US lawmakers want apology for sex slaves

AP — A congressional panel on Tuesday endorsed overwhelmingly a resolution urging Japan to apologize formally for coercing thousands of women to work as sex slaves for its World War II military.

The 39-2 approval by the Foreign Affairs Committee allows the measure to be considered by the full House. A large crowd of supporters applauded and cheered after the lawmakers' vote.

Japan "has actively promoted historical amnesia; the facts are plain," the committee's chairman, Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., said. This resolution "seeks admission of the horrible truth, in order that this horror may never be perpetrated again."

More than 140 lawmakers from both political parties have agreed to co-sponsor the nonbinding resolution, which urges Japan to "formally acknowledge, apologize and accept historical responsibility in a clear and unequivocal manner" for the suffering of so-called "comfort women" during the 1930s and 1940s.

While popular among U.S. lawmakers, the resolution has caused unease in Japan. Officials there say their country's prime ministers have apologized repeatedly — including during Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit to Washington in April — for the Imperial Japanese Army's forcing of women to work in military brothels during World War II.

Abe said Tuesday he was not in a position to comment on a decision by Congress. But he told reporters that he was "convinced that Japan-U.S. ties remain unshakable."

In Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki suggested there would be no further apology from the government on the wartime brothels, despite the passage of the resolution by the House committee.

"The alliance between the U.S. and Japan is irreplaceable. There is no change at all to the fact that the Japan-U.S. relation will continue to be unshakable," Shiozaki said.

The State Department did not take a position on the bill. Spokesman Tom Casey said that the resolution is "up to our Congress. It's a separate branch of government; they'll have to look at things as they see fit."

Some U.S. lawmakers questioned the resolution.

"I wonder how many times we expect a government to apologize for the sins of an imperial government of the past," Republican Rep. Tom Tancredo said. "Asking the Japanese government to take historical responsibility for atrocities of the defunct imperial-era government is somewhat counterproductive and unfair to the people of Japan."

Critics contend that, despite the apologies, Japan has never assumed responsibility fully for the treatment of the women.

In Australia, Jan Ruff O'Herne, an 84-year-old former Dutch colonist born in Java who now lives in Adelaide, said she hoped Japan would finally apologize to her and thousands of other women forced to work as so-called comfort women.

"This is a step in the right direction," O'Herne said after the House committee vote. "I'm full of hope. It would be fantastic for the comfort women, late in our lives and after all these years, to get this finalized with an apology."

People across Asia and the United States, including conservative supporters of Japan in Congress, were infuriated at Abe's suggestion in March that no proof existed that the military had coerced women into brothels. U.S. officials later said Abe's subsequent public statements supporting a 1993 government apology were convincing.

Japan acknowledged in the 1990s that its military set up and ran brothels for its troops. It has rejected most compensation claims, saying they were settled by postwar treaties.

The Asian Women's Fund, created in 1995 by the Japanese government but run independently and financed by private donations, has provided a way for Japan to compensate former sex slaves without offering official government compensation. Many comfort women have rejected the fund.

Supporters of the resolution want an apology similar to the one the U.S. government gave to Japanese-Americans forced into internment camps during World War II. That apology was approved by Congress and signed into law by President Ronald Reagan in 1988.

Historians say up to 200,000 women were forced to have sex with millions of Japanese soldiers during the war.

In February, three elderly former comfort women testified to a congressional panel of their rape, torture and humiliation by Japanese soldiers during the war.

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Australian government urged to make Japan apologize

News.com.au - The Australian Government should demand Japan formally apologise for forcing women into sex slavery during World War II, an Australian "comfort woman" says.

Jan Ruff O'Herne, 84, said today she hoped Japan would restore her dignity by formally apologising to her and as many as 200,000 other women forced to work as so-called comfort women for Japan's WWII military.

A US congressional panel overnight overwhelmingly endorsed a resolution urging Japan to apologise for coercing the women to work as sex slaves during the war.

More than 140 US politicians from both parties co-sponsored the non-binding resolution urging Japan to "formally acknowledge, apologise and accept historical responsibility in a clear and unequivocal manner" for the suffering of comfort women.

Ms O'Herne, who travelled to Washington in February to give testimony to the panel of her repeated rape by Japanese soldiers, hoped the Australian Government would make a similar demand.

"It does put pressure onto Japan and I'm hoping that the Australian Government will also come to support this comfort women issue," she said today, noting Canadian and Dutch governments were making similar demands.

"If it comes from more governments, it will put more pressure on Japan. They can't just deny, it's like denying the Holocaust - this happened and they should take responsibility for their actions, which they have never done."

The Adelaide woman said the US resolution gave her hope of a Japanese apology.

"It (a formal apology) would be terrific for the so-called comfort women because we all are getting old and later in life it would be wonderful to get this apology," Ms O'Herne said.

"It would mean a lot ... it would give us back our dignity. And the important thing is it would send a message to the whole world that rape in war is a war crime and should be punished as such."

Lobby group Friends of Comfort Women in Australia today welcomed the US resolution.

"Now the Government of Japan has unprecedented international pressure to right the wrongs of its history," group spokeswoman Anna Song said.

"I hope this activates Australian MPs to show their support, especially ... to Ms O'Herne."

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Yes! Comfort women motion passed!

U.S. House committee passes resolution demanding Japan's apology on comfort women

Yonhap - A U.S. House committee on Tuesday passed with overwhelming support a resolution condemning Japan's sexual enslavement of women during the past century.

Resolution 121 passed the Foreign Affairs Committee 39 to 2 after an hour and half of debate by legislators.

But the final text was toned down in part from the initial version that demanded an unequivocal apology by the Japanese prime minister.

Instead, the resolution says it "would help" resolve recurring questions about Tokyo's sincerity "if the prime minister of Japan were to make" a clear-cut apology.

It, however, retains demands that the government of Japan "formally acknowledge, apologize, and accept historical responsibility in a clear and unequivocal manner" for coercion of young women into sexual slavery.

Rep. Michael Honda, the author of the resolution, told reporters immediately after the passage that he is optimistic the resolution will go to the House floor around second week of July and be passed there as well.

Loud applause exploded in the audience as soon as the resolution passed. Former comfort women and Korean-American activists who spent years advocating their cause were seated throughout the audience, watching the debate.

By Tuesday, 149 congressmen co-sponsored the resolution, well over the 120 asked for by committee leaders before marking it up for a vote.

This is the second time that the House committee endorsed the resolution on comfort women, a euphemistic term for tens of thousands of young girls, mostly Korean, who were forced into prostitution to serve Japanese soldiers before and during World War II. Korea was under Japanese colonial rule at the time.

The House body, previously called the International Relations Committee, passed a similar resolution in September last year. Resolution 121 was endorsed again by the new Congress, controlled by Democrats.

Earlier resolutions, proposed in 2001 and 2005, expired even before reaching a committee vote.

Committee chairman Tom Lantos said Tokyo's refusal to officially apologize to the comfort women was "disturbing."

"Post-war Germany made the right choice. Japan, on the other hand, has actively promoted historical amnesia," he said.

Amnesty International applauded Tuesday's results.

"Amnesty International urges nations across the world to follow the U.S. Congress's lead and put pressure on the Japanese government to ensure that survivors receive full reparation, including restitution, compensation and rehabilitation," it said in a statement.

A coalition of Korean-American groups put out a joint statement saying the victims will now "be able to restore their dignity."

"We are convinced that in the near future, the House of Representatives will also pass the resolution."

Honda, a Californian Democrat, submitted the resolution in January. His role drew public attention because he is of Japanese ancestry. His family was a victim of internment during World War II, an experience he said propelled him to seek Japan's apology for comfort women just as the U.S. did for the internment.

The final text was amended in an agreement between Lantos and ranking member Ileana Ros-Lehtinen to add two paragraphs emphasizing the U.S.-Japan alliance.

The alliance is the "cornerstone" of U.S. security in Asia and the Pacific, the amendment said.

The two countries continue to cooperate on "shared vital interests and values... including the preservation and promotion of political and economic freedoms, support for human rights and democratic institutions," it said.

Lantos said the Congress does not seek to hold Japan in "perpetual punishment."
"We want a full reckoning of history to help everyone heal, and then move on," he said.

Rep. Donald Manzullo, a Illinois Republican, voted no on the resolution, questioning whether the committee "has the wisdom" to judge another country.

"We are being asked to vote on the quality of acknowledgement and the quality of the apology as argued between two great allies," he said.

Lantos quickly rebutted, saying, "We are not dealing with inter-country disputes. We are dealing the fundamental issue of human rights."

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher voted in favour, but asked that the committee also consider a separate resolution lauding the importance of U.S.-Japan relations.

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REACTIONS

The 121 Coalition

The 121 Coalition, a national coalition representing nearly 200 civic organizations committed to defending the human rights of "Comfort Women" survivors, enthusiastically welcomes today's passage of House Resolution 121 in the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. The resolution, designated as H.Res. 121, was introduced by Representative Michael Honda (D-California) last January. It expresses "the sense of the House of Representatives that the Government of Japan should formally acknowledge, apologize, and accept historical responsibility in a clear and unequivocal manner for its Imperial Armed Force's coercion of young women into sexual slavery, known to the world as 'comfort women,' during its colonial and wartime occupation of Asia and the Pacific Islands from the 1930s through the duration of World War II."

H.Res. 121 has received bipartisan support from 149 co-sponsors and today's vote is an indication that this historic resolution is headed for passage by the full House of Representatives. "We commend the leadership of Chairman Tom Lantos for championing H.Res.121 before the full Committee on Foreign Affairs," said Annabel Park, National Coordinator for the 121 Coalition. "We now respectfully ask Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer to schedule consideration of H.Res.121 on the House Floor as soon as possible."

Members of the coalition feel that passage of H.Res.121 will send an important message to the Government of Japan that the remaining "Comfort Women" survivors deserve justice and the restoration of their fundamental dignity, and that truth, reconciliation, and stability in the region require Japan's acknowledgment of historical responsibility for its World War II-era policies. From 1932 through the end of World War II, during its colonial and wartime occupation of Asia and the Pacific Islands, the Government of Japan organized the systematic trafficking, enslavement, and brutal rape of 200,000 girls and women. H.Res.121 calls on the Government of Japan to officially acknowledge and accept responsibility in a clear and unequivocal manner for organizing and maintaining this system of sexual slavery.

The 121 Coalition, comprised of human rights and pan-Asian civic organizations from across the United States, remains deeply committed and fundamentally united in our support for this important human and women's rights issue.

For more information about H.Res. 121.


Amnesty International

T. Kumar, Amnesty International USA Advocacy Director for Asia & the Pacific, issued the following statement in response to today's committee passage:

"Amnesty International applauds the Foreign Affairs Committee for passing House Resolution 121, and urges the full House to pass the measure.

"Tens of thousands of women were abducted and deceived into becoming 'comfort women,' forced to live in military-controlled 'comfort stations' and repeatedly raped and condemned to sexual slavery. Comfort stations were organized throughout occupied Asia before and during World War II. Amnesty International strongly believes that the crimes perpetrated against these women were crimes against humanity.

"Amnesty International urges nations across the world to follow the U.S. Congress's lead and put pressure on the Japanese government to ensure that survivors receive full reparation including restitution, compensation and rehabilitation."

More on Amnesty International's work on Japan

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What if B.C. became a Chinese province?

Here's a letter to editor published on the Richmond Review. What do you think?

What if B.C. became a Chinese province?

Jun 23 2007

Re: The formation of the Nation Alliance Party, whose focus is on the 350,000 people in B.C. who are of Chinese heritage.

Canadians have generally accepted the politically pragmatic proposition that the Province of Quebec may, if a majority ever vote “Oui” in a referendum, leave the Canadian Confederation and chart an independent course; or, form some more formal relationship with the French Republic.

This is a commonplace and does not excite comment or even much reaction except from the quarters of Empire curmudgeons.

Having established the principles of Canadian disestablishmentarianism, let us now consider a second possibility. From where I sit in Richmond, B.C., where a majority of my fellow citizens already hail from lands that were, or have now become, parts of the Peoples’ Republic of China, it appears quite possible that at some time in the next 25 years, a majority of Lower Mainlanders, and, perhaps of all British Columbians, will also be emigrants from China.

Contrary to what many non-Chinese Canadians may believe, many, if not most, of these Chinese-Canadians have no more dislike for the government in Beijing than they do for the government in Ottawa. China today is not China of even 10 years ago. That was then. This is now.

In fact, many Chinese-Canadians have considerable regard and affection for the Peoples’ Republic, and take great pride in China’s unprecedented growth as an economic and military super-power able to project economic and political influence and force anywhere in the world, and soon on the moon. If you doubt this, ask a British Columbian from Shanghai what they think about the China-Taiwan situation. I suggest that a majority British Columbian, Chinese speaking, ethnic Chinese population will have a greater affinity to the Peoples’ Republic than to Canada or the United States.

Based on the accepted principles of de-Confederation, a Chinese-Canadian majority in British Columbia could vote to leave Canada. I have turned my mind to considering the outcomes if B.C. became a semi-autonomous province of China, and I have concluded that it is all good.

For years, British Columbians have complained vociferously about the way Ottawa treats us. Not enough patrol boats. Not enough helicopters. Not enough planes. Removing the Canadian Forces from the base in Chilliwack. It seems likely to me that the Beijing government would move quickly to satisfy our demands in these regards, and that we would at last get what we wished for from a national government.

Perhaps our economic model will become the wide-open-for-business City-State of Shanghai. Imagine the possibilities for a B.C. free of the shackles that environmentalists have placed on our economic development and resource exploration.

Naysayers might argue that China has never in its 5,000 year history been expansionist. I would respond that the situation in B.C. may be unprecedented for China, but not B.C. The Lower Mainland, in particular, has always been subject to conquest by immigration. However, when thousands of Brits moved here after the war, there was no need for them to seek an alliance with Britain, as we were already Britain’s vassal state and/or colony. By the time Canada repatriated the Constitution in 1982, it was already too late for B.C.’s Brits to seek a formal tie to the realm. For China, confederation with B.C. would be a turnkey operation incorporating millions of Chinese citizens living abroad and delivering an economic and military toehold in North America.

So, what if a majority of the electorate in B.C. did vote for independence and to formalize political, economic and even military ties with the Peoples’ Republic of China? Would the U.S.A. just say okey-dokey? Would the Government of Canada acquiesce? If planners in Ottawa and Washington, D.C. have considered this scenario, they have kept strangely silent about it.

Bob Friedland

Richmond

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Alice Wong wins Conservative nomination

Richmond Review - Alice Wong will get a second crack at taking down Liberal Richmond MP Raymond Chan during the next federal election, after earning the Conservative constituency assocation's nomination on Sunday night.

She beat out her two rivals despite an agreement between Howard Jampolsky and Patrick Wong to encourage their supporters to mark down the other as a second preference in an alliance against Alice Wong. The brokered deal proved ineffective.

Of the more than 1,900 votes cast, Alice Wong received 808, with Jampolsky getting 573 and Patrick Wong 564.

During the second count—in which second preferences are also counted—Alice Wong's total rose by 61 votes to 869, compared to Jampolsky's 639, up just 64.

Unlike the last nomination meeting, in which Jampolsky lost to Darrel Reid by six votes, the margin of victory on Sunday was 230 votes.

Sunday's membership turnout was remarkable, considering that during the last nomination meeting, which had five candidates, a total of fewer than 600 votes were cast.

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Because Bush does it...

"Secretary Paulson has been very active in advancing a China policy and is trying to advance their cause. We need to advance our cause," Canada finance minister Jim Flaherty said.

Globe and Mail - China's finance minister is heading to Canada this fall for a special summit aimed at opening doors in his country for Canadian banks, insurers and other investors as part of a serious effort by the Harper government to move beyond rocky relations with Beijing.

Jin Renqing, China's minister of finance, will lead a delegation of senior Chinese regulators and financial sector executives to a high-level meeting at Niagara-on-the-Lake in mid-October.

The event, to be called the Canada-China Capital Markets Forum, will bring Canadian bankers, insurers and financiers face-to-face with Chinese financial sector players.

Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, who invited Jin and is responsible for putting together the event, will announce details today.

"This will allow Canada and China to explore ways to further strengthen our bilateral relationship and help create a new long-term strategic partnership between our two countries," Flaherty said in an interview.

Canada's financial sector - particularly insurers such as Manulife Financial and Power Corp. - would like to gain a better foothold in China. The country has gradually broadened access for foreigners to its banking and insurance markets over the past six years. The opportunity is vast: one recent estimate pegged China's household and commercial wealth at $4.9-trillion. This is driving Chinese demand for personal and corporate financial services.

At the same time, however, China remains a difficult place to do business, as analysts have warned. Regulations can be stifling. Its stock markets are still weak and respond more to rumours and speculation than business fundamentals. Partnering with, or buying, a local company is risky given substandard financial reporting practices and weak corporate transparency.

The forum is meant to help banks, insurers and financiers strengthen contacts in Beijing, better navigate Chinese markets and more easily deal with local firms.

Flaherty said it's imperative Canada improve economic relations with China - just as the Bush administration is doing in the United States under the leadership of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

"Secretary Paulson has been very active in advancing a China policy and is trying to advance their cause. We need to advance our cause," he said.

The October Canada-China Capital Markets Forum will also attract public officials and companies outside Canada's financial sector.

Bank of Canada Governor David Dodge is expected to attend, as are Canadian regulators, Industry Minister Maxime Bernier and Trade Minister David Emerson, who recently said Ottawa's goal with Beijing should be a free-trade deal.

China's central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan may also attend, Flaherty said.

The event will be mutually beneficial, Flaherty predicts. Financial sector players will get an opportunity to meet high level Chinese officials, while at the same time, Canadian regulators, bankers, insurers and securities players will share their expertise with their Asian counterparts.

