and Minister of Multiculturalism, the three Chinese Canadians sitting on Vancouver City Council and other elected officials.

• When: 11:00am Saturday, November 25, 2006
• Where: Chinese Cultural Center - Dr. David Lam Hall, 50 East Pender Street, Vancouver

“Outside Inside” refers to last November 26 when several hundred people set up an information line in Chinatown. It attended outside a closed redress conference funded by the government at the Chinese Cultural Center and a photo opportunity for Prime Minister Paul Martin at United Chinese Community Enrichment Social Services (SUCCESS). This “on the streets” action is now considered by many in the redress movement as a seminal moment in the redress struggle.

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Public servants in Canada are less likely to be visible minorities than workers in the private sector and that is worrisome, says a report released Tuesday.

The report was released by the country’s Public Service Commission, an independent agency that is supposed to ensure Canada’s public service is competent, non-partisan and representative of the population.

Maria Barrados, president of the commission, found three main areas of concern in this year’s report:

• the “unmonitored movement” of employees between positions in the civil service and positions in ministers’ offices
• the underrepresentation of visible minorities in the public sector
• questionable ways temporary staff gained longer-term and permanent positions

In one of its main concerns, the report found that in 2005, fewer minorities worked in the public service than worked in the private sector.

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Racially Visible members,

It has been along time since members of Racially Visible Minority group have met and discussed any issues that may be outstanding. Therefore, I would like to request if we can possibly get together and meet within the next few weeks?

Monday or Wednesday nights or Saturday or Sunday afternoons work great for me. Depending on the number of people attending will determine the location.Please let me know what dates are better so I can make arrangements. I apologize for not attending the last few Human Rights meetings. The Human Rights meetings seem to be scheduled days that I have conflict.

I look forward to hearing from you all soon.

Thank you, Sargy Chima, PSAC Regional Council Rep for Racially Visible members

ph:(604) 945-1720
e: sargy.chima@servicecanada.gc.ca

via BC Human Rights Committee

History is never neutral. Framing is everything. Take Vancouver’s anti-Asian riots of 1907.

On September 7 of that year, the Asiatic Exclusion League led a parade to City Hall at Main and Hastings streets, calling for an end to Asian immigration to British Columbia. More than 8,000 people, including local politicians, labour leaders, and members of fraternal organizations, rallied with banners reading Stand for a White Canada.

Only 2,000 could fit in City Hall, so crowds drifted to Chinatown, a block away. A rock thrown through a store window touched off a rampage of smashed signs and glass, and looting that continued into neighbouring Japantown, where the crowd faced some resistance before police showed up to quell the violence.

In the following days, Chinese and Japanese armed themselves with guns, preparing for another siege. They held a general strike, refusing to go to their jobs in homes, restaurants, and mills.

William Lyon Mackenzie King, then federal deputy minister of labour, held hearings on the riot. Almost a year later, damages were awarded: $26,000 to the Chinese, $9,000 to the Japanese.

Henry Yu, an associate professor of history at UBC, sees 2007 not just as the 100th anniversary of the 1907 riots but marking three other key years in the history of Asian immigration to Pacific Canada: 1947, 1967, and 1997.

Continue reading at straight.com

By Philip Emeagwali, Harare

Globalisation, or the ability of many people, ideas and technology to move from country to country, is not new. In Africa, it was initiated by the slave trade and given impetus by colonialism and Christian missionaries.

The early missionaries saw African culture and religion as a deadly adversary and as an evil that had to be eliminated. In 1876, a 27-year-old missionary named Mary Slessor emigrated from Scotland to spend the rest of her life in Nigeria. For her efforts in trying to convert the people of Nigeria, Mary Slessor’s photograph appears on Scotland’s ten-pound note, and her name can be found on schools, hospitals and roads in Nigeria.

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Media Advisory – August 25, 2006

Head Tax Hip Hop for Redress in Saltwater City: no luck club (NLC) and Funk In Da Attic at Carnegie Hall!

Vancouver, BC – BC Coalition of Head Tax Payers, Spouses and Descendants invites citizens to a petition signing and letter writing dance party with music by no luck club (NLC) and performance by Funk in Da Attic. Colleen Hua, president of the Chinese Canadian National Council, will also be in attendance.

• Date: Sunday, September 10, 2006
• Time: 10:00am call time – program to begin shortly after
• Place: Carnegie Community Centre Main Hall, 401 Main Street at Hastings, Vancouver

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On August 6, Prime Minister Stephen Harper came one step closer to issuing a federal apology over the Komagata Maru incident. At a meeting with Indo-Canadian community leaders in Surrey, Harper declared that the federal government’s decision in 1914 to refuse entry to more than 350 South Asian passengers—all British subjects—“remains a source of sorrow”.

“I also want you to know that the government of Canada acknowledges the Maru incident and we will soon undertake consultations with the Indo-Canadian community on how best to recognize this sad moment in our history,” Harper said.

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In light of the recent arrests of 17 young Muslim men, media sensationalism and government statements have stirred public frenzy about “homegrown terrorists”, revealing a shallow multiculturalism and reinforcing the racialized national space of Canada. This discourse within the context of the War on Terror further justifies an increasingly aggressive and crusading police, security, and military apparatus both within and beyond these borders. A critical perspective, rooted in the historic and current reality about Canadian domestic and foreign policy, is necessary to address the climate of paranoia, racism, repression, and war-making. Join us for speakers, films, and discussion….

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