Vision 2007

2007 Anniversaries of Change is a broad-based consortium of institutions and organizations that have come together to mark 2007 as an anniversary year in the quest for justice and a multicultural Canada. The years 1907, 1947, 1967, and 1997 each mark a watershed moment in the history of Asian migrants in Canada and in their struggles to fight discrimination and create the society of today. In commemorating them together in the year 2007, we acknowledge the great changes they reflect in Canadian history over the last 100 years.

Anniversaries acknowledges the generous support of BC Government Employees Union (BCGEU) and Vancouver District Labour Council (VDLC) for the design, production and printing of the Anniversaries brochure.

For more information, please download
our Anniversaries brochure here.

Goals

Our goals are:

To underscore the Asian Canadian contribution to diversity in Canada
To reach across generations and cultures to create a broad discussion about how Canadian society achieved diversity
To learn and apply the lessons of fighting racism.

Because 2007 is such a unique year of anniversaries, we see this as a special opportunity to commemorate them individually and in conjunction with each other. We will remember these important historical moments, honour those who suffered and those who fought against racism, and learn and apply the lessons of the past so that history shall not repeat itself.

Strategies: Flexible Cooperation

Communities of Asian Canadian heritage, with their allies, will work together on certain central elements of the campaign, while allowing respective communities to develop it based on their specific historical experiences. For example, all or most communities might want to participate in a reconciliation dinner to commemorate the September 7 race riots. And we should be able to co-ordinate work to have a central web-site and list serve. Developing a Canada-wide, Asian Canadian research and education network may also be multi-community, coordinated activity. In other cases, communities may want to emphasize an event more specific to their own community, i.e. 10th anniversary of repatriation of Hong Kong in the Chinese Canadian community of Richmond, 30th anniversary of Powell Street Festival in the Japanese Canadian community, and so forth.

Collective Responsibility and Reconciliation

For too long Asian Canadian communities have had to take it upon themselves to try and right the wrongs of the past. Often under-funded and with limited resources, these efforts have achieved some success (redress) but problems of overt and systemic or indirect racism remain. It is time to ask those institutions that were responsible for wrongs to take on the responsibility of reviewing their history, drawing the lessons, and re-informing equity and anti-racism programs. This is both fair and possible. For example, the Vancouver and District Labour Council has already committed to reviewing its past actions in relation to the Vancouver race riot, to identifying those who fought racism in the labour movement and to reviewing anti-racism programs. Others should be encouraged to follow this example including the federal government, the B.C. Legislature, City governments including Vancouver and Victoria; Business organizations such as the Vancouver Board of Trade, educational institutions including school boards, and so forth. We also see this process of commemoration and reconciliation as the only concrete way to understand the progressive gains we have made over the last century.

Working Groups

Specific communities may want to form a working group to focus on the development of the campaign in their community. For example, groups in the Japanese community (Tonari-gumi, Japanese Language School, Nikkei Museum, society, The Bulletin, National Association of Japanese Canadians, Greater Vancouver JCCA, etc) may want to caucus to see if there are specific issues around which they might co-operate.