"This is a good relationship building exercise but it's also a chance to share some of our expertise with them," he said.

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Japanese universities flock to set up Confucius Institute

But here in Canada we consider the Confucius Institute as another spy operation or a sneaky way by China to spread its culture.

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Asahi.com - Be it Belgrade, Tel Aviv or Auckland, New Zealand, millions of people around the world have taken up learning Chinese, and the Beijing-backed Confucius Institute is there to help them.

The project, launched in 2004, is modeled on similar cultural organizations such as the British Council, the Alliance Francaise, Germany's Goethe Institut and Spain's Instituto Cervantes.

There are now 156 Confucius Institutes in 55 countries and regions. Beijing aims to have 200 up and running by the end of the year.

Japan hosts seven institutes, and a dozen more universities have asked China to help them open Confucius Institutes, according to the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo.

The Chinese government shoulders about 10 million yen of annual operating costs for each institute in Japan. Teachers are dispatched from a partner university in China.

Kiyofumi Yamashita, a former company president, started learning Chinese at the Confucius Institute at J.F. Oberlin University in Machida, western Tokyo, in April.

The 68-year-old describes his studies as a post-retirement "luxury." He spends up to six hours a day immersing himself in Chinese language, culture and history.

It's a reversal from his days as a businessman, when the language was an obstacle for him.

When he was president of food manufacturer Yamasei Co., Yamashita tried to cut costs by importing adzuki beans and sugar from a Tianjin-based company.

The products often failed to meet quality requirements, leaving his company with millions of yen in losses by the early 2000s.

"The Japanese way of communicating that relies on a nonverbal, tacit understanding hardly worked," Yamashita recalled. "I failed to build working relationships with the Chinese, probably because I was not able to speak their language."

All classes at the Confucius Institute are conducted in Chinese. Many teachers are from Shanghai-based Tongji University, a partner of J.F. Oberlin.

A one-year course costs 1.2 million yen, and Yamashita, who lives away from his family home in Ayagawa, Kagawa Prefecture, also spends nearly as much on accommodation.

Once he graduates, Yamashita hopes to study in China and then help Chinese residents in his hometown as a volunteer.

Tomoko Kobayashi, one of his 29 classmates, came to believe Japan needs more Chinese-speaking medical professionals when she worked as a nurse at the obstetrics and gynecology department of a public hospital in Chiba.

About 30 Chinese women were coming to the hospital to give birth each year, yet none of the doctors or nurses was able to communicate in Chinese.

"Without anybody who understands Chinese at their side, the women must have been lonely and anxious," said Kobayashi, 27, who plans to return to nursing after finishing the course.

The Confucius Institute forms part of China's organized push to popularize its language, following the lead of many industrialized nations, which promote their culture as part of a diplomatic strategy.

China's Ministry of Education estimates that 100 million people will be studying Chinese as a foreign language by 2010.

Chen Jinyu, vice president of the Beijing-based Headquarters of Confucius Institutes, said the Chinese government and Chinese universities will do everything they can to help foreign countries interested in the project.

"China has developed into the world's fourth-largest economy and its third-largest trading country," Chen told the first gathering of Confucius Institute representatives in May. "Just as China needs foreign languages, the world needs the Chinese language."

The meeting brought together people from 53 institutes in 28 countries to Kyoto's Ritsumeikan University, which opened Japan's first Confucius Institute in 2005.

Wang Yi, China's ambassador to Japan, told the meeting that the development of Confucius Institutes shows that the world is embracing the diversity of cultures and civilizations.

Akimasa Mitsuta, president of the Confucius Institute at J.F. Oberlin, said the driving force behind the project is China's ambition to rank as a cultural leader side by side with Western powers such as the United States, Britain and France.

"China's growing confidence as an economic superpower has aroused nostalgia for the times when the country was one of the world's most advanced civilizations," he said.

Mitsuta also said the project reflects China's traditional image of itself as the Middle Kingdom, the cultural heart of the Orient, with a duty to disseminate its thinking and culture to the rest of the world.

Japanese universities, for their part, may be motivated by more practical needs.

Chiang Cheng-yin, an associate professor of law at Waseda University, said universities hope that by building relationships with the Chinese government and Chinese universities, they can make up for flagging enrollments by Japanese students over the long term by attracting more Chinese students.

Waseda became the seventh university in Japan to establish a Confucius Institute in April.

Chiang, who is from Taiwan, said China has become one of the world's largest exporters of students because the emerging middle class wants higher education for their children despite the limited number of Chinese universities.

"Japanese universities, particularly those without a long history or brand recognition, are counting on China to supply students and serve as the lifeline for their future," he said.

Editor's note: This is part of a series on the growing influence of China in bilateral relations as well as Chinese communities in Japan.

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Japan FM urges emperor to visit war shrine

Kyodo Times - Japan's Social Democratic Party (SDP) leader criticized Foreign Minister Taro Aso on Sunday for his suggestion that the country's emperor should visit the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine, the Tokyo Shimbun newspaper reported Monday.

In making such a suggestion, the foreign minister "ignored the constitutional principle of separation of politics and religion, as well as the severe consequences caused by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to the Yasukuni Shrine," Mizuho Fukushima, the opposition party leader, was quoted by the paper as saying.

Aso's remarks "contain serious problems," said the opposition leader.

"The reason why the emperor decided to stop visiting the Yasukuni Shrine after 1975 is because it is a move which would affirm and glorify the aggression war," said Fukushima. "It would send a bad political message."

Aso said on Saturday that a visit to the controversial shrine by the emperor "would be the best," and defended Koizumi's repeated visits there, which have severely hurt the feelings of Asian people who suffered from atrocities by Japanese aggression army before and during WWII.

The Yasukuni Shrine started to enshrine top war criminals in 1978. Late Emperor Hirohito last visited it in 1975 and the present Emperor Akihito has never made any visit there.

Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso said Saturday it is desirable for the emperor to visit Yasukuni Shrine and told China to stop complaining about Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to the Shinto shrine in Tokyo.

"From the viewpoint of the spirits of the war dead, they hailed 'Banzai' for the emperor -- none of them said long live the prime minister. A visit by the emperor would be the best,'' Aso said in a speech in Nagoya.

The remarks by the hawkish foreign minister risk further damaging chilled relations with China and South Korea, victims of Japanese militarism before and during World War II who have strongly protested Japanese leaders' visits to the shrine that honors 14 Class-A war criminals along with the war dead.

The last visit by an emperor to Yasukuni was in November 1975 by Emperor Hirohito, posthumously known as Emperor Showa.

The Class-A war criminals, including executed Prime Minister Gen. Hideki Tojo, were enshrined Oct. 17, 1978.

On criticism against Koizumi's visits, Aso said, "The more China voices (opposition), the more one feels like going there. It's just like when you're told 'Don't smoke cigarettes,' it actually makes you want to smoke. It's best (for China) to keep quiet."

Beijing and Seoul have called off summit talks with Japan in protest against Koizumi's most recent visit to Yasukuni on Oct. 17 last year. He has visited the shrine once a year since taking office in 2001.

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Wong 'supporter' wants endorsement yanked

Richmond News - Richmond Conservative nominee Alice Wong is being accused of claiming an endorsement from a local non-profit organization without its permission.

It's an allegation Wong flatly denies.

Wong is one of three candidates seeking the Conservative nomination for the Richmond riding. The nomination meeting is Sunday.

Recently, Wong's campaign team began circulating a letter of recommendation to her supporters. The letter, written in Chinese, contains the endorsements of Chak Au, a Richmond school trustee, and Elaine Lau of the Canadian Low Income Seniors Affordable Housing Society.

In a jointly signed written response, Lau, who is president of the society, and chairman Alan Lau (no relation) accuse Wong of using the society's endorsement without its permission.

"The letter implied that the association has agreed to make an endorsement and asked its members to vote for Alice Wong and this stated fact is absolutely false," the letter states.

Alice Tang, Wong's campaign manager, said she and Wong met with Elaine Lau less than two weeks ago at a breakfast meeting where, according to Tang and Wong, Lau allegedly praised the Conservative nominee as a personal friend and a like-minded person who is committed to community service.

Tang and Wong insist that Lau gave her verbal permission to use her praise in a letter of recommendation.

"We said that we are going to put it in writing and we had her verbal consent before we'd even do something like that," Tang said.

In the recommendation, Lau said she and Wong shared a similar vision of service to seniors, that she supports her as a candidate and expressed hopes that the recipients of the letter would vote for her.

"She actually said those words," Wong said. "I asked whether I can use her words for endorsement. She said yes."

Speaking through a Cantonese interpreter, Elaine Lau told the News she said no such thing. "I didn't give permission to use my name as a personal endorsement - not even personal," she said.

Asked why Lau would give permission to use her endorsement then retract it, Tang suggested Lau had either simply forgotten what she said at the breakfast meeting, or was under pressure to distance the society from Wong.

This is not the first time there has been a controversy involving the society and a Conservative candidate named Wong.

In March, Patrick Wong, who is also seeking the Conservative nomination, was accused of getting seniors to sign Conservative party memberships without their full knowledge.

The allegations stemmed from a seniors appreciation luncheon co-sponsored by Patrick Wong's "Friend of Seniors" organization and the Canadian Low Income Seniors Affordable Housing Society. The society boasts 2,400 members.

Alan Lau refutes any suggestion the society favours either Wong. He said it makes no sense for the society to back any particular candidate - or party for that matter - because it could alienate other candidates, who could win the nomination.

"We can't afford to have a single enemy," he said.

Even if Elaine Lau had given her permission to use her endorsement, Alan Lau said Wong's campaign team had no permission to use her affiliation with the society. He said the society is neutral and does not endorse any political candidate or party.

"Personal is OK," he said. "Using the name of the society is wrong. She (Wong) should have let her sign it before she circulated that letter."

Tang said there is no reference to the society in the body of Lau's endorsement.

"If you read the endorsement, it's actually her personal endorsement," Tang said. "We never mention anything that the Low Income Housing Society has endorsed Alice in any respect."

But the letter is signed Elaine Lau, Canadian Low Income Seniors Affordable Housing Society. Asked why her affiliation with the society was included, Tang said a person's affiliations are relevant.

"She is attached to that society," Tang said. "If that person is attached to that society or organization, I don't see anything wrong with it.

"If the president of the Richmond Chamber of Commerce gives Alice the endorsement, I would have done exactly the same thing."

Wong added that Elaine Lau is a common name and her affiliation helps identify which Lau was giving the recommendation.

"There are many Elaine Laus," Wong said.

Chak Au, whose endorsement was signed as a Richmond school trustee, also said he saw no problem with using a person's affiliation. He said his endorsement of Alice Wong does not mean that the entire Richmond school board endorses her.

"The reference to my title is a way to tell people who I am," he said.

Asked if, in light of Lau's disavowal of the endorsement they planned to retract the letter of recommendation, Tang and Wong said they did not. Wong said she has consulted her lawyer and stands by the letter of recommendation.

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10 years under China, Hong Kong remarkably unchanged but still wary

AP - Many were gloomy about Hong Kong's future 10 years ago when the British colony of dazzling skyscrapers and gung-ho capitalists returned to the communist Chinese motherland.

There were fears Chinese troops would be goose-stepping down the streets, muzzling any whisper of political dissent. Masses of peasants would stampede across the border, filling the city with beggars and thieves. And the most talented Hong Kongers would become "yacht people," fleeing to Australia, Canada, America and other places welcoming their business savvy, workaholic ways and cash.

Fortune magazine's headline, two years before the British flag came down, proclaimed "The Death of Hong Kong."

Ten years later, the soldiers are here, but are rarely seen in uniform on the streets. Mainland Chinese are pouring in, but as big-spending tourists buying Rolex watches and shark-fin soup. Many rich Hong Kongers are back, resettled in a booming city, happy that their fears have proved groundless.

Queen Victoria's statue still stands in the middle of town, in a park where thousands of protesters rally each year to denounce China's undemocratic system and remember the Chinese killed in the crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators at Tiananmen Square in Beijing — the 1989 bloodbath that spurred an exodus of Hong Kong Chinese fearful that they would one day face a similar fate.

But even as memories of Tiananmen fade, not all is well in Hong Kong. Media critics say some formerly outspoken newspapers now pull their punches to avoid angering China. Hong Kong is far from fully democratic. Its laws guarantee Beijing's candidates a majority in its partially elected legislature, leaving the popular pro-democracy parties permanently in the minority. The political and legal system is highly vulnerable to meddling by the Communist overlords in Beijing.

"I don't think Beijing is seriously ready for democracy in Hong Kong," said Steve Tsang, an expert on Chinese politics at Oxford University in Britain.

When Britain's 156-year rule ended, in a lavish ceremony on the rainy midnight of June 30-July 1, 1997, the deal was that the city could keep its capitalist ways and civil liberties for 50 years.

The formula called "one country, two systems" promised a wide degree of autonomy, and in many ways, Hong Kong still acts and feels like a country separate from China. It has its own currency and telephone country code. Its legal system remains British and its judges wear wigs.

The election system, however limited, is far freer than anything in China. Hong Kong's leader, or chief executive, is the highly popular Donald Tsang, a policeman's son steeped in the British civil service tradition and knighted in the final days of British rule.

So far, the former colonial masters say things are going jolly well.

"Over the past 10 years, there have been some very bumpy moments — politically and economically," British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said in a speech during a recent visit.

"But some of the more dire predictions I remember so vividly from 1997 have not come true," she added. "One country, two systems has worked."

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, whose government negotiated the handover agreement 13 years before it came into force, recently told the BBC that the worries about Hong Kong's future "have largely proved groundless."

Just a dot on massive China's southern coast, Hong Kong — islands and mainland — consists of 6.9 million people crammed into an area the size of Nashville, Tenn.

It was a sparsely inhabited clump of rocks with a spectacular deep-water harbor when the opium-pushing British seized it in 1841, to the annoyance of their then foreign secretary, Lord Palmerston, who dismissed the new possession as just a commercially worthless — "barren island with barely a house upon it."

Today, massive container ships cruise in and out of Hong Kong's busy ports, pinstriped businessmen throng the financial district and harbor-front skyscrapers house many of the world's richest investment banks.

Last year, Hong Kong's stock market surpassed New York as the second most popular place — after London — to float new stock listings.

It's another example of Hong Kong's incredible knack for evolving, reinventing itself and confounding the naysayers. And the many crises it has faced since the handover are rarely China's doing.

The troubles began on the first day of Chinese rule when Thailand's tumbling currency triggered an Asian financial meltdown that spread from country to country. Hong Kong's stock market plummeted by 60 percent. Unemployment nearly tripled to 6 percent by the end of 1998. Homes lost half of their value. Despair gripped the city.

Before Hong Kong could recover, it recorded the first known cases of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus in humans. It killed six people and prompted the government to slaughter the entire poultry population.

A few years later, a mysterious virus crossed the border from China and turned Hong Kong into the epicenter of what became known as SARS — severe acute respiratory syndrome — which killed nearly 300 people in the territory.

Tourism shriveled and the economy again slipped into recession. Meanwhile, another challenge was becoming increasingly evident: Hong Kong, once the only major Western gateway to a China breaking out of its communist mold, was facing increasing commercial competition from Shanghai and other mainland Chinese cities.

As Hong Kong was recovering from the SARS crisis, the government began pushing an anti-subversion bill which many feared would threaten civil liberties. On July 1, the sixth anniversary of the handover, a staggering 500,000 people rallied in protest.

Compounding their anger was a sense that the government had bungled the SARS crisis and was dragging its feet on democratic reforms. The massive rally rattled Beijing and Hong Kong's chief executive, Tung Chee-hwa.

Two years later Tung resigned, citing failing health. The beefy former shipping tycoon was accused of being too cautious, too deferential to his overlords in Beijing, too out of touch with the people. It was widely believed China had lost confidence in the man it handpicked for the job, and preferred Tsang, a savvy veteran administrator trusted by the people. In March, he was selected to serve a new term by an 800-seat election committee loaded with members loyal to Beijing.

Speaking to foreign correspondents before he began his new term, Tsang dismissed the notion that Hong Kong "has been carried away by the force of communism and that we are all living in constant danger."

Tsang argued that Hong Kong is one of the world's freest places. Although it lacks full democracy, he said, it has a free press, rule of law and a full range of civil liberties.

He also said Hong Kong was much better off than before China took over.

"One can say Hong Kong is a more civilized place, a much more open society and perhaps economically more robust after going through the Asian financial crisis and tidying up our fiscal system," he said.

Tsang has promised that his government will settle the democracy issue before his five-year term ends.

But veteran pro-democracy lawmaker Martin Lee dismissed Tsang as a "puppet of Beijing" and doubted he would deliver meaningful democratic reforms. Lee also warned against feeling complacent about Hong Kong's civil liberties.

"The problem in Hong Kong is that we do not have a democratic foundation," he said. "I've always believed that without democracy, our freedoms, which are OK up until now, will not survive for long." With Beijing controlling the balance of forces in the legislature, "How can you be sure that your freedoms are protected?"

Tsang's assertion that the press remains free was questioned by media tycoon Jimmy Lai, owner of Apple Daily — a best-selling newspaper which takes a strong pro-democracy line.

"In the last 10 years, I do think Hong Kong media still has its freedom of speech," said Lai. "At least no one has been arrested. We have never been threatened by anyone."

But he claims his paper's views have lost it advertising, and that media bosses concerned for their investments in China make their publications censor themselves.

Predicting Hong Kong's political future is difficult because Beijing has yet to thoroughly explain when it thinks the city will be ready for full democracy.

As a so-called Special Administrative Region of China, or SAR, Hong Kong has to walk a fine line between "one country" and "two systems," and Tsang, the Oxford professor, thinks the Chinese leadership is worried that a free election may give Hong Kong a leader who would put it on a collision course with China.

