maybe edmonton

An attempt to fall in love with Edmonton, Alberta (plus added diversions)

Posts tagged racism

May20

The K and P Cafe in Lethbridge, Alberta (no date, from the April “Chop Suey in the Prairies” exhibit at the Royal Alberta Museum). “Dotted across the Alberta landscape, Chinese restaurants were the go-to place for an inexpensive, quick meal whether it was a simple plate of fried onion rings or the more exotic ginger beef and mu shu pork. In looking back, the growth of Chinese cafés gradually laid a foundation as important cultural icons. But they never started out as cultural entities. They were born out of necessity, a desperate need for a minority to find financial security in an era oozing racism. The original Chinese coffee shops were started as efficiently run businesses that provided a living and financial security to an otherwise marginalized ethnic population.”

The K and P Cafe in Lethbridge, Alberta (no date, from the April “Chop Suey in the Prairies” exhibit at the Royal Alberta Museum).

“Dotted across the Alberta landscape, Chinese restaurants were the go-to place for an inexpensive, quick meal whether it was a simple plate of fried onion rings or the more exotic ginger beef and mu shu pork. In looking back, the growth of Chinese cafés gradually laid a foundation as important cultural icons. But they never started out as cultural entities.

They were born out of necessity, a desperate need for a minority to find financial security in an era oozing racism. The original Chinese coffee shops were started as efficiently run businesses that provided a living and financial security to an otherwise marginalized ethnic population.”

(Source: m.bonnyvillenouvelle.ca)

11 notes #alberta #canada #chinese canadians #chinese restaurants #racism

May7

May5

zombies-ate-her-brain: Residential School mural? #yeg #edmonton #trains (at Grandin/Government Centre LRT Station) You can read all about the controversy surrounding this hideous and deeply troubling mural here (and yes, that’s Bishop Grandin, a nun holding an aboriginal child, a residential school in the background, and an aboriginal family being led away from their child and towards a train station). 

zombies-ate-her-brain:

Residential School mural? #yeg #edmonton #trains (at Grandin/Government Centre LRT Station)

You can read all about the controversy surrounding this hideous and deeply troubling mural here (and yes, that’s Bishop Grandin, a nun holding an aboriginal child, a residential school in the background, and an aboriginal family being led away from their child and towards a train station). 

15 notes #edmonton #alberta #residential schools #colonialism #first nations #aboriginal #canada #native #racism

Apr22

Stephen Harper was a member of the ultra-right-wing Northern Foundation in 1989, … a group that had numerous Neo-Nazi skinheads as organizers, as well as a leadership that included a well-known white supremacist and anti-feminist crusader as a prominent leader that sought to take over the mass-media to enable the fulfillment of a right wing agenda.
http://westcoastnativenews.com/stephen-harpers-northern-foundation/ (via 3962)

20 notes #harper #stephen harper #canada #canadian politics #racism #bigotry #northern foundation #right wing

Apr17

Apr7

“In 1928, the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, Canada, enacted the Sexual Sterilization Act. The Act, drafted to protect the gene pool, allowed for sterilization of mentally disabled persons in order to prevent the transmission of undesirable traits to offspring. At that time, eugenicists argued that mental illness, mental retardation, epilepsy, alcoholism, pauperism, certain criminal behaviours, and social defects, such as prostitution and sexual perversion, were genetically determined and inherited. Further, it was widely believed that persons with these disorders had a higher reproduction rate than the normal population. As a result, it was feared the gene pool in the general population was weakening. During the time the Alberta Sexual Sterilization Act was in effect, 4,725 cases were proposed for sterilization in the Province of Alberta, of which over 2,800 received approval. Examination of sterilization records demonstrates that legislation did not apply equally to all members of society. Specifically, the Act was disproportionately applied to those in socially vulnerable positions, including: females, children, unemployed persons, domestics, rural citizens, unmarried, institutionalized persons, Roman and Greek Catholics, persons of Ukrainian, Native and Métis ethnicity.” The act was finally repealed in 1972. (image via.)

“In 1928, the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, Canada, enacted the Sexual Sterilization Act. The Act, drafted to protect the gene pool, allowed for sterilization of mentally disabled persons in order to prevent the transmission of undesirable traits to offspring. At that time, eugenicists argued that mental illness, mental retardation, epilepsy, alcoholism, pauperism, certain criminal behaviours, and social defects, such as prostitution and sexual perversion, were genetically determined and inherited. Further, it was widely believed that persons with these disorders had a higher reproduction rate than the normal population. As a result, it was feared the gene pool in the general population was weakening.

During the time the Alberta Sexual Sterilization Act was in effect, 4,725 cases were proposed for sterilization in the Province of Alberta, of which over 2,800 received approval. Examination of sterilization records demonstrates that legislation did not apply equally to all members of society. Specifically, the Act was disproportionately applied to those in socially vulnerable positions, including: females, children, unemployed persons, domestics, rural citizens, unmarried, institutionalized persons, Roman and Greek Catholics, persons of Ukrainian, Native and Métis ethnicity.”

The act was finally repealed in 1972. (image via.)