But he said Beijing should trust the electorate.

"If you give the Hong Kong people the scope to go their own way, they always come back to support China and the SAR government," he said. "They can't afford to have the government fail."

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Hideki Tojo's granddaughter vows to bring 'official memorial day' for soldiers

“Patriotism should not have to be taught. It should be rooted in all our DNAs from birth,” she said. “Schoolteachers who refuse to stand for the playing of the national anthem or the raising of the flag are not even fit to be teachers.”

The Times - The granddaughter of Japan’s most notorious war criminal is running for election in an attempt to realise his last wish – the establishment of an official memorial day for the country’s war dead.

Yuko Tojo’s campaign comes amid a shift to the right in Japanese politics and a belief that Japan should take increasing pride in its national identity and assert itself more forcefully on the international stage.

At 68 the softly spoken, fiercely nationalist granddaughter of Hideki Tojo, a figure reviled throughout Asia and by veterans of the Pacific war as the architect of Japanese imperialist atrocities, is making what she sees as a last-chance grab for political power.

She told The Times that, if voted into the Upper House in next month’s elections, she will push for much more than the memorial ceremony described in her grandfather’s will. Japan, she said, must rediscover its independence and stop thinking of patriotism as the sole preserve of the right wing.

“Patriotism should not have to be taught. It should be rooted in all our DNAs from birth,” she said. “Schoolteachers who refuse to stand for the playing of the national anthem or the raising of the flag are not even fit to be teachers.”

Reform of Japan’s pacifist Constitution, a document drawn up hastily by the country’s American occupiers after the Second World War, is also set to be a big election issue.

Ms Tojo, an independent candidate, is among a number of Japanese who regard the Constitution as invalid. Her candidacy is seen as a sign of the growing acceptability of nationalist sentiments that would have been anathema a decade ago.

“We have not fought any other country in the last 62 years but during that time [the Constitution] has forced Japan to lose its spirit as an independent country. We have lost pride and confidence and it must now be revived,” she said.

Hideki Tojo’s dream of a ceremony for the war dead was described in a will written before he was hanged for war crimes in 1948. If the plan is realised it could reignite bitter anti-Japanese feelings in Asia, particularly China and South Korea.

It is the presence of Hideki Tojo – along with ten other Class A war criminals – on the list of those honoured at the Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo that made the visits of the former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi there a source of furious protests in China.

Ms Tojo said that prime ministerial visits to the shrine were “obviously fitting conduct”, and that their impact on other nations should not stop them.

Shinzo Abe, the current Prime Minister, should “go as a matter of duty”. As she spoke, an elderly man – a veteran of the Imperial Army – approached in tears and bowed deeply to announce himself as a humble visitor to Yasukuni and a staunch supporter of her campaign. “That has started happening a lot,” Ms Tojo said.

Her confidence in her project – and in being elected on July 29 – lies not with the veteran’s generation, but with the youth. “I have high hopes for the young of Japan,” she said. “They are awakening to the realities of foreign interference in Japan’s affairs and are just beginning to rebel against it. They are questioning the direction the country has taken.”

Hideki Tojo

• 1940 Advocate of Japan’s Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy
• 1941 Ordered attack on Pearl Harbor, which killed 2,388 Americans
• 1942 70,000 surrendered American and Filipino soldiers in Philippines forced on “Bataan Death March”
• 1943 16,000 PoWs died constructing Thai-Burma railway
• 1946 Sentenced to death for war crimes

(Sources:www.bataandeathmarch.com;www. britannica.com, Times archives)

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'Comfort stations' existed in Australian territory in WWII: historian

Ruff-O'Herne, who lives in Adelaide and travelled to Washington in February to address a House of Representatives hearing on protecting the human rights of comfort women, said the advertisement had left her trembling with anger. "It's absolutely appalling. I am so angry that after all these years and so much proof they could do that … Japan is not owning up to their historical responsibilities.

Brisbane Times - Australians have chosen not to remember the brothels that housed up to 3000 Japanese and Korean "comfort women" in the Australian territory of Rabaul during World War II, the historian Hank Nelson has claimed.

In a paper delivered at the Australian National University, the professor emeritus of Pacific history said that, either by accident or design, Australians had not used evidence from Rabaul in debates about the "comfort women".

The evidence collected by Dr Nelson includes memoirs by Japanese doctors, reminiscences by Japanese who served in Rabaul, testimony by a Korean woman that she worked in a brothel, and statements by Japanese captured on the Kokoda Trail, New Guineans and Australian prisoners.

Australian reports did not mention that "consolation units" had operated for two years in Rabaul. To establish relevance, Dr Nelson said, Australians had turned to Jan Ruff-O'Herne, who grew up in the Dutch East Indies, came to Australia in 1960 and, in 1992, became the first European to break her silence, telling about suffering brutal serial rape in the House of the Seven Seas in Java.

Dr Nelson's paper comes with renewed debate over the comfort women prompted by a full-page advertisement in The Washington Post last weekend about the 200,000 women driven into brothels during the war.

The advertisement, signed by 44 members of Japan's parliament, says: "No historical document has ever been found by historians or research organisations that positively demonstrates that women were forced against their will into prostitution by the Japanese army."

Ruff-O'Herne, who lives in Adelaide and travelled to Washington in February to address a House of Representatives hearing on protecting the human rights of comfort women, said the advertisement had left her trembling with anger. "It's absolutely appalling. I am so angry that after all these years and so much proof they could do that … Japan is not owning up to their historical responsibilities.

"I was put on a truck and driven away, torn away from my family and put in a brothel to be raped day and night."

A lobby group, Friends of Comfort Women in Australia, said: "Numerous testimonies by survivors clearly identify the comfort women system as that of military sexual slavery."

The Washington Post advertisement, also signed by professors, journalists, and political commentators, said: "The ianfu (comfort women) who were embedded with the Japanese army were not 'sex slaves'. They were working under a system of licensed prostitution that was commonplace around the world at the time."

Rabaul was the administrative centre for New Guinea, mandated to Australia. The Japanese captured the town in a day in January 1942, took about 1000 prisoners and massacred 160 at the Toll plantation.

Before and after the recapture in 1945, Australians wanted to know what had happened to Australian prisoners; they were less interested in the brothels. Yet Japanese prisoners estimated there were up to 20 brothels in Rabaul. Documents set out times, fees and codes of behaviour.

Gordon Thomas, the editor of the Rabaul Times who was interned by the Japanese, wrote that, within three weeks of the invasion, 3000 "little ladies" had come ashore and were working at "top pressure".

At least some of the Koreans had expected to work in factories or plantations, only discovering their real job in Rabaul.

Kentaro Igusa, a doctor, said the women were sent to the "front by order of Vice-Admiral Yorio Sawamoto, vice-secretary of the Navy Ministry". Some were accustomed to their work but others were "from poor families … and looked as pure as virgins". Some, badly infected with venereal disease, "cried and begged for help"; some trembled, "probably with shame".

A Korean, known as Lee Jin Hee, gave public testimony that she had been conscripted from the family farm under the "virgin delivery order" and forced to work as a comfort woman in a church.

"The enormity of the crime in Rabaul is difficult to calculate," Dr Nelson says. "It cannot be known how many freely and knowingly chose to go to Rabaul, but it would have been a minority. What seeto have happened is that perhaps 2000 or more women were deceived and forced into prostitution of a most demanding kind - meeting the demands of men day and night.

"Many suffered injury and infection and few survived the journey home. The women sent to Rabaul to satisfy the sexual needs of Japanese servicemen probably had a higher death rate than any Australian unit that fought in World War II."

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China leases a bit of Alberta's oil patch

Globe and Mail - In a possible first step toward becoming a producer of Canadian crude, the Chinese National Petroleum Corp., China's largest oil company, revealed yesterday that it has acquired some land in Alberta, with the intention to eventually develop an oil sands project if possible.

CNPC, the largest of China's state-run oil companies, said it won 11 blocks in a Crown Land Lease sale held by the Alberta government in 2006, with the land being awarded to the company in early January 2007, said Zhang Xin, director-general of external affairs at CNPC.

"These moves clearly show our sincere determination to participate in oil sands developments in Canada," he said yesterday at the Canada-China Economic Co-operation Conference in Edmonton.

While state-run Chinese companies are already present in the oil sands - China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. and China National Offshore Oil Corp. have minority stakes in Synenco's Northern Lights project and MEG Energy's Christina Lake development, respectively - no Chinese firm is believed to have previously bought oil sands leases by itself or to have moved toward developing its own oil sands project. CNPC appears to have made the acquisitions anonymously through a land agent, with Alberta Energy's records showing no awards to the company in January, although leases were awarded to several agents.

In an interview, Zhang played down the importance of the acquisition, saying that it is so small it could be considered "of no meaning." The leases comprise an area of 258.6 square kilometres and contain an estimated resource base of 1.97 billion barrels of crude, although only a fraction of that is likely recoverable, he added.

"This shows our interest, but we need to do much more study to get more information on the technology, the laws, the regulations and the environment. We don't quite understand all those factors yet," he said, adding any project the company might pursue is very far from being defined. He wouldn't comment on where the leases are in Alberta or how much CNPC paid for them.

While the deal might not be on a grand scale, there's little question that Chinese oil titans are scouring the globe for resources to feed an economy that has grown at double digits for the past four years. This week, CNPC subsidiary PetroChina Co. Ltd. said it is seeking to raise $6b (U.S.) in a Shanghai listing, with the money to be used to buy oil and gas projects, fund exploration, and build refineries and pipelines. PetroChina also has a preliminary agreement to buy half of the crude transported through Canadian firm Enbridge Inc.'s Gateway pipeline, which is expected to come on stream in 2014 and will take oil sands crude to Canada's Pacific coast.

The involvement of national oil companies, which can operate under government direction and don't necessarily operate as dictated by the market, have been controversial in North America. The U.S. government sought to prevent CNOOC's attempt to purchase U.S. oil company Unocal in 2005. However, South Korea's KNOC and Norway's Statoil ASA, both state-run firms, are already developing oil sands projects in Alberta, setting some sort of precedent.

Alberta Energy spokesman Jason Chance said the province has no problem with the Chinese firm purchasing the leases, as long as it abides by regulations.

"The Alberta government is open for business," he said. "It's important to have an open system."

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Gay travel a boon to Canadian tourism: study

Globe and Mail - A booming gay travel market in Canada could mitigate dwindling numbers of American tourists, with gay travellers tending to spend almost twice per trip as much as their straight counterparts, a study showed Friday.

About 1.8 million gay and lesbian travellers spent on average $1,166 per trip last year, according to the first-ever study on the topic, which was sponsored by various Canadian companies and municipal tourism boards and released by the Canadian Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce.

It estimates the size of the gay travel market at $5.4b in Canada, while Canadian gay travellers spend $2.4b in the U.S. and $1.7b elsewhere.

The study comes as Canadian tourism is suffering from a precipitous drop in U.S. visitors, Canada's largest market. American visits are down 18% from a year ago because of increased border security and a strong loonie.

“This business could help to compensate for the loss of business coming to Canada from the U.S.,” said Laurence Bernstein, managing partner at Bay Charles Consulting Co., which conducted the study on behalf of the chamber. “There is a pent-up demand for increased travel within Canada among the gay community.”

Tourism is important to the Canadian economy, with more than half a million Canadians directly employed in the $66.9b tourism industry.

The gay community, meantime, has an estimated buying power of more than $75b in Canada, according to Marketing Magazine.

Today's study showed gay travellers spend about $1,166 per trip, compared to an average $627 for straight people. They're also almost twice as likely to go on vacation or leisure trips that the general public.

About four-fifths of gay Canadians believe this country “goes out of its way” for gay travellers and Canada ranked highly along with Netherlands, Australia, Great Britain and France in the study.

“Gay travellers travel more frequently, spend more per trip and are more likely to travel in the off-season than the mainstream market,” said Bruce McDonald of the Canadian Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce.

“For much of the Canadian tourism market, the gay market is still undeveloped and an untapped market.”

The release comes on the eve of Toronto's annual Pride Parade, which attracts almost 1 million people and pours an estimated $80-million into the local economy.

Today's survey was paid for by tourism boards in Toronto, Whistler, Halifax and Niagara and by companies, including Via Rail and Starwood Hotels & Resorts.

It's little wonder they're brushing up on the topic: studies show gay consumers tend to have more discretionary income than heterosexuals. A 2004 report, commissioned by Xtra, showed the average household income of respondents was $72,800 — about $25,000 more than Canada's average household income.

This month, a U.S. survey found advertising in the gay and lesbian press tripled in the last decade, while ad spending in all consumer magazines climbed just 47%.

Not everyone's jumping on the bandwagon though. Wal-Mart Inc. has stopped its financial support of the gay community after threatened boycotts from conservative Christian groups, Fortune reported Friday.

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Air Canada cargo freighter flights to China

Cargonews Asia - Air Canada is pulling the plug on its freighter operation into China. At the end of this month, the Canadian carrier will return a leased MD-11 freighter to ACMI provider World Airways, terminating its all-cargo service between Shanghai and Toronto.

Claude Morin, president of Air Canada Cargo, said the decision was based on a capacity glut and declining yields.

"There's too much capacity in the market," he said, pointing to a host of freighter flights from Shanghai across the Pacific that have been launched over the past year.

US carriers such as UPS and Polar have boosted their Shanghai operations. On the Chinese side, Shanghai Airlines and Yangtze River Express commenced US flights, and Jade Air Cargo was poised to start a B747-400ERF operation from Shenzhen via Shanghai to Vancouver and Houston this month.

Reto Hunziker, executive vice-president of Jade, acknowledged that yields in the transpacific market have caved in as capacity increased, but he does not see better alternatives elsewhere.

"The Pacific market is not good at the moment, but Europe is not good either," he said.

Morin said that the new entrant adds capacity to an already over-served market. Especially the westbound market has become painful for carriers. "The imbalance in China is getting worse," he remarked.

Air Canada's decision to cancel the Shanghai freighter comes eight months after the airline scaled back its activities at Pudong airport.

A year ago the Canadian carrier was using two leased MD-11Fs to operate five weekly runs between Shanghai's Pudong and Toronto. At the end of October, right in the middle of the peak season, the airline handed one freighter back to the leasing company and reduced the frequency to three flights a week.

Last year's peak season was woefully late and brief for the airlines. Moreover, a traditional spike in demand around Lunar New Year proved equally disappointing. "We certainly didn't have the peak that you normally would have at this time of the year," said Morin.

According to him, Air Canada's clientele has been unfazed by the termination of the freighter run. "Our customers are not concerned to find room for their cargo," he said.

Air Canada still has daily passenger flights with A340s on the Pudong-Toronto route, which gives some 90 tonnes a week to market, besides A340 flights from Pudong to Vancouver.

Air Canada's bellyhold capacity in the Shanghai market is due to increase in the autumn, when the airline intends to replace the A340 on the Pudong-Toronto run with a B777. Morin reckons that the 777 can carry about 20 tonnes on the route.

"We can offset a lot of lost capacity," he said.

Originally, Air Canada was planning to add two 777 freighters to its fleet by 2009. Those aircraft had been earmarked for the Pacific market and for Air Canada's remaining all-cargo activity to Frankfurt, which has been operating with a leased MD-11F. Air Canada recently extended the lease for the Frankfurt freighter.

When the airline increased its order for passenger planes in late April, it simultaneously cancelled the freighters. With 14 B777s and 37 B787s on order, and faced with the recent weakness across the Pacific, Morin sees no need for freighters in Air Canada colours in the near future.

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BC's green industry has high hope in China market: premier

Burnaby Newsleader - B.C. is ideally suited to turn the economic burden of greenhouse gas emissions into an advantage by marketing its clean technology to Asia, Premier Gordon Campbell says.

In a speech to a Vancouver Board of Trade conference on climate change, Campbell said B.C. can take advantage of its links with China, which is expected to surpass the United States as an economic power in the next 20 years, and whose environmental problems are just as enormous.

“Vancouver is the fourth most multicultural community in the world,” Campbell said. “We’re going to be pretty darn close to first within the next 20 years. We have people right here who can work with China on a day-to-day basis, who understand the culture, who understand how business works, who understand how opportunities work.”

One opportunity is a world’s fair in Shanghai in 2010, the same year as B.C. hosts the Olympics. Campbell said in his trip to China in 2006, the focus had changed from the economy to the environment, and now Shanghai wants to showcase 1,000 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles at its fair. B.C. has an agreement with California to develop the world’s first “hydrogen highway” by then, with fueling points to allow a hydrogen-powered car to go from the Mexican border to Whistler. A majority of Canadians working in fuel cell technology are in B.C.

Campbell said China is also interested in another area being pioneered by B.C., small-scale hydroelectric generation.

B.C. has set a target to cut greenhouse gas emissions by one third by 2020, 10 per cent below 1990 levels, with a new cabinet committee developing strategies this year to try to do it. Campbell hinted that there will be an emphasis on incentives for personal choice, rather than heavy taxes or industry regulation to reach the goal.

“It’s going to be your choice,” he said. “It’s not going to be what government does or what business does or what your friends down the street do, it’s going to be what you do first that’s going to make a difference.”

NDP environment critic Shane Simpson said the speech shows the B.C. Liberal government is more interested in making political points from climate change than taking real action.

“He failed to legislate targets for greenhouse gas emissions, he has waffled on his commitment to eliminate emission from coal burning, and he expects British Columbians to be satisfied with an agreement with California that cannot be enforced,” Simpson said. “It was clear from his speech that the Premier is pre-occupied with individual responsibility, instead of addressing the responsibility of his government to take meaningful action to tackle the realities of climate change.”

Campbell argued that climate change is a project that will take decades, with no discernible results for many years. He noted that in the 1950s, the average family had more than three children, but now has fewer than two. In the same time, the size of the average first house has grown from 900 square feet to 2,300, with two cars instead of one.

He recalled that 15 years ago, when Vancouver council rezoned its downtown south neighbourhood from a commercial-industrial “no-man’s-land” to high-density residential, he was told nobody would walk to work. Now the area is called Yaletown, a desirable residential community, and walking is the fastest-growing form of commuting.

The province’s new energy plan sets BC Hydro the task of meeting half of its new demand between now and 2020 through energy conservation, and also ending the import of electric power to B.C.

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China told buying Canadian energy firms has 'significant political obstacles'

A Chinese government source said that they had been informed by Canadian officials on a recent trip to that country that takeovers of Canadian energy companies would also face significant political obstacles.

PetroChina's A-share listing proceeds to be partly focused on overseas oil and gas targets, source says

Financial Times - PetroChina, the Beijing-based, Hong Kong-listed oil and gas giant, plans to spend a portion of the 47b yuan (US$ 6.2b) in proceeds it expects to raise from its A-share listing on overseas oil and gas buys, said a company source.

According to the source, PetroChina's A-share listing income will be denominated in China's renminbi currency and will therefore be focused primarily on new Chinese oil and gas prospects as well as on the construction of new oil drilling and refinery facilities and gas pipelines. Aside from this, the source said that a certain amount of the listing proceeds will be used to exploit PetroChina's latest discovery at the Jidong Nanpu Oil field which may hold more than 1 billion metric tons of oil. Only a small part of the A-share sale income will be spent on overseas acquisitions, said the source.

The source further revealed that PetroChina mainly makes overseas acquisitions in four regions of the world, including Central Asia, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and South America. American energy targets are viewed as being off-limits ever since CNOOC, China's other oil and gas major, encountered political opposition to its 2005 bid for Unocal. A Chinese government source said that they had been informed by Canadian officials on a recent trip to that country that takeovers of Canadian energy companies would also face significant political obstacles. Chinese companies including CNOOC and Sinopec have both made large investments in the Canadian oil sands projects in recent years.

Chinese companies do, however, have a track record of making acquisitions in Kazakhstan, such as the 2005 acquisition of PetroKazakhstan by CNOOC. Possible Kazakh targets could include Max Petroleum, a UK-listed energy company which has assets in that country and which has recently been the subject of takeover speculation, Another target could include Transmeridian, the Houston-based energy company that has been pursuing a sale since March.

"Big oil and gas targets are of interest," said the source. "We will only look at those with investment and return ratio higher than 12%," said the source, adding that it is quite difficult for PetroChina to make overseas acquisitions due to skyrocketing target valuations.

PetroChina is the most profitable company in China. Its A-share sale is expected to issue no more than 4b shares and raise no less than 47b yuan, based on PetroChina's closing price in HK on 20 June. PetroChina had a market capitalization of US$ 269b today.

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China doubts Canada would allow Chinese investment in oil sands

Globe and Mail - Inside Energy is on the road, finding out what there is to see and do in Edmonton at the 3rd Canada-China Economic Co-operation conference, which is being billed this time around as "Energy and beyond."

There are a lot of distractions at the conference and you can sit in on panels discussing environmental and technological collaboration and even fuel cells. But there's really only one question that needs to be answered, and it's this: Is more Chinese investment coming to the oil sands, and, if so, when?

It's well known that China needs oil to fuel its booming economy, and Canada is a logical place for it to source the crude it desires. Two years ago Chinese firms caused a stir by taking minority stakes in Albertan oil sands projects, while Petrochina has an MOU to take 50 per cent of the crude that would come through Enbridge's Gateway pipeline to the Canadian West Coast, currently expected to be in service by 2014.

That investment seemed to set the scene for more substantial acquisitions by China in Canada, but the expected wave never arrived. Explanations range from a belief that China is learning the oil sands game with its minority stakes and so is happy to stand pat for now, to Canadian acquisitions being just too expensive in an inflated market.

The rationale that might make the most sense, though, is that China isn't sure if a larger investment would be allowed by Canada. In recent years, China was embarrassed when one of its national oil company's bid for Unocal, a U.S. oil company, only to have the bid scuppered by U.S. government opposition. It doesn't want something similar to happen in Canada. Signs from the government have been mixed, and lawyers in Calgary tell me they aren't sure if major investment from China's national oil companies would be allowed, even though Norwegian and Korean NOCs have taken over oil sands developments in Alberta recently.

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Amazing 'Thousand-hand Buddha" performance

This beautiful performance is by the China Disabled People's Performing Art Troupe. The choreography of the dance, Buddha with Thousand Hands, is breathtaking and awe inspiring. Even more amazing is that all of the performers are deaf and cannot hear the music. They have performed in Vancouver last February during the Chinese New Year. It was a big buzz in the community.

More info here, and here.

Except:

In the 15 days after Spring Festival, Tai Lihua, a dancer with the China Disabled People's Performing Art Troupe, accepted interviews from 85 various media outlets. On her busiest day, Tai met with 15 media.

What brought the 29-year-old dancer so much media attention was her performance in "The Thousand-handed Goddess of Mercy," a dance routine presented by 21 deaf and mute dancers during CCTV's popular Spring Festival Gala Show on February 8. Tai was the lead dancer of the piece. Because of the nature of the dance, most of the time Tai's face was the only one the audience could see.

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Picture of the Day - Aboriginal Day

Fancy dancer Nimkiinini Osawamick, 15, is a blur in motion as he dances to the beat of a drum to honour National Aboriginal Day at Curve Lake First Nation near Peterborough, Ont. on Thursday, June 21, 2007. (CP PHOTO/Peterborough Examiner - Clifford Skarstedt)

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Jim Chu becomes Vancouver's first police chief of Chinese descent

Jim Chu and his parents. (Ming Pao file photo)

Jim Chu with his daughters. (Ming Pao file photo)

Vancouver Sun, the Province, Ming Pao - Jim Chu (朱小蓀), a veteran Vancouver police officer, will be named this morning to succeed Jamie Graham as police chief. Chu will be Vancouver's first police chief of Chinese descent and probably the first Chinese chief to head a big city police force in Canada, too.

Mayor Sam Sullivan will formally announce that Chu, a 48-year-old father of four who is currently a deputy chief constable, has been given the job. He beat out five contenders for the top job.

Last month, he was awarded an Order of Merit of the Police Forces by the Governor-General (photo), which recognizes "conspicuous merit and exceptional services by members and employees of the Canadian police forces whose contributions extend beyond protection of the community."

He is the first chief of police of Asian descent in VPD history. Some people say he looks like kungfu superstar Jackie Chan. Both share a prominent nose.

In a previous interview with Ming Pao, Chu said he immigrated to Canada from Shanghai with parents at age 3. They first settled in Calgary, then Peterborough of Ontario and then Vancouver.

Chu's parents, like the majority of immigrants, have fought a hard battle settling in the new land. Chu's father had worked as a repairer of typewriters and calculators. When computers made these apparatus obsolete, he became a taxi driver. In order to support the family, he also worked two other part-time jobs.

Chu grew up Vancouver East and he studied in Charles Tupper Secondary.

Chu had said there were only 3 Chinese cops when he joined the VPD, including himself. Nowadays, there are a few dozens. But Chu said the proportion of ethnic, including Chinese, cops is still too small.

Came to Canada at only 3, Chu can only speak very limited Chinese. During the first interview with the media, he couldn't even say his name in Chinese. But he was prepared. He asked a friend to type his Chinese name on some slips of paper for the Chinese media to pick up. He was known to be a consensus builder and a friend to the media.

Chu began his career with the department in 1979, has served as a constable in planning and research, and detective in general investigation and robbery. Chu was promoted to sergeant in 1991 and assigned to patrol. As the sergeant in charge of the recruiting unit, he wrote the department's applicant guide, and restructured the outreach programs and swearing-in ceremonies, according to his bio on the VPD website.

He was promoted to inspector in June 1997.

Chu was assigned as project manager on the E-Comm project, and managed the transition onto the E-Comm radio system and a new mobile computing and data access platform. He became the patrol district 4 commander in 2001 and a deputy chief in 2003.

He also developed the department's first website.

Chu is also well respected at Vancouver city hall because of the cooperation he showed in getting police finances in order over the last few years, after its skyrocketing overtime bills and overruns caused major concern.

"Jim is well positioned and has earned the position," said Vision Vancouver Coun. Raymond Louie.

"He's always been good before council."

Louie said he'd heard the successful candidate would be internal and someone who would satisfy the board's desire for diversity.

Chu, who holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from Simon Fraser University and an MBA from the University of British Columbia, is a former part-time contract faculty member in the Douglas College department of criminology, and he is the author of the book Law Enforcement Information Technology.

He has also been a featured speaker at police and technology conferences and seminars throughout North America, Europe and the Middle East.

There were originally six candidates in the running for the job, three from the inside and three from outside. Deputy chief Bob Rich was one of the internal candidates.

Rich lost out to Graham when the Philip Owen-led police board went hunting for a new police chief in 2002. Another unsuccessful candidate was Larry Campbell who, after he lost the police competition, went on to run successfully as the mayoral candidate for COPE.

Another internal candidate was Supt. Kash Heed, who headed the VPD's drug squad and was also inspector in charge of the southeast quadrant of the city.

Tags: jim chu, VPD, vancouver police, police chief, chinese canadian

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Canadian mining industry losing steam

The reasons for foreign take-overs of Corporate Canada listed here by the Globe are true but... Now the politicians and the industry are asking for more regulatory measures to help slow foreign take-overs. It looks like people are blaming the government for all these. In fact, the root of the problems, in my opinion (and I'm no expert, just talking as an average Canadian), is that Canadian companies lack the kind of aggressiveness and entrepreneurialship needed to compete in a highly competitive world. We talk too much on ideology and less on actions. Our politicians care more about selfish political gains than what are good for the country. Anyway, if you cannot perform well, others will do it for you. And you want the money so that you can get out of the failing business models. That's the rule of game in the business world, isn't it? Why not blaming ourselves for not being smarter?

This line in the article best explains it all:

Living next to the United States makes life pretty easy for a lot of Canadian executives and as a result they are not as aggressive as they otherwise might be. Over time, size really does matter.

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Globe and Mail - A global wave of consolidation in the mining industry has had a devastating impact on senior Canadian miners, costing Canada more major head offices than any other country, according to a new report.

At a time when the mining industry is booming thanks to record metal prices and soaring demand for materials from China and other emerging economies throughout the world, Canada's place on the world mining stage has shrivelled, according to data compiled by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC).

In 2003, Canada was the leader among mining nations, home to 12 of the industry's top 40 companies as measured by market value. Since then, seven of those Canadian mining firms have been taken over, including high-profile nickel stalwarts Inco Ltd. and Falconbridge Ltd., which were snapped up last year by aggressive mining firms from Brazil and Switzerland for a combined $40-billion.

"That's more than our fair share," said Paul Murphy, the head of PwC's Canadian mining practice, who called the loss of so many Canadian mining head offices over such a short period "striking."

The report came a day after it was revealed senior federal Finance Department officials are telling superiors the hollowing out of Canada's corporate sector by foreign takeovers is a myth.

The information was contained in a confidential briefing for federal deputy finance minister Rob Wright that was obtained under Access to Information legislation.

It shows that Finance officials are skeptical of claims by business leaders such as Royal Bank of Canada chief executive officer Gordon Nixon and Manulife Financial CEO Dominic D'Alessandro that a surge of foreign takeovers is a problem.
.......
"It's a combination of conservatism and complacency. Living next to the United States makes life pretty easy for a lot of Canadian executives and as a result they are not as aggressive as they otherwise might be. Over time, size really does matter. " Mr. Telfer said in an interview.
.......
More than a dozen top investment bankers and lawyers quietly met last month with officials from the Bank of Canada, the Department of Finance and Ontario securities regulatory agencies to discuss the issue.

According to people familiar with the confidential session, organized by former Ontario Securities Commission chairman David Brown and held north of Toronto, the major concerns raised by the group included the lack of political support for companies defending against foreign takeovers, and regulatory limits to takeover defences. Some participants chided Ottawa for failing to support Canadian companies when they were targeted by foreign buyers, which themselves enjoyed special takeover protections in their home countries. For example, Brazil controls so-called "golden shares" of Inco buyer CVRD, which allows the government to block a takeover.

Others complained that provincial regulation of such takeover defences as poison pills only gives Canadian companies weeks to deter acquirers, when regulations in other countries protect targets for much longer periods. "Canada seems to be the most acquisition-friendly jurisdiction in the world," said one person who attended the meeting.

Full story here.

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Hu Jintao highlights hopes for Japan ties

Reuters - Chinese President Hu Jintao held out hopes for closer ties with Japan, state media reported on Wednesday, notably underplaying tensions over history and territorial claims.

Long-standing strains between Tokyo and Beijing have eased since Shinzo Abe became Japan's prime minister last year and visited China less than two weeks after taking office. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visited Japan in April, continuing what he called an "ice-thawing" improvement.

Disputes over economic zone boundaries in the East China Sea and Japan's handling of historical accounts of its invasion during the 1930s and '40s have continued to shadow relations.

But meeting with a 220-member Japanese delegation on Tuesday, Hu stressed hopes for further rapprochement.

"Developing long-term and stable neighbourly friendship and cooperation between China and Japan is the shared popular will," he said, according to the People's Daily.

"China-Japan relations face an important opportunity to develop and we must firmly grasp this opportunity."

Hu urged "using history as a mirror", a stock phrase summarising Beijing's demand that Japan show public contrition for invading much of China and the rest of Asia before and during World War Two.

But the focus of his remarks was prospects for improved ties.

"Stick to appropriately settling disputes and conflicts through dialogue and consultation on an equal basis," he said.

Sino-Japanese relations had been icy for much of the past half-decade, largely because of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's annual visits to the Yasukuni Shrine for war dead. Beijing sees the shrine as a symbol of Japan's past militarism as some convicted war criminals are honoured there.

Abe has not visited the shrine as prime minister. But an undercurrent of tension has continued, with Abe sending a floral offering to Yasukuni and moving to revise his country's pacifist constitution so its defence forces can play a more active role.

Former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, who led the delegation that Hu greeted, was upbeat.

"Now relations between the two countries are advancing from a springtime to a summertime," Nakasone said.

Chinese Defence Minister Cao Gangchuan is likely to visit Japan later this year, and Hu may make a state visit there next year.

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Thank you, China's interest in Canadian resources is gone, finally

CIV - Although the Conservatives have successfully painted a picture that the Chinese are scooping up Canadian resources fast (and not the Americans), the fact is: the hype has already gone. The Harperites who are standing guard for our resources AGAINST CHINA's buying spree could be worry free now.

According to a report by Sing Tao, Michael McPhie, president and CEO of the Mining Association of British Columbia said although they have been receiving receive 3-5 Chinese inquires a month since last November, he can't see the Chinese investors are turning inquiry into solid investments.

McPhie couldn't come up with a solid explanation. But he said the short history of Chinese investment in the mining business might be a factor. Otherwise, the Chinese are looking for investment opportunities worldwide and aren't fixated at Canada.

Allen Wright, executive director & CEO of the Coal Association of Canada said he did receive 4-5 inquiries from China after BC energy minister Bill Bennett led a business tour to China last year. At that November trip, Bennett was very excited when he announced to the Chinese media that the Chinese will be making at least one major investment in BC's mining industry within the next year.

Wright believes Chinese corporate investors are getting more interested in BC.

Unfortunately, the ministry of energy and mines said there is no data on Chinese investment in BC's mining industry.

However, Cassandra Hall of the Association for Mineral Exploration BC said, to her best knowledge, no BC mines are under the holding of any Chinese investors at this point.

She said the association got about 5 inquiries from Chinese companies last year. Ten BC mining companies went to China with Bill Bennett. Two are believed to be in negotiations with Chinese investors.

In Alberta, where the Tories fear most the Chinese would buy out their base, there is no obvious hype to buy Albertan resources from China, according to Greg Stringham, VP of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers representing 140 Canadian oil and gas companies.

Stringham said Alberta sent a delegation to participate in the 1st World Petroleum Conference held in Beijing last November. However, the Chinese interest in Albertan oil sands has not increased after the conference. In the last 6 months, the CAPP has received no inquiry from China at all.

In fact, Stringham said, the Chinese interest in Canadian oil sands has peaked a few years ago. There were numerous negotiations and they covered a broad spectrum, from looking at company take-over to buying oil directly from Alberta.

From a Industry Canada tabulation report for domestic exports of coal, gas and petroleum from BC and Alberta to China shows that BC has not been doing well in 2006. While Alberta's exports of these products to China in 2006 has surged 25 times.

On the other hand, the table shows that BC is diversifying its export markets and is getting less reliant on the US market. Alberta's energy production remains mainly for the US.

EXPORTS OF COAL, GAS, PETROLEUM AND THE LIKE BY BC, ALBERTA

AB TO CHINA
	2004	2005	2006
China	133	148	3,733
ALL COUNTRIES	46,160,361	57,941,346	58,182,494
% CHINA/ALL	0.0003	0.0003	0.0064
BC TO CHINA
	2004	2005	2006
China	116,180	74,986	27,231
ALL COUNTRIES	4,222,902	7,054,301	6,067,296
% CHINA/ALL	2.75	1.06	0.45
AB TO US
	2004	2005	2006
U.S.	46,061,419	57,711,396	57,891,555
ALL COUNTRIES	46,160,361	57,941,346	58,182,494
% US/ALL	99.79	99.60	99.50
BC TO US
	2004	2005	2006
U.S.	27,690,000	42,200,000	32,860,000
ALL COUNTRIES	42,230,000	70,540,000	60,670,000
% US/ALL	65.57	59.82	54.16

SOURCE: INDUSTRY CANADA, IN THOUSANDS OF CANADIAN DOLLARS.