15 notes #canadian+history #canada #eugenics #sterilization #alberta #racism #human rights

Apr5

Mar24

Mar5

The Edmonton protest march against  W5, January 26,1980. “On September 30, 1979, the CTV television network’s W5 public affairs program aired a segment called “Campus Giveaway” which was to become the focus of political activity that would shake the Chinese community for the next two years…“Campus Giveaway” portrayed the Chinese as alien, inassimilable, insular, and competitive. As the camera panned across the faces of students of Chinese ancestry, the show charged that 100,000 foreign students had descended on Canada’s campuses, squeezing white Canadian students out of places in the professional schools. CTV’s message was plain – the Chinese were foreigners regardless of their birthplace. Reminiscent of the chargers against early Chinese labourers, the students were accused of coming to Canada to milk the country of its wealth and resources. After using Canada’s educational facilities, these “foreigners” would flee to China and Hong Kong with professional degrees financed by the Canadian taxpayer. The Chinese were yet again pictured as transient, as exploiter, as sojourner.”

The Edmonton protest march against  W5, January 26,1980.

“On September 30, 1979, the CTV television network’s W5 public affairs program aired a segment called “Campus Giveaway” which was to become the focus of political activity that would shake the Chinese community for the next two years…“Campus Giveaway” portrayed the Chinese as alien, inassimilable, insular, and competitive. As the camera panned across the faces of students of Chinese ancestry, the show charged that 100,000 foreign students had descended on Canada’s campuses, squeezing white Canadian students out of places in the professional schools.

CTV’s message was plain – the Chinese were foreigners regardless of their birthplace. Reminiscent of the chargers against early Chinese labourers, the students were accused of coming to Canada to milk the country of its wealth and resources. After using Canada’s educational facilities, these “foreigners” would flee to China and Hong Kong with professional degrees financed by the Canadian taxpayer. The Chinese were yet again pictured as transient, as exploiter, as sojourner.”

(Source: gingerpost.com)

14 notes #edmonton #alberta #racism #Canada #chinese canadians #CTV #W5

Feb11

Jan31

A recent public opinion poll on Aboriginal issues revealed some disturbing, but not surprising results—at least for Aboriginal people: two thirds of those polled believe that Aboriginal peoples receive too much support from Canadian taxpayers; two thirds believe that Aboriginal peoples are treated well by the federal government (74% in Saskatchewan and Manitoba); and 60% nationally believe that most of the problems faced by native peoples are brought on by themselves (76% in Saskatchewan and Manitoba). IPOS Reid, the market research company that conducted the survey, should have done another poll, one that asked a simple question: Why do the majority of Canadians know so little about their own history? The recent poll demonstrates just how ignorant and uneducated many Canadians are when it comes to understanding Aboriginal peoples, and especially understanding the meaning of Aboriginal rights.
the white paper and The Idle No More movement | dale turner (via aboriginalpressnews)

(via brintty)

99 notes #idle no more #canada #alberta #saskatchewan #manitoba #aboriginal #native #first nations #metis #inuit #racism

Jan22

Jan18

stop smiling: All Canadians need to read this. →

climbingamountainwithawolf:

Why I Support Idle No More, by Linda Goyette

I am no longer a journalist, and I do not seek a bully pulpit on any topic, but tonight I want to explain to my family and friends why I give my unqualified support to the Idle No More movement as a Canadian citizen.

I am becoming more and more concerned about the harsh backlash among non-aboriginal Canadians against this peaceful protest movement. I’m not talking exclusively about virulent racial bigotry and hate speech, although it exists in dark places, but more about the willful denial of reality, the blindness to injustice, among many decent people. 

Read More

(Source: facebook.com)

87 notes #linda goyette #idle no more #racism #aboriginal #native #first nations #metis #inuit #non-violent protest

Jan17

Jan11

I was born and raised in Canada, and was fortunate to know as a child my Goong-Goong, my grandfather Yeung Sing Yew, who paid $500 (over a year’s salary at the time) in Head Tax as a 13-year old migrant in 1923, months before Canada passed the Chinese Exclusion Act which forbade any further Chinese immigration.

His father before him had come to Canada to help build the railroads, and his older brothers were pioneers in British Columbia who worked in mines, grew produce, owned grocery stores, and built lumber mills. He followed them in their pioneering activities, and then for over 30 years, my grandfather worked as a butcher on Canadian Pacific Railway ships that cruised between Vancouver and Alaska.

My grandfather lived almost his entire life in Canada, only returning to China to marry, and was forced to leave his pregnant wife behind in China because of Canadian exclusion laws.

These generations of split families were the direct legacy of Canadian legal racism. His own father had left him and his brothers in China as children because he could not afford to bring them over until they were old enough to work and help pay off their own Head Tax payments.

Henry Yu, Associate Professor of History and Director of the Initiative for Student Teaching and Research on Chinese Canadians (INSTRCC) at the University of British Columbia

Excerpt from Finding Ourselves in History

(via pxrxllxls)

18 notes #Canada #chinese exclusion act #immigration #racism #head tax