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Prominent US tour guru tells Canadian Auto Club to 'Bring China to Canada'

Look, Harper, your best friends are doing this and you aren't. Once China opens its tourist destination gate to the US, Canada will know how stupid it has been for not pushing for a better relation with China.

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Business Wire - Noel Irwin Hentschel, CEO of Los Angeles-based AmericanTours International (ATI), spoke Tuesday morning (19) at the opening of the Canadian Automobile Association’s (CAA) Annual General Meeting at the Chateau Laurier Hotel in Ottawa.

Announcing the recent signing of ATI’s agreement with China’s official airlines Air China to promote reciprocal travel between China and North America, Hentschel’s focus was on the China market.

“China is now in the top three destinations in the world for travelers and ATI is in a unique position in that we provide inbound to the US and Canada for Chinese visitors and outbound to China for CAA and AAA members as their preferred providers,” she stated.

Hentschel revealed that she is working closely with the US Dept of Commerce, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce and the China National Travel Administration to secure promotional ads for the US and Canada. The tour operator also said that she is working with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to secure more trade and tourism between China and California and that she recently took China’s Vice Minister of Commerce Madam Xiuhong Ma and a delegation of high ranking officials from Beijing to meet with the Governor in his Sacramento office. “We continue to work with the governor on the China market,” she said. “And I’ve been commuting regularly to Beijing where I’ve established a residence and office to expedite the process and strengthen government commercial ties with China.”

Commenting on the Governor’s recent trade mission to Canada where he shared his vision and plans for California to be a model "green" economy, Hentschel expressed support for the program and indicated that she has been working with the Governor’s team to increase tourism/trade activity between Canada and California to “maximize the double meaning of ‘green’ as in the color of money and nature, while working together to help our respective environments and economies.”

Urging the tourism industry of the US and Canada to take the lead in “being green,” Hentschel maintained that an important key to helping the environment is for travelers as much as possible to tour via motorcoach, a specialty of ATI since its inception 30 years ago. “It’s a friendly way to travel and you can move 40 to 50 people using a much smaller carbon footprint, an improvement over using cars for that many people,” she said. “At ATI, we also bought carbon credits to help offset reduced carbon emission.”

Hentschel added that ATI plans to feature “green tours” in the US and Canada and will be promoting them online to CAA and AAA’s travel agents and their 50 million club members.

A tourism advisor to the US Department of Commerce, Hentschel is Vice Chair of the US Travel & Tourism Board. Her ATI is the largest inbound tour operator in North America and serves more than one-million visitors from 70 countries generating $3 billion into the US economy annually. The company is based in Los Angeles with offices in New York, Washington DC, Florida and Hawaii.

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In just 5 months, your salary must have jumped $21k to buy a house in Vancouver

Click to enlarge:

Home Sales Rise; Affordability Falls

BCREA release – British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA) reports that residential sales volume on the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) in BC rose 17.5% to $5.32b in May, compared to the same month last year. Residential sales increased 3% to 11,683 units during the same period. The average MLS® price hit $454,945, up 14% from May 2006.

"The increase in MLS® unit sales in May belies the fact that housing affordability is eroding," said Cameron Muir, BCREA Chief Economist. "The monthly carrying cost of an average home in the province has increased $500 since the beginning of the year. A household now needs to earn $114,000, or $21,150 more than in January, to afford a home priced at the BC average."

"Rising wages, low unemployment and encouraging migration figures continue to support housing demand in the province," added Muir.

"However, recent mortgage rate increases combined with record high home prices will moderate housing demand over the second half of the year."

Year-to-date, MLS® residential sales volume was up 11% to $18.7b, compared to the first five months 2006. MLS® home sales dipped 1% to 43,559 units, while the average MLS® residential price climbed 12% to $429,888.

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Posters demand mayor to step down pop up in Chinatown

CIV - Looks like Sam Sullivan's fluent Cantonese might not be buying him as much favouritism in Chinatown as he probably would expect.

A number of letter-sized posters popped up in Chinatown last week demanding Sullivan to step down, Ming Pao reports. Here is the translation of the content:

MAYOR STEPS DOWN

Sam Sullivan speaks fluent Chinese, but he only says flattering words. He only cares about getting his photos published on newspapers. Since his inauguration more than a year ago, he has not been caring about Chinatown. He has no contribution [to Chinatown] at all.

Support Peter Ladner, who really cares about Chinatown, to run for the next mayor.

Some people who frequent Chinatown say they have seen at least 3 or 4 such posters appearing last week. No one knew who posted them.

Sullivan's new communication director David Hurford sounded displeased about the posters. He said the city already knew about the posters last week. But the city did nothing because it's believed that this kind of silly act was done by someone who did not have anything else to do.

Sullivan has a lot of important problems to solve, such as social housing, the homeless and the Olympics. Both mayor and the staff do not have time to deal with such nuisance, Hurford said.
Hurford claimed that the contribution of the mayor to Chinatown over the years is clear and obvious. If Sullivan won the next election, he would continue to care about issues of concerns to the Chinese citizens.

In a response yesterday, Peter Ladner stressed that he continues to strongly support Sam Sullivan. He knew nothing about the posters until councillor BC Lee told him last Friday. Lee got notified by a tip.

Ladner said he was shocked about the poster and it must be done by someone who just want to stir up troubles. However, he has no intention to make any public denunciation of the poster and would not pursue further action.

When asked what he has done for Chinatown that make someone believe he really cares about Chinatown, Ladner avoided to give direct answers, only said that being a councillor he has been listening to everybody including the Chinese; and that he would try to support discussions on issues important to Chinatown during council meetings.

Ladner avoided to say directly if he intended to run for mayor in the next election. He said he has no plan at this point and he would only focus on completing work needs to be done this term.
Sullivan stressed that he has a good relationship with Ladner. He consults with Ladner regularly on city matters and praises Ladner for his wonderful contribution to the city's economic development.

Vice chair of the Chinatown Merchants Association Wong Yeung Yin Ha (黃楊燕霞) said yesterday that the posters have not been spreading in Chinatown but remain restricted in the area surrounding the Millennium Gate.

She admits that there are voices among the Chinese and non-Chinese citizens that Sullivan has not fulfilled many election promises. However, she thinks Sullivan has been caring about Chinatown. The best example is that there are more cops are patrolling Chinatown now and the merchants are grateful to see a drop in crime rates.

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On first anniversary of head tax apology....

Head Tax Families Draw Strength from Bitter Sweet Day: Call on Harper Government to Complete Inclusive Redress

HTFSC release – As the first anniversary of the Stephen Harper Conservative government's unilaterally imposed settlement of the racist Chinese head tax and exclusion legislation is near, Head Tax Families Society of Canada (HTFSC) acknowledge a bitter sweet taste. On June 22, 2006, Stephen Harper issued a parliamentary apology and ex gratia payments – meaning without legal obligation - to surviving head tax payers and spouses of deceased head tax payers.

The Harper government made a good first step then closed the door to an inclusive just and honourable redress. The settlement excluded many surviving direct victims such as elderly sons and daughters who often were impoverished and endured family separation for decades. To date, there have been about 600 eligible claimants representing approximately 0.6% of the over 82,000 families who paid the tax and suffered exclusion. Nearly 4,000 head tax families are excluded from last year's redress announcement. HTFSC asks Stephen Harper to urgently complete the redress by agreeing the Three Manifests are a good roadmap to begin with.

The Chinese Canadian National Council, a leader of the redress movement since its inception, as well as the HTFSC, which was formed last year, and redress seeking groups across Canada believe a just and honourable redress begins with these Three Manifests: 1) the Government of Canada will recognize and acknowledge redress is incomplete; 2) the Government of Canada will commit to good faith negotiations with head tax families excluded from the June 22, 2006 settlement seeking direct redress; and 3) the Government of Canada will act in the spirit of "one certificate one claim."

Our struggle continues, knowing our movement has outlasted many Prime Ministers - the long Trudeau, Mulroney and Chretien governments and the short ones of Turner, Campbell and Martin. Our struggle is to continue to build a strong movement - one to outlast the Harper government and all the others which follow until all head tax families are treated with respect and dignity. Until this is achieved, the remnants of the colonial white supremacist ideology will view the Chinese in Canada as lacking strength and undeserving of justice and honour. Future generations will suffer their ridicule and insults.

We are a species of ideas and language. HTFSC's ideas are about justice, honour, respect and dignity for pioneer head tax families. Our language is that of healing and reconciliation for head tax families. We are Canadians engaged in the political process. We seek an appropriate redress settlement as citizens with rights and the vote in this big beautiful land we call Canada. We do so to affirm our love for Canada

We are asking for what any Canadian would want - a fair value refund of an unjust tax. No government, corporation and individual in Canada should be able to profit from racism and keep the proceeds. We want a Canadian identity of moral courage and righteousness with a boost to making our Chinese adventurers and pioneers one of the distinguished threads in the Canadian fabric.

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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Japan MPs: No massacre in Nanking; 'we only killed 20,000'

These lawmakers say a month-long study of historical documents
suggests there is no evidence that soldiers killed any more than 20,000. What is more, they say, the Japanese did not violate international law.

The Japanese right-wingers are really driving me nuts! No evidence?? That's because the Japanese burned all of them in the 15 days before the US amry takeover. 15 days!!! That's enough to destroy ANYTHING!

Did not violate international law????!!!!!! So slaughtering 20,000 -- even if that was true but I just plainly reject this Japanese "fiction" -- in a short period of time is "OK" and "LEGAL"? So the Japanese thought Chinese lives were worthless?? Or there were already enough Chinese population in this world and it wouldn't hurt that the Japanese imperialist aggressors killed just tens of thousands of them?

I have lost ALL hope in Japan. Let's see how the US Congress would decide on the comfort women bill. News reports said today the "pro" side has gotten support from over 140 congressmen and the bill has a good chance to go through. I hope that the Japanese MPs' move to place a full page ad on Washington Post last week denying their involvement in the comfort women sex slave operations and the subsequent White House's unhappy response to such move would allow the most conservative congressmen to be worry-free in casting a yes vote.

Japan MPs play down 1937 killings

BBC - A group of MPs from Japan's governing party is claiming the Chinese have exaggerated the number of people killed by Japanese troops in Nanjing in 1937.

China claims that during the assault on the city around 300,000 people were killed by the Japanese.

In Tokyo the MPs, from the right wing of the governing Liberal Democratic Party, claimed a month-long study they organised showed 20,000 died.

At the end of the year China will mark the 70th anniversary of the attack.

They call it the 'rape of Nanking', the name of the city in English at the time of the incident.

Several films will tell the story of what happened there. Nanjing was the capital city
of China.

After it fell to the Japanese Imperial Army on 13 December 1937, the occupiers terrorised the city's population. Many thousands were killed.

But some in Japan want to use the anniversary to promote their view that the death toll, cited by the Chinese, is a fiction.

China says 300,000 lost their lives in Nanjing. Some experts argue a more accurate estimate is between 150,000 and 200,000.

These lawmakers say a month-long study of historical documents suggests there is no evidence that soldiers killed any more than 20,000. What is more, they say, the Japanese did not violate international law.

Clearly these are hugely provocative statements, but do they matter? The Japanese and Chinese governments are carrying out their own joint study.

The exercise is designed to try to reduce the chances that disputes over historical fact will derail efforts to improve relations between them.

But the announcement by these lawmakers will make life difficult for Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a well-known conservative.

He will no doubt now be asked repeatedly whether he shares the views of this large
contingent of his own party.

But watch for the response of the Chinese.

A measured response will signal that they are not prepared to allow history to dominate discussions between Beijing and Tokyo in the run up to this important anniversary. An angry one could signal trouble ahead.

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Toronto home resales up 24% in first half of June

Toronto Real Estate Board release - During the first fifteen days of June, resale home transactions jumped 24% compared to the same timeframe a year ago, Toronto Real Estate Board President Dorothy Mason announced today.

The first half of the month yielded a remarkable 5,074 sales, an increase of 1,000 transactions from last year's mid-June figures. This total was also 12% higher than the 4,522 sales recorded in the first half of May, which ended as the most active month ever.

"We are going through one of the strongest spring markets ever," Mason said. "There is a lot of momentum carrying over from that and it bodes well as we move into summer."

In Scarborough Centre / Woburn (E09), sales of detached homes doubled as 38% more overall transactions took place compared to mid-June a year ago.

Alderwood / Mimico (W06) in Toronto's west end saw an overall increase in activity of 50% compared to figures from last year.

Toronto's Annex neighbourhood (C02) saw the number of transactions to mid-June increase by 61% compared to 2006.

Outside the city, brisk sales of town homes and detached homes in central Vaughan (N08) led the way as overall transactions increased 53% over the same timeframe a year ago.

The average price of a resale home at mid-month was $384,576, an increase of 7% over the $358,648 recorded during the first half of June 2006. Inventory stood at 23,725 listings, reflecting a good amount of choice and helping to keep price increases under control.

"We have strong local and national economies, great value in the marketplace and solid returns on investment," TREB's President said. "It's an excellent time to be in the market, and savvy consumers are taking advantage of these great conditions."

Full release here.

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Wildlife inspectors test new way to keep illegal animal parts out of Canada

More bad news for Chinese living in Canada.... bad news that we probably be added another "sentencing" on us by average Canadians -- that we are animal abusers and bear torturers.

What do my friend chinktalk think about this one?

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CP - Wildlife inspectors are field testing a new way to stop traditional medicines containing illegal bear parts from entering Canada.

Environment Canada has begun a 12-month trial of small kits that allow them to determine on the spot whether a medicine contains material collected from bears. Most such material imported to Canada comes from animals kept on so-called “bear farms” in countries such as China. The farms have come under heavy international criticism as cruel.

“This is, bar none, the worst form of captive confinement that there is,” said Pat Tohill of the World Society for the Protection of Animals, which has provided the kits to Environment Canada's wildlife enforcement directorate.

The small, hand-held devices work along the same principle as home pregnancy kits, which test for a certain hormone. In the case of the wildlife kit, a spot test can reveal any presence of bear proteins. Instead of having to send samples to a lab, results are almost immediate.

“You have a reading within five minutes as to whether or not a product contains bear,” said Lindsay Copland of the enforcement directorate.

That ability could allow inspectors to intercept a shipment of medicine containing restricted bear parts as it enters Canada, she said.

Bear bile is commonly used in Asian traditional medicine. Research shows it can be an effective poison antidote or cough suppressant, among other things, and the active ingredient has been duplicated artificially and is available.

Still, a recent survey by the animal protection society suggested that products containing bear bile were available in 14 per cent of 90 Asian medicine stores across Canada. About 85 per cent of those products came from China.

Toronto had the highest percentage of shops selling bear bile. Products were available in almost one-quarter of the stores visited.

The survey also found bear bile in products where the ingredient wasn't listed.

The vast majority of Chinese bear bile comes from bear farms where the animals are raised specifically to collect their bile, said Tohill. Not one is licensed to export bile to Canada or anywhere else.

Bear farms keep their animals tightly confined and commonly extract the bile by inserting a tube through the abdomen into the gall bladder. The tube, through which the bile drips, may be permanent or periodically reinserted.

“There's a very high rate of mortality,” Tohill said.

On some farms, the bears are simply killed and their gall bladders removed.

Copland acknowledges that concern about bear farms is a driving force behind Canada's decision to test the kits.

“There is a concern globally about the rights of the animals on those farms.”

Australian wildlife officers are also testing the bear detection kits.

Copland said the kits can also come in handy for testing whole animal parts. They could also be used by provincial wildlife officers investigating poachers.

“They could be used to identify carcasses or fresh gall bladder.”

The single-use kits were developed by a British company and cost about $15 each.

Copland said her department expects to complete the field trial by next April.

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Bombardier, China plan first big jet plane

Globe and Mail - Bombardier Inc. took a big step towards building its first big passenger jet, known as the C-Series, with the launch of a partnership yesterday with China Aviation Industry Corp., one of the Chinese government's two main commercial aviation businesses.

Laurent Beaudoin, 69, Bombardier's chairman and chief executive officer, said the agreement with AVIC I, as the Chinese company is called, "could develop into a tight relationship" in which the two firms could co-operate on the development, assembly and marketing of a range of planes in the 90- to 149-seat category.

The announcement was made at the Paris Air Show by Mr. Beaudoin's son, Pierre, president of Bombardier Aerospace, and AVIC I president Lin Zuo Ming. It will see AVIC invest $400-million (U.S.) in research, development and construction facilities for the C-Series.

Laurent Beaudoin said in an interview that "final assembly" of the plane would still take place in Canada and that the governments of Canada, Quebec, and Britain (Bombardier has a plant in Belfast) are still willing to support the C-series project. "But the devil is in the details," he added.

Bombardier has said it will decide next year whether to drop or proceed with the C-Series plane.

Under 2005 loan agreements with Ottawa and Quebec, Bombardier promised final assembly of the C-Series would lead to the creation of 2,500 new jobs at its Mirabel plant near Montreal.

About as many more jobs would go to suppliers in Quebec.

Despite Mr. Beaudoin's promise yesterday that final assembly of the C-Series would still take place in Canada, Bombardier has been increasingly assembling parts of its planes at the plant it opened only two years ago in Mexico. That facility is expected to graduate to final plane assembly within a few years, raising uncertainty about the future of assembly jobs in Canada.

The AVIC deal will only add to speculation about Bombardier's long-term plans for offshore assembly.

For its part, Bombardier will invest $100-million in AVIC's ARJ21-900, a large regional jet with about 100 seats and a cabin with five seats abreast. Development on the aircraft is to start this year, with commercial deliveries expected in 2011.

The agreement could also help to neutralize a potential competitor to Bombardier in the regional jet market, since it's been expected that AVIC's ARJ (short for Advanced Regional Jet) would head-to-head with Bombardier's CRJ-900 NextGen for customers in North America and Europe. As partners, Bombardier and AVIC might be more inclined to divide up markets geographically.

Bombardier's relationship with AVIC - technically a memorandum of understanding at this stage - is designed to cut the development time of the C-Series, reduce its costs, and give the new plane - and perhaps existing Bombardier jets - access to the world's fastest growing aircraft market.

Bombardier thinks China's share of global passenger jet purchases will double to about 15 per cent over the next 20 years. "What this [partnership] gives us is more access to the market in China," Mr. Beaudoin said.

Bombardier said AVIC needs help to build and certify the ARJ21-900. Its smaller predecessor, called the ARJ21-700, has suffered from technological problems and delays. Mr. Beaudoin said Bombardier might become the agent for the ARJ21-900 and earn royalties on their sale.

Bombardier has been working with Chinese partners for many years. Its train business has three joint ventures in China. AVIC already makes some parts for Bombardier aircraft.

*****

The deal

State-owned China Aviation Industry Corp. will invest $400-million (U.S.) for research and development, construction of new facilities and equipment for Bombardier's proposed C-Series aircraft.

Bombardier said it will invest $100-million in AVIC's five-abreast ARJ21-900 project.

The motivation

Securing a deal with a Chinese company gives Bombardier a low-cost supplier and opens the door to a lucrative airline market that is experiencing strong growth. "China will buy 15 per cent of the commercial aircraft that will be produced over the next 20 years, so it's a very important market," Bombardier spokesman Marc Duchesne says.

The China ties

Years of trying to gain access to China's fast-growing economy are bearing fruit for Bombardier.

Its subway cars run in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Hong Kong. Its rail cars take passengers to Tibet on the world's highest railway.

A line between Beijing and its international airport will open next year, using its cars.

Its jets enjoy modest sales there. A Chinese factory makes its plane parts.

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US lawmakers to size up Japan on 'comfort women'

AFP - A US congressional committee will next week debate a resolution calling on Japan to apologize for the sexual slavery its military inflicted on 200,000 Asian women during the 1930s and World War II.

The resolution on so-called "comfort women" will be brought up in the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee on June 26, a panel staffer said.

The "mark-up" session in the committee will allow lawmakers the chance to debate, amend and possibly vote to send the resolution to the full House.

The measure says the "government of Japan should formally acknowledge, apologize, and accept historical responsibility in a clear and unequivocal manner for its Imperial Armed Force's coercion of young women into sexual slavery, known to the world as 'comfort women.'"

It calls on the Japanese Prime Minister to make a public apology, urges the government to refute any claims that the episode never happened and wants future generations to be told of "this horrible crime."

Last week, a group of 44 Japanese lawmakers denied in a full-page advertisement in The Washington Post that Japan's military had forced the women into sexual slavery during World War II.

"No historical document has ever been found by historians or research organizations that positively demonstrates that women were forced against their will into prostitution by the Japanese army," the ad said.

It said the women were "working under a system of licensed prostitution that was commonplace around the world at the time," the ad said, adding that many of the women made more money than field officers "and even generals."

Historians say up to 200,000 young women, mostly from Korea but also from China, Indonesia, the Philippines and Taiwan, were forced to serve as sex slaves in Japanese army brothels.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sparked controversy in March by saying there was no evidence the imperial army directly coerced thousands of "comfort women" into brothels across Asia during World War II.

Abe has since stressed he stands by Japan's landmark 1993 apology to the women and expressed his deep sympathy for the women during a US visit in late April.

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Majority of Canadians think visible minorities face discrimination: poll

Majority (54%) Agree Discrimination against Visible Minorities a Problem in Canada

Six in Ten (58%) Believe Minority Groups Should be Encouraged to Change, Yet Most (82%) Agree that Canada's multicultural Make-up is one of the Best things about Canada

Ipsos Reid release – A new poll conducted by Ipsos Reid exclusively for CanWest News Service and Global Television finds that a majority (54%) of Canadians 'strongly' (17%) or 'moderately' (36%) agree that discrimination against minorities is a problem in Canada.

While this might suggest that some tension exists among the multitude of ethnic groups that make up the diverse ethnic culture of Canada and those who were born here, fewer Canadians are of this opinion now than they were in the past. A similar study in 1993 revealed that seven in ten (70%) Canadians agreed that discrimination of minorities in Canada was a problem, while six in ten (60%) in 1998 agreed with that sentiment and 54% currently agree, showing a steady decline over the last 14 years.

Six in ten (58%) Canadians are of the opinion that the higher priority in Canada should be to encourage minority groups to change to be more like the rest of Canadians, compared to four in ten (38%) who believe that it is of a higher priority to encourage Canadians as a whole to try and accept minority groups and their customs and languages. In this regard, Canadians are consistent in their views of the past.

In 1990, Canadians were posed these same questions. Seventeen years ago, one third (34%) of Canadians believed that Canada should encourage the acceptance of minorities. This level of opinion peaked at 43% in 1998, but has since come back down to 38%. On the flip side, 59% of Canadians in 1990 believed that Canada should encourage minorities to change to be more like the rest of Canadians. Support for this idea dipped to just over half (52%) in 1998, but has since rebounded to 58%.

Contradictorily, despite the fact that six in ten (58%) believe that minority groups should be encouraged to change, most (82%) Canadians agree that Canada's multicultural make-up is one of the best things about this country.

These are the findings of an Ipsos Reid poll conducted exclusively for CanWest News Service and Global Television from June 12 to June 14, 2007. For the survey, a representative randomly selected sample of 1002 adults was interviewed by telephone. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate to within ±3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire adult population been polled. The margin of error will be larger within regions and for other sub-groupings of the survey population. These data were weighted to ensure that the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Canadian population according to Census data. *Question 3 was fielded from June 5 to June 7 to 1005 adults.

Majority (54%) Agree Discrimination of Minorities a Problem in Canada…

A majority (54%) of Canadians 'strongly' (17%) or 'moderately' (36%) agree that discrimination against visible minorities is a problem in Canada. A similar study in 1993 revealed that seven in ten (70%) Canadians agreed that discrimination of minorities in Canada was a problem, while six in ten (60%) in 1998 agreed with that sentiment and 54% currently agree, showing a steady decline over the last 14 years.

• Six in ten (59%) Ontarians believe discrimination against minorities to be a problem in Canada, compared to less than half (45%) of Quebecers who feel the same way. In fact, more people in Quebec disagree (54%) with this notion than agree (45%).

• Women (57%) are more likely than men (50%) to agree that discrimination of minorities is a problem in Canada.

Six in ten (58%) Believe Minority Groups Should be Encouraged to Change…

Six in ten (58%) Canadians are of the opinion that the higher priority in Canada should be to encourage minority groups to change to be more like the rest of Canadians. Canadians have not significantly changed their views on this topic, with a similar proportion (59%) in 1990 believing the same.

• Particularly interesting about this statistic is that it is driven higher by those in Quebec, where eight in ten (77%) agree that Canada should encourage minority groups to try to change to be more like most Canadians.

• Seven in ten (71%) older Canadians, aged 55 an over, believe that Canada should encourage minority groups to try to be more like most Canadians, compared to only six in ten (58%) middle-aged Canadians, aged 35 to 54, and less than half (44%) of younger Canadians, aged 18 to 34, who say the same.

• Individuals with a high school diploma or less education are also more likely (63%) to believe that minority groups should be encouraged to change compared to those who have a university degree (49%). Interestingly, only four in ten (38%) Canadians agree that a higher priority would be to encourage Canadians as a whole to accept minority groups and their customs and languages. In this regard, Canadians are consistent in their views of the past.

• Residents of Saskatchewan and Manitoba (56%) are disproportionately more likely than Canadians in other regions of the country to believe that it is of a higher priority to encourage Canadians as a whole to try to accept minority groups and their customs and languages.

• Just two in ten (21%) Quebecers believe that instead of encouraging minority groups to change to be more like Canadians, a higher priority to should be placed with encouraging Canadians as a whole to try to accept minority groups and their customs and languages.

• Fully one half (50%) of younger Canadians, aged 18 to 34, believe that Canada should encourage Canadians as a whole to accept minority groups and their customs and languages.

Most (82%) Agree that Canada's multicultural Make-up is one of the Best things about Canada…

Reflecting on the sundry cultural and religious identities that comprise the Canadian population, most (82%) Canadians 'strongly' (43%) or 'moderately' (39%) agree that Canada's multicultural make-up is one of the best things about this country. This represents a 5 point increase from when Canadians were asked about their views on this topic in 1993.

Conversely, just 16% presently indicate that they 'moderately' (10%) or 'strongly' (6%) disagree with this notion.

• Urban Canadians (84%) are more likely than rural Canadians (75%) to agree with this sentiment.

• Nine in ten (88%) British Columbians agree that Canada's multicultural make-up is one of the best things about this country, compared to three quarters (74%) of residents in Saskatchewan and Manitoba who believe the same.

• Nine in ten (88%) younger Canadians, aged 18 to 34, are inclined to agree, while eight in ten (79%) older Canadians, aged 55 and over, indicate that they agree.

Two Thirds (66%) Agree that Treating Minority Groups with Generosity Part of Canadian Character…

Interestingly, Canadians are generally unified in their belief that treating minority groups with generosity is a special part of Canadian character, with two thirds (66%) indicating that they 'strongly' (24%) or 'moderately' agree with this thought. Conversely, three in ten (29%) 'moderately' (18%) or 'strongly' (11%) disagree.

• Seven in ten (70%) Atlantic Canadians agree, while six in ten (58%) Albertans believe the same.

• 69% of women agree, while just 63% of men agree.

Two Thirds (67%) Disagree that Canadian Social Fabric Threatened By Minorities…

Two thirds (67%) of Canadians 'strongly' (35%) or 'moderately' (31%) disagree that the fabric of Canadian society is being threatened by the influx of visible minority immigrants. On the other hand, only three in ten (30%) 'strongly' (10%)or 'moderately' (20%) agree that this is the case.

• Older Canadians are more likely than younger Canadians (40% and 25% respectively) to agree that the fabric of Canadian society is being threatened by the influx of visible minority immigrants.

• Ontarians and Albertans (each at 34%) are more likely than residents in British Columbia, Manitoba and Saskatchewan (each at 25%) to agree.

• Three quarters (72%) of British Columbians and Quebecers disagree that Canada's social fabric is threatened in this way.

Six in Ten (60%) Disagree that Canada is Changing too Quickly Because of Minorities…

Six in ten (60%) Canadians 'strongly' (28%) or 'moderately' (33%) disagree that Canada is changing too quickly as a result of all of the minorities to whom Canada is now home. On the other hand, four in ten (38%) 'strongly' (16%) or 'moderately' (22%) agree with the notion that Canada is changing too quickly because of all the minorities who currently reside in Canada.

• Education appears to play a role in one's propensity to agree with this statement, with half (49%) of Canadians without a high school diploma agreeing that Canada is changing too quickly because of all the minorities in Canada, while just three in ten (29%) Canadians with a university degree feel the same.

• Older Canadians (46%) are more likely than middle aged Canadians (35%) or younger Canadians (32%) to agree that Canada is changing too quickly as a result of increased
levels of minorities.

• 43% of Ontarians agree that Canada is changing too quickly, while just 27% of resident of Saskatchewan and Manitoba are in agreement.

• Seven in ten (70%) residents of British Columbia the Atlantic Canada (69%) disagree with this statement.

Full tabular results here. please visit . News Releases here.

[Read More....]

Conservative support droops amid numerous controversies

TORIES HEADING SOUTH FOR THE SUMMER?
Conservative Support Droops, Though Liberals Remain Flat; Bloc Maintains Edge in Quebec

Ipsos Reid release – Facing a rebellion within his own party in Atlantic Canada, the threat of lawsuits over oil revenues from three provinces and charges during the G8 Summit that his government is too close to U.S. President George Bush on global warming, the sweet days of spring have been sour indeed for Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservatives. And it shows. Since May 24, the Conservatives have seen their support erode from 37% to 32%, according to the latest poll conducted by Ipsos Reid for CanWest and Global TV.

However, these results may be little more than a temporary slump. There is little to suggest that the three other main federal parties pose a formidable challenge to the Harper government. As Conservative support has declined, Liberal support has remained at 31% since May 24 – just one point better than their 2006 electoral turnout. NDP support has recovered from 13% support during December and January to remain stable at 16% since May 24, but still shy of their 17% turnout during the 2006 contest.

After a disappointing provincial election for the separatists, the Bloc Quebecois continue to recover, maintaining support of 37% in Quebec (10% nationally) since May 31, after a sharp but temporary drop to 24% (6% nationally) recorded May 24. Still, support for the Bloc remains softer than their 2006 turnout of 42% (11% nationally).

So, what is causing the Conservative slump? The only party showing any positive momentum since the 2006 contest remains the Green Party. With 9% national support since May 24, the Greens continue to demonstrate support nearly double that of their 5% turnout during the 2006 contest. The numbers also show how important Quebec is to the Conservatives. With a seven-point deficit against the Liberals in Ontario, the Conservatives can ill afford to loose their position as a strong federal alternative in Quebec to a resurgent Bloc.

9% of voters nationwide remain undecided.


Regionally, Conservatives support remains highest in Alberta, although it has dropped significantly from 74% on May 31 to 55% this week. Tory support is higher Saskatchewan and Manitoba (up 11 points to 50%), but lower in British Columbia (down six points since May 31, and 10 points since May 24 to 31%) where they are tied with the Liberals (31%).

The Conservatives look somewhat better in Ontario, improving by four points to 34% since May 31, but still trailing seven points behind the Liberals (at 41%). In Quebec, the Conservatives hold a narrow lead among the federalist parties at 21% (down four points) compared to 18% for the Liberals. Support for the Bloc Quebecois has remained at 37% since May 31.

The Liberals lead in both Atlantic Canada (up 2 points since May 31 to 45%) and Ontario (flat since May 31 to 41%). The Liberals trail the Conservatives in Alberta (up 12 points to 25%) and Saskatchewan and Manitoba (down 6 points to 25%).

The NDP enjoy their highest level of support in Saskatchewan and Manitoba (down six points since May 31 to 22%), British Columbia (down 6 points to 20%) and Atlantic Canada (up 3 points to 20%). Support for the NDP is stronger in Quebec since May 31 (up 5 points to 18%), while flat in Ontario (15%). NDP support is lowest in Alberta (up 2 points to 8%).

Green Party support is strongest in British Columbia (up 8 points since May 31 to 18%), Alberta
(up 4 points to 13%) and Ontario (down 4 points to 9%), while it is lower in Atlantic Canada
(down 6 points to 7%), Quebec (up 4 points to 6%) and Saskatchewan and Manitoba (up 1 point
to 3%).

By gender, men favour the Conservatives (35%) over the Liberals (29%) by a 6-point margin, while women prefer the Liberals (34%) over the Conservatives (29%) by a 5-point margin. The NDP draws equal support among men (16%) and women (16%), as does the Green Party (men: 9%; women: 9%). The Bloc Quebecois draws higher support among women (11%) than men (9%).

By age, Conservatives continue enjoy an advantage among respondents 55 years and older (35%) as compared to the 18-to-34-year-old cohort (29%).

The Liberals also enjoy greater support among those 55 years and older (37%) than among Canadians 18 to 34 years of age (28%).

The NDP draws higher support among those 18 to 34 years of age (21%) than among those 35 to 54 years of age (16%) or 55 years and older (13%).

Support for the Green Party is higher among those 18 to 34 years of age (11%) and 35 to 54 years (10%) than among those 55 years and older (6%). Support for the Bloc is highest among those 35 to 54 years of age (12%), while lower among those 18 to 34 (9%) and those 55 and older (7%).

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Poll: More Canadians see immigrants important; disagree more whites be taken in

Interesting.... Alberta, which is conventionally seen as more conservative than other provinces on many social issues, is most welcoming in Albertans' attitude towards immigrants. This must be due to the severe labour shortage that province is experiencing.

Ipsos Reid release - Canada, a land of immigrants, appears to have citizens who are becoming more positive in their attitudes towards immigrants and immigration than they were over a decade ago. The results of a new Ipsos Reid poll conducted exclusively for CanWest News Service and Global Television reveal that 90% of Canadians disagree that 'Canada would be better off if immigrants went back to where they came from'. This is compared to slightly less (85%) who in a similar survey conducted in 1993 disagreed with this sentiment.

Perhaps recognizing that an increasingly larger proportion of Canada's population is made up of immigrants and, as such, they are integral to the Canadian social composition, two thirds (63%) of Canadians now agree that recent immigrants should have equal say about Canada's future, compared to 55% who agreed in 1993.

Furthermore, Canadians appear to be more comfortable with granting immigrants the same rights and input as all Canadians. While in 1993 over one third (35%) of Canadians agreed that it made them 'angry when recent immigrants demanded the same rights as Canadian citizens', less (31%) now agree that the same calls for equality make them angry. In light of the fact that without immigration Canada's population would decline, three in ten (30%) Canadians agree that Canada is not taking in enough immigrants.

These are the findings of an Ipsos Reid poll conducted exclusively for CanWest News Service and Global Television from June 12 to June 14, 2007. For the survey, a representative randomly selected sample of 1002 adults was interviewed by telephone. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate to within ± 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire adult population been polled. The margin of error will be larger within regions and for other sub-groupings of the survey population. These data were weighted to ensure that the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Canadian population according to Census data. *Question 1 was fielded from June 5 to June 7 to 1005 adults.

Almost All (90%) Disagree That Canada Would Be Better Without Immigrants…

Almost all (90%) Canadians 'strongly' (67%) or 'moderately' (22%) disagree that 'Canada would be a lot better off if immigrants went back to where they came from'. This is compared to slightly less (85%) who, in 1993, disagreed with this sentiment.

• 95% of Albertans disagree that Canada would be a lot better off if immigrants went back to where they came from, compared with only 85% of residents of Saskatchewan and Manitoba who disagree.





• Remarkably, nearly three in ten (27%) Canadians without a high school diploma agree that Canada would be a lot better off if immigrants went back to where they came from. This is compared to just 5% of University graduates who believe the same.





• Younger Canadians are more likely to disagree that Canada would be a lot better off if immigrants went back to where they came from than older Canadians (94% and 85%, respectively)

While in 1993, two thirds (67%) of Canadians disagreed that 'more white immigrants should be taken into Canada and fewer visible minority immigrants' should be taken in, nearly three quarters (73%) currently disagree with this sentiment.

• Residents of Quebec are more likely (85%) than those in the rest of Canada to disagree that more white immigrants should be taken in, and fewer visible minority immigrants', whereas residents of Saskatchewan and Manitoba are least likely (64%) to disagree with this statement.





• BC ranks second at 79%; Alberta at 77% and Ontario at 72%.





• Women (77%) are more likely than men (69%) to disagree.

Canadians More Comfortable With Extending Equal Rights To Recent Immigrants…

Canadians appear to be more comfortable with granting immigrants the same rights and input as all Canadians. While in 1993 over one third (35%) of Canadians agreed that it made them 'angry when recent immigrants demanded the same rights as Canadian citizens', less (30%) now agree that the same calls for equality make them angry.

• Albertans are most likely (78%) to disagree that it makes them angry when recent immigrants demand the same rights as Canadians citizens. On the other hand, residents of Manitoba and Saskatchewan are least likely (59%) to disagree that they are angry when recent immigrants demand to have the same rights as Canadians citizens, while nearly four in ten (36%) agree that they get angry when they hear this.
  
  
  
  
• Four in ten (39%) Canadians aged 55 and older agree that they get angry when recent immigrants demand to have the same rights as Canadian citizens.





• Nearly half (48%) of Canadians who are without a high school diploma agree that they get angry when they hear this.

In a similar vein, Canadians are more comfortable in believing that recent immigrants should have an equal say about Canada's future. Two thirds (63%) of Canadians now agree that recent immigrants should have equal say about Canada's future, compared to 55% who agreed in 1993.

• 68% of Quebecers and Albertans agree with this idea, while only 57% of Ontarians agree.
  




• Three quarters (74%) of younger Canadians, aged 18 to 34, agree that recent immigrants should have an equal say about Canada's future, while just over half (55%) of older Canadians, aged 55 and up, agree.

Three In Ten (30%) Believe Canada Is Not Taking Enough Immigrants…

Perhaps recognizing that without immigration Canada's population would begin to decline, three in ten (30%) Canadians agree that Canada is not taking in enough immigrants. Among demographic groupings, Canadians are remarkably consistent in their views on this particular topic. However, regionally speaking, some differences do exist:

• Nearly half (47%) of residents of Saskatchewan and Manitoba agree that Canada is not taking enough immigrants. This is interesting and somewhat contradictory. In many of the other questions in this study, residents of Saskatchewan and Manitoba are more likely than residents of other regions to be less positive towards immigrants; however, they are the most likely to agree that Canada is not taking enough immigrants.
  




• Residents of Alberta (26%), Ontario (27%), British Columbia, and Quebec (30%) are significantly less likely to agree that Canada is not taking enough immigrants. This is perhaps as result of the fact that immigrants tend to settle in major urban areas, and these four provinces are where most of the major urban centre in Canada are located.
  




• Men (33%) are more likely than women (26%) to agree that Canada is not taking in enough immigrants.
  




• Interestingly, residents in urban (30%) regions are just as likely as residents in rural regions (29%) to agree that Canada is not taking in enough immigrants. However, this particular statistic is interesting because these individuals are exposed to differing levels of interaction with immigrants based on their location. Therefore, they might perceive the levels of immigrants in Canada to be quite different, and their agreement to the above statement could reflect those differing perceptions.

Canadians Perceptions On Immigration Levels…

Almost half of Canadians (49%) believe that Canada should take in about the same number of immigrants as other comparably-developed countries do, with one quarter (24%) saying that Canada should take in fewer immigrants than other countries, and a similar proportion (23%) saying that Canada should take in more.

• Residents of Western Canada are more likely to say that Canada should take in more immigrants than other developed countries our size do, with one third of residents in Alberta (33%), British Columbia, Manitoba and Saskatchewan (31%) indicating that Canada should take in more immigrants than other developed countries our size do.
  




• On the other hand, only 16% of Quebecers believe the same, while two in ten (20%) Ontarians and Atlantic Canadians (22%) say the same. Similarly, almost half (49%) of Canadians believe that Canada does 'about its share' when compared with other developed countries like Canada, with one third (32%) believing that Canada takes in more than its share of immigrants, and 12% believing that Canada takes in less than its share of immigrants.
  




• Residents of Ontario are most likely (42%) to say that Canada takes in more than its share, while Quebecers and Atlantic Canadians (23%) are least likely to say the same.
  




• Canadians without a high school diploma are significantly more likely to say that Canada takes in more than its share of immigrants, with 43% indicating so. Just one quarter (24%) of university degree-holders feel the same way.

Just Two In Ten (18%) Say Immigrants Take Away Too Many Jobs…

Just two in ten (18%) Canadians 'strongly' (8%) or 'moderately agree' (10%) agree that new immigrants take too many jobs away from Canadians. This is compared to three in ten (29%) in 1998 who 'strongly' (13%) or 'moderately' (16%) agreed that new immigrants take too many jobs away, and a similar proportion (31%) who, in 1993, 'strongly' (14%) or 'moderately' (17%) agreed that new immigrants take too many jobs away.

• Education seems to have a factor in one's propensity to agree that immigrants take too many jobs away from other Canadians. Four in ten (39%) Canadians without a high school diploma 'strongly' (22%) or 'moderately' (17%) agree that new immigrants take too many jobs away from Canadians. This is compared to three in ten (27%) high school graduates, two in ten (17%) Canadians with at least some post secondary education, and one in ten (10%) Canadians with a university degree who agree with this statement.
  




• Rural Canadians (27%) are more likely than urban Canadians (16%) to agree that new immigrants take too many jobs away from Canadians. This is particularly interesting considering that, according to Statistics Canada, 94% of immigrants who arrived in Canada in the 1990s settled in census metropolitan areas.
  




• Residents of Saskatchewan and Manitoba are more likely to agree (25%) that new immigrants take too many jobs away from Canadians than residents of Ontario (21%), Atlantic Canada (19%), Quebec (19%), Alberta (11%) and British Columbia (10%).
  




• Men (21%) are more likely than women (16%) to agree.

The following questions were asked:

1. What do you think our immigration policy should be like? Do you think Canada should take in more immigrants than other developed countries our size do, about the same number or fewer immigrants than other developed countries like us?

2. I'm going to read you some different statements people might make about issues concerning life in Canada today. For each statement, please tell me whether you strongly agree, moderately agree, moderately disagree or strongly disagree.

• Canada would be a lot better off if immigrants went back to where they came from
  




• More white immigrants should and fewer visible minority immigrants should be taken into Canada
  




• It makes me angry when recent immigrants demand the same rights as Canadian citizens
  




• New immigrants take too many jobs away from Canadians
  




• Recent immigrants should have an equal say about Canada's future
  




• Canada is not taking in enough immigrants

3) Compared with other developed countries like us, do you think Canada takes in more than its share of immigrants, about its share or less than its share of immigrants?

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Chinese is Japan's second most popular language, only after English

Wow! Chinese has become the second most popular language in Japan, just after English. And Canada is saying that the Confucius Institute exists to push for China's cultural penetration/power control but not just a reaction to demand? The mentality of this federal government always looks bizzare.

Asahi Shimbun - When Tsutomu Kobayashi was sent to China on business for the first time in 1997, he had to hunt all over a luxury hotel in Beijing before he could find a restroom.

He had studied some Chinese, but not enough to make a simple inquiry.

"I had memorized in advance how to ask where the restroom is in Chinese, but workers at the hotel did not understand me because of my poor pronunciation," he said.

Ten years later, the 50-year-old technical adviser has been assigned to work in China again, and he is determined not to make the same mistake twice.

Each weekend, Kobayashi turns on the TV in his living room, puts on his headphones and does one-on-one Chinese lessons by videophone.

In Japan, where languages can slip quickly in and out of vogue, Chinese has been coasting on a long wave of popularity.

In the past, Japanese often learned the language to find out more about Chinese history and culture or because they were fans of kung fu movies of the 1970s and 1980s that featured stars such as Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan.

But today's students are driven largely by the practical need to acquire the language of one of Japan's key business partners.

At Nova Corp., the nation's largest language school which was last week punished by the government for irregularities, about 100,000 people are taking Chinese language lessons. The school says that most of the students are businessmen who are desperate to master Chinese because the language is required as an essential skill.

The situation is more or less the same at Berlitz Japan Inc., another major language school.

Takanori Kurihara, a senior manager, said about 70 percent of those attending Chinese language courses are workers at companies and government organizations that do business with China.

"The workers can discuss and conduct business through an interpreter," he said. "But they want to speak Chinese in casual conversations with their Chinese counterparts."

Kobayashi, who works for a government-affiliated agricultural and forestry development corporation, served as a technical adviser to Chinese farmers for three years through 1999. He was assigned to the job again this spring.

"I will try to make myself understood with my own Chinese rather than through an interpreter," he said. "By speaking Chinese myself, I want to build rapport with local farmers."

Kobayashi is scheduled to make a three-month business trip to the Xinjiang Uighur autonomous region from July, his first visit to China in eight years.

Kobayashi usually takes four Chinese language lessons each weekend. While the service is available around the clock, he does the lessons early in the morning and after dinner so that he does not have to sacrifice time spent with his wife and two daughters, both university students.

When Kobayashi, who lives just outside Tokyo, says ni-hao, a Chinese teacher at his language school's network center in Osaka replies and introduces herself.

When the characters the teacher writes appear on the screen, Kobayashi copies them down and reads them aloud.

"I was embarrassed at first, but it is little different from attending a language school," he said.

In terms of popularity, Chinese appears to be No. 2 in Japan after English. Sales of textbooks for the radio Chinese program of Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK) reached 140,000 copies in April. Only English texts sell better.

Casio Computer Co., the nation's top manufacturer of electronic dictionaries, is marketing two models of Chinese-Japanese dictionaries.

Except for English, Chinese is the only foreign language for which more than one Casio model is available.

Foreign languages come in and out of fashion in Japan.

Korean, for example, has been enjoying a vogue since Japan and South Korea co-hosted the World Cup soccer games in 2002 and the soap opera "Winter Sonata" and other South Korean TV shows and movies scored hits in Japan.

The Soviet Union's perestroika reform program under Mikhail Gorbachev fueled interest in Russian, and the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of the two Germanys lifted the popularity of German.

Enthusiasm for studying Chinese sagged after the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989. At the Institute of Japanese-Chinese Studies, a Tokyo vocational school, the number of daytime students fell from 830 in 1989 to 680 the following year.

The language school had opened in 1951, more than 20 years before Japan and China normalized diplomatic relations.

Principal Takashi Yoshida said the latest boom in Chinese will not be short-lived, although the number of students has fluctuated according to the shifting and often tense relationship between Beijing and Tokyo.

"The popularity of Chinese will be stable because many students are learning it as a business tool," he said.

The growing interest in Chinese does not necessarily translate into friendly feelings for China.

According to a Cabinet Office survey released in December 2005, a record low 32.4 percent of Japanese said they feel a sense of affinity with China. The percentage slightly recovered in 2006 to 34.3 percent.

Kobayashi, however, believes in the importance of ties with China.

"I think more Japanese have to learn Chinese to better understand the country as a neighbor," he said. "(The importance) is not limited to business."

Editor's note: This is part of a series on the growing influence of China in bilateral relations as well as Chinese communities in Japan.

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Air Canada doubles service to China in July

Xinhua - Air Canada will double its daily Beijing-Vancouver service and increase its Shanghai-Toronto non-stop flights in July, the carrier's Beijing Office said on Sunday.

"These added flights represent an increased capacity of nearly 50 percent for the growing Chinese market, which continues to thrive due to strength in both leisure and business travel," said Daniel Shurz, vice president of Network Planning of Air Canada.

"With these enhancements Air Canada strengthens its position as the carrier with the most frequent flights between China and Vancouver and the only airline with non-stop service from eastern Canada to China."

The added Beijing-Vancouver daily flight will operate between July 2 and October 1, using a 211-seat Boeing 767-300 plane.

Effective on July 1, The Shanghai-Toronto service will increase to daily service starting for the summer peak and continue as a three-day-a-week service for the 2007-2008 winter schedule.

In total, Air Canada will operate five daily non-stops between China and Canada this summer, the most of any airline. Montreal-based Air Canada provides scheduled and charter air transportation for passengers and cargo to more than 150 destinations on five continents.

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U.S. unhappy with Japanese comfort women ad

Chosun - A source in Washington said on Saturday that the White House and U.S. Congress are displeased by a newspaper ad from 63 Japanese lawmakers that denied the Japanese government and military had a hand in conscripting women from Asian countries as sex slaves for the Imperial Army during World War II.

The source said the Bush administration and Congress are likely to address the full-page ad, which appeared in the Washington Post on Thursday.

The White House is expected to express its opposition to the ad's claims that several countries set up brothels during the war to prevent soldiers from raping civilians and that the U.S. requested "comfort stations" from the Japanese government after it occupied Japan in 1945.

According to the source, Vice President Dick Cheney, who said on a visit to Japan earlier this year that the historical issue cannot be allowed to disrupt the stability of Northeast Asia, expressed his displeasure with the ad and ordered an investigation into how it was made.

The ad is expected to boost the chances that the House will adopt a resolution calling on Japan to apologize to the former sex slaves. Some congressmen are said to be unhappy with the attempt by the Japanese lawmakers to distort historical facts.

Rep. Tom Lantos, chairman of the House International Relations Committee, said on Saturday at a fundraising event in Los Angeles that the resolution will be brought up at a regular session of the committee next Tuesday. Lantos said he expected the resolution to pass by a majority.

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Japan lawmakers deny comfort women crimes in Washington Post ad

Chosun - A group of Japanese lawmakers in a full-page ad in the Washington Post on Thursday denied the Japanese government and military had a hand in conscripting women from Asian countries as sex slaves for the Imperial Army during World War II. Titled “The Facts”, the ad published Wednesday claims “no historical document has ever been found” proving the direct involvement of the Japanese government and military, contrary to a recent U.S. congressional resolution sponsored by the Democrat Representative Mike Honda. The ad was co-sponsored by some Japanese academics, political commentators and journalists.

The ad claims the so-called comfort women were in fact authorized prostitutes, earning more money than officers. It claims the testimony of former comfort women was inconsistent since they first testified that they had been kidnapped by civilian brokers but later changed their story saying they were forced into slavery by men in “what appeared to be police uniforms.”

The lawmakers accused the U.S. congressional resolution of “gravely and intentionally” distorting historical facts by defining the “comfort women tragedy” as “one of the largest cases of human trafficking in the 20th century.”The ad also flies in the face of the current Japanese government’s position, which is to uphold an apology by chief Cabinet secretary Yohei Kono in 1993 acknowledging the government and military’s role.

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How much do you believe in creationism?

Another good point that distinguishes Canadians from the Americans. :)

Canadian poll:

• 59% agree human beings evolved from less advanced life forms over
  millions of years


• 22% believe God created human beings in their present form in the last
  10,000 years


• 42% agree humans and dinosaurs co-existed on earth


• 37% disagree, in line with fossil records indicating that man developed
  millions of years after dinosaurs

American poll (by Newsweek in April 2007):

• 48% of Americans reject the scientific theory of evolution


• 34% of college graduates accept the Biblical account of creation as fact


• 73% of Evangelical Protestants, 39% of non-Evangelical Protestants and
  41% of Catholics agree with that view believe that God created humans in their present form within the last 10,000 years

Angus Reid release – Canadians strongly believe humans developed through evolution, but they don’t quite understand what the theory means, a new Angus Reid Strategies poll has found.

In the online survey of a representative national sample, three-in-five Canadians (59%) agree that human beings evolved from less advanced life forms over millions of years. Just 22% believe that God created human beings in their present form within the last 10,000 years—the theory of creationism espoused by the new Big Valley Creation Science Museum in Alberta, the country’s first creationist museum.

However, when asked if humans and dinosaurs co-existed on earth—a central tenet of creationism on display in the Big Valley Museum—42% of respondents agree. Over one-third of Canadians (37%) disagree, in line with fossil records indicating that man developed millions of years after dinosaurs.

Respondents in Quebec are especially disbelieving of creationism. Just 9% agree with the theory behind creationism, while seven-in-ten Quebeckers (71%) agree that the process of evolution is how humans developed. However, the province wound up being as split as the rest of the nation over whether dinosaurs and humans co-existed.

But Albertans were not more likely to believe in creationism than the rest of the country. Their views came very close to the national numbers, with 58% registering belief in evolution as the process driving human development, and 42% agreeing that dinosaurs and humans lived at the same time.

As well, younger Canadians, those living in households earning $100,000 or more a year, and those with university education are more likely to strongly believe in evolution, and more likely to disagree that humans and dinosaurs co-existed.

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Reactions aren't warming up to a 'Chinese Canadian party'

The Province carries a story on the National Alliance party today (CIV has reported the formation of the new party here, here, here.) It's interesting to see how public reactions play out this week to the idea of an "immigrant party". Last week, political forums like the Free Dominion, rapple.ca, the mapleleaveweb, posted the story; and while reactions are mixed, negative sentiments are more dominant.

First, the Province's story:

A new B.C. political party says it wants to bring a Chinese focus to provincial politics.

The Nation Alliance Party, launched only last week, says its focus is on the 350,000 people in B.C. who are of Chinese heritage.

The four founders of the party all have such a background. They are Delta realtor and party leader Wei Ping Chen, along with a Burnaby student, a Surrey renovator and a Burnaby tourism guide.

Chen, 48, is a former university teacher in Beijing who came here in 2000. He says mainland Chinese immigrants tend not to vote in B.C. elections and to ignore local politics -- and he wants to change that.

"Some Chinese [say], 'We just focus [on] our family, and that's enough,'" said Chen, who spoke to The Province Friday in the games room of a Richmond condo.

Chen -- who says he has been asked to join the federal Liberals, but turned them down -- said the new party wants to help improve the lot of immigrant workers and to promote Chinese family values and safer communities.

"They have high degree, master's degree or doctor's degree, but their job is just labour job," he said. "They are not satisfied with their situation right now."

Chen was reluctant to outline the party's positions on gay marriage, abortion or human rights in China.

"We would like to create a good environment for the family," he said.

Chinese families are being split when breadwinners move back to Asia to work, leaving their wives and kids here, Chen said. Others leave B.C. after getting their Canadian citizenship because they can't get ahead in their new country, he added.

Chen said he thinks B.C. will be better for it if Chinese immigrants can be encouraged to participate in politics.

"I would like to encourage them to stay here and solve the problem for them," he said.

Chinese immigrants face language barriers and can feel lonely after arriving, Chen said. In some cases, racial discrimination against them in the workplace makes things worse, he added.

Chen said he plans to build the Nation Alliance into both a federal and a municipal party and hopes to field candidates in upcoming elections. But he admits the party is still looking for an office, has very little money and has only signed 20 members to date.

"We are just like a baby born," he said.

The party is open to people of all backgrounds, Chen said.

"We together are one family in Canada. We are the same," he said. "I would like to focus [on this] minority group because I think they need more help."

Chen said he thinks the party is a better alternative to electing Chinese-Canadian politicians to Victoria and Ottawa under the wing of traditional parties, because they tend to forget their promises as they are forced to conform to party lines.

Michael Byers, a politics expert at the Liu Institute of Global Issues, says he doesn't have a problem with a Chinese party in B.C.

"These are people exercising their rights in a democratic society," Byers said. "I haven't seen any indications that this party is racist."

Its arrival will serve as a wake-up call to traditional parties on Chinese concerns.

"I would be very surprised if they were to elect even a single candidate," Byers said. "This is a clever advocacy ploy."

David Baxter of the Urban Futures Institute said the party faces the problem of a Chinese community that is too diverse to be a unified political force.

"There isn't a constituency that is represented by ancestry, any more than one can argue that white politicians represent white people," said Baxter.

"People in a democracy think that elected representatives are elected to represent everybody."

Victor Wong, who heads the Toronto-based Chinese Canadian National Council, said the impetus behind the new party is a comment on the fact that traditional parties often run minority candidates in ridings they have no hope of winning.

"This party, it's an indictment on the three parties that they have not been as inclusive as they need to be," Wong said.

A BIG CONSTITUENCY

- Mainland China is now the largest source of immigrants to B.C., with 13,300 immigrants in 2005.

- There are about 350,000 people of Chinese heritage living in B.C., most of them in Vancouver and Richmond.

- About 60% of Chinese-descended voters take part in provincial elections.

The reactions to an Chinese Canadian political party are most hostile on the right-wing Free Dominion forum. I'm quoting a few here:

• Time for some deportation. There is a difference between immigration and invasion.
• A racist party? Let's see if they get soundly condemned by the media.
• So now the door is opened to White English Speaking Only Voters of Canada Party?
• Expect to see a Sikh party pop up in Vancouver next.
• I wonder what would happen if we went over to China and formed an all-Western political party to try to promote Western peoples values and encourage Western immigration to China? (Oh right they have a communist undemocratic governement. )

To the last point, it's chilling to see the "western people" are lumping all Chinese immigrants as those come from the Red China.

On the more progressive rabble.ca:

• Yep. Real problem-solvers these folks are. They sure don't seem to have much to say about anything, except some superficial feel-good statements about making things better for immigrants.
• Have they explained WHY they are only seeking the support of immigrants from one country? Were they to form, say, a pan-Asian immigrant party, that might be a grouping that could have a significant influence, particularly in B.C.
• I'd venture a guess that the Richmond Centre provincial riding in BC is probably the closest in the country to a Chinese-Canadian majority. I know the municipality now has more Chinese speakers than English speakers per the last census, though not an absolute majority. I also have to plead ignorance in terms of how the Cantonese-Mandarin divide plays out politically.
• I know this has come up on other threads, but its interesting to contrast the Chinese-Canadian community's penetration into the traditional venue for New Canadians pushing immigration issues (the Liberal Party of Canada) versus the various Indo-Canadian communitities and their hold on the LPC. There's certainly a fair few ridings where it's all but impossible to win a Liberal nomination without passing muster in terms of Indo-friendliness, or coming from that background yourself.
• My main point was that on a relative level, the Chinese community does not mirror the level of participation and profile of the Indo-Canadian communities. This is despite the fact that places like Richmond and Markham at least have the underlying demographic basis to be comparable to the Surrey or Peel ridings. Its despite the fact that everything I've read and heard anecdotally suggests that there is strong affinity between that community and the Liberal Party, at the very least in terms of voting booth behaviour.
• I suppose all I really want to say is that if the Chinese community tilted Liberal as enthusiastically as the Indo-Canadian community has been shown to, then Raymond Chan would be sitting on a huge majority in Richmond rather than be in Tory striking distance, Kingsway would be solidly red, and the notion of a distinctly Chinese political party even getting legs would be absurd. Needless to say, immigrant politicking is not one size fits all.
• I think an "immigrant party" is totally legitimate, since in Canada that is one of the stages in becoming a citizen. And immigration is such a large part of our public life and policy.
• It is also important to note that services for immigrants (settlement, ESL) are among the first to be cut in neo-conservative times.
• An immigrant party limited to one particular group, obviously, is not the best way to go.
• yes, but since immigrant is a transitional status, the electorate would be by definition transitory; like having a "student" party, whose leader would often have graduated by the time elections were held ...

From the mapleleafweb, note the first reaction -- that having an "ethnic" party BQ is OK but a "major issue" for a party of Chinese descent.

• Like I've said a bazillion times, inclusion of individuals on actions and situation is not 'racist' or immorally discriminatory. The Bloc Quebecois is one of the most inclusionist parites on sex and race in Canada, easily. Having a party for people living in Quebec is not an issue.

Having a party for those of Chinese descent is a major issue. If these people ever become a voice, I'm going to try to join their party and see what happens. If I get rejected on my 'white-ness', maybe I'll finally get off my ass and do something political like a nice ol' court challenge.

• Perhaps rather odd, but arguably the Bloc Quebecois is a similarly exclusive party, insofar as the strongest supporters of its agenda are those sixty families types.
• Political parties are like the free market, if you don't like one you can choose another. We aren't talking about the government here, we are talking about a political party, and if they discriminate (which there is no indication that they are) they will likely never form government. If you want to argue that they have the potential to form government and therefore the potential to take away your liberties, I could argue that private businesses have just as much potential to take away your liberties (or life) as well.

What do yo think?

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Tories determined to make parliament lame

Journalist David Akin reports on his blog how the Conservative brought another parliamentary committee to a halt. This time, it's about the sensitive issues of the environment.

This proves Harper is very successful in whipping his MPs to follow through the party's secret handbook of "Bringing the Parliament to a halt 101".

This party is not only mean, but also wicked.

But turnabout is fair play, as they say, and when Baird unveiled his own green plan shortly after that, Jaccard was one of those who held his nose up at it. And so today, the opposition members of the Environment Committee were going to give Jaccard a chance to trash Baird’s plan. The government didn’t want this to happen and so Bob Mills, the Conservative who is chairman of the committee, tried to change the agenda — and keep Jaccard off of it. The committee called a vote on the agenda with Jaccard back on it. Since the Conservatives are the minority on the committee they lost the vote. Mills then resigned as chairman of the committee.
...
Now, according to the rules of the House of Commons, a government MP must be a chair of this committee. The government refused to nominate one of their MPs to be chair. And without a chairman, — again, according to the rules of procedure around here — the committee is unable to meet.

And that’s how, a few days before Parliament is to break for the summer, the work of the Environment Committee has ground to a halt.

Please read Akin's full report here.

In fact, what the mainstream did not report is that the Tories were using similar strategy to deal with an NDP motion to call on Ottawa to demand Japan come to term with its war crimes.

The motion was originally discussed in a sub-committee chaired by Harper's right hand man Jason Kenney. As the vote turned out to be a tie at 3-3, Kenney voted yes "strategically" so the motion could pass onto the next level of committee for further discussion.



Both Chinese Canadian community and Japanese representatives have made some heavy lobbying to Ottawa. Japan is especially concerned because a similar motion has been tabled in US's congress.

Then, at the foreign affairs committee, they said the motion should be passed back to the sub-committee because it hadn't invited any witnesses to speak.

However, when the sub-committee met later, Wayne Marston of the NDP made a motion to call for witnesses and was defeated.

As usual, Jason Kenney et al did not return media calls.

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Voters don't like Harper's secretive media strategy: poll

Good. Glad to know that Canadians still have clear eyes.

Of those who have heard of the PMO-Parliamentary Press Gallery dispute, 67% blame it on the PMO

The Hill Times - Although the Prime Minister's ongoing war with the Parliamentary Press Gallery is mostly unknown among the public, voters are concerned about media access on the Hill and the issue could damage the government's image among key swing voters if the issue were to become widely known, a new poll for The Hill Times shows.

The poll, by Innovative Research Group, found that only 24% of respondents are aware of the war for media access between the PMO and the Parliamentary Press Gallery, but among those who are familiar with the dispute–including swing voters and Tory supporters–they side with the media, not the PMO.

"This is an inside the beltway issue, which is good for the Prime Minister," Greg Lyle, managing director at Innovative Research, said in an interview. "But the fact is that the Prime Minister is losing the fight among those who are paying attention."

The poll results show that the Prime Minister's strategy of avoiding the national media is not going to come back to him politically–so long as the issue remains under the radars of most Canadians. However, they also show that, contrary to what Conservatives have said, the public is concerned about media access to the federal government in Ottawa.

"It's not that they're particularly fond of the media, but they think they have an important role, even if they don't do a perfect job at it, and that the Prime Minister should find a way to accommodate them," Lyle said.

Lyle pointed out that among swing voters, or the "non-aligned" electorate, 53% of those who heard of the dispute said they view the government as "more secretive than previous governments" and only 5% said the government is "more open." Those who had not heard of the dispute responded more favourably, with 24% saying they view the government as more secretive and 15% saying the government is more open than previous governments.

Overall, 46% of the 1,067 people polled said that the Conservative government is "more secretive" than previous governments, 34% said the government is about the same, and 15% said the Tories are "more open."

Of all respondents who had heard of the dispute–a sample of 272 people nationally–67% said they place the blame on the PMO, 18% blame the press gallery, and 15% said they don't know.

The dispute between the PMO and press gallery is now long standing. After the Conservative government won power in January 2006, the Prime Minister's Office cancelled post-Cabinet meeting scrums with journalists, stopped taking questions at photo-ops and restricted cameras from accessing the third floor of Centre Block when Cabinet meetings are taking place. Cabinet meetings now go on unannounced on the Hill and it is easier for ministers to avoid the national press.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) does not use the National Press Theatre, where the press gallery controls the news conferences and the order of questioners. Instead, he has avoided the national media on Hill, where news conferences have become unusual if not rare events. At news conferences outside of Ottawa, the PMO controls the agenda and selects who asks the questions. National reporters say they are baffled by a PMO that appears to have contempt for the Parliamentary Press Gallery and whose controlling media strategy does not make sense.

"Those people who are aware can see that something's not right," Richard 'the Badger' Brennan, the press gallery president, said in an interview last week. "I've argued this in the past. Everybody's reluctant to write stories about this stalemate, because they all thought it looked like whining. I can understand that, but it isn't whining. All we're trying to do is inform the public, period. We're not whining. This is the way conditions are."

The Prime Minister has referred to the national media as acting like an official opposition and having a liberal bias. However, contrary to that view, the poll also found that the public does not view the media, generally, as having a bias. Rather, 55% of respondents said Conservative or Liberal biases depend on the media outlet, and 18% said "there is no consistent bias" in the media. Only 13% said the news media favour the Liberals and only eight% said the Conservatives.

"We live in a bubble up in Ottawa and outside that not too many people are paying attention," Brennan said. "But I say that with some reservation because I think more and more people are paying attention. Ordinary folks who I know, who have no interest in federal politics, have mentioned to me, 'What is this all about with the press gallery and the Prime Minister?' They may not know much about it, but they know there's something not right."

In addition, 36% of respondents agreed with the statement that "the members of the national media are too full of themselves and are over-reacting in this dispute," with which 23% disagreed.

At the same time, 66% of respondents agreed with the statement that "the media are the public's eyes on the government, and therefore the Prime Minister should be more responsive to the needs of the media," with which 16% disagreed. Similarly, 57% of all respondents agreed with the statement that the PM's "fight with the national media leaves me questioning whether he is really committed to openness in government," with which 18% disagreed.

"The public does see the media as their eyes on the Prime Minister and they do expect the Prime Minister to be open to them. So, overall, this looks like an uphill struggle for him," Lyle said.

Innovative Research surveyed 1,067 members of a national polling panel between May 31 and June 4. The sample sizes for swing voters and Conservatives supporters were 97 and 240 respectively, so that although these samples are significantly smaller than the national sample of 1,067, a clear pattern emerges, showing that those who have heard of the dispute side with the media and view the government as more secretive.

For instance, Lyle noted that only about 25% of Tory supporters are paying attention to the issue, "but among those who are aware, this is not good." Among Tory supporters who have not heard of the dispute, only 11% said the Conservative government is more secretive than past governments. However, that number increases to 27% among Tory supporters who heard of the dispute. "It goes from being a strength to treading water in their own base," Lyle said.

Although voters want the media to have access to the PM, at the same time they do not trust the media. The poll found that significant portion–67% of respondents–said they trust only "some of what" they see in the news media, and 26% said they trust most of what they see. 6% said they trust none of what they see.

Peter Donolo, former communications director to prime minister Jean Chrétien and now an adviser at the Strategic Counsel in Toronto, said that any problems for Harper as a result of his media strategy are less likely to come from the opinions of voters than they are from the reporting of the national media.

"My view was always that the fight wasn't harmful to him because Canadians would take the side of the media. It's more that it poisons the messengers," Donolo said, adding that the recent media pile-on over the treatment of detainees in Afghanistan seemed like a press gallery looking to make amends.

"While it may be kind of under the radar screens of most Canadians, a vast majority of Canadians, it doesn't mean that it doesn't have an effect. What's happening is that the media, they find ways to pay you back. Where they might have given the government some slack or the benefit of the doubt, they didn't."

The Prime Minister's Press Office did not respond to a request for comment on the poll.

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Paying taxes is a happy thing, study says

Well, this must not be me. My life would be much easier if I didn't need to pay so much taxes. The results of this study might be a result of a far less demanding tax scheme the US has... so their citizens can "enjoy" paying taxes. :P

CBC - Contrary to the common notion that paying taxes can be a painful experience, researchers at the University of Oregon say the practice actually may trigger feelings of satisfaction and happiness.

"Paying taxes can make citizens happy," Ulrich Mayr, a professor of psychology, said in a release accompanying the study in the Friday issue of Science.

"People are, to varying degrees, pure altruists. On top of that, they like that warm glow they get from charitable giving. Until now, we couldn't trace that in the brain."

The study by Mayr and his colleagues is titled Neural Responses to Taxation and Voluntary Giving Reveal Motives for Charitable Donations.

Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology, the researchers observed the brain activity of 19 women who were given a balance of $100 each. The researchers created the effect of taxation by making mandatory withdrawals from their account. The withdrawn money was actually sent to a food bank's account.

Participants also made additional choices about whether to give away more money or keep it for themselves.

The study found that two reward-related areas of the brain — the caudate nucleus and the nucleus accumbens — lit up during the taxation test. These areas are typically activated when a person experiences feelings of satisfaction, as they do after having eaten a meal.

"The fact that mandatory transfers to a charity elicit activity in reward-related areas suggests that even mandatory taxation can produce satisfaction for taxpayers," the study said.

When the participants voluntarily gave the charity more money, the activation area was larger — a finding that, according to the researchers, sheds light on why people make donations.

"These transfers are associated with neural activation similar to that which comes from receiving money for oneself," the study said.

Mayr said the findings show people are willing to pay their taxes as long as they support good causes. The authors noted, however, that the results may have differed if people had been presented with a tax that seemed less fair or benevolent.

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Picture of the Day - Hairy baby otter

Mother Russian sea otter 'Meel' floats on water as she holds her newly-born baby during a press preview at Sunshine International Aquarium in Tokyo Wednesday, June 13, 2007. The baby sea otter was born on June 2. (AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye)

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Picture of the Day - Cute rabbit

This undated image provided by Washington State University shows an endangered pygmy rabbit in the wild in eastern Washington state. Washington State University researchers reported Thursday June 14, 2007, the only surviving pair of endangered pygmy rabbits released into the wild as part of a program to increase their numbers have survived and have successfully bred.(AP Photo/Washington State University, Len Zoeli)

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PSA: National Campus/Community Radio Conference this week

Just helping a reader to post this :)

Campus and community radio broadcasters are raising their fists!

While corporate media operate with billion dollar budgets, campus and community radio broadcasters are struggling to cover costs like bus tickets for volunteer programmers.

At the National Campus/Community Radio Conference this week, delegates are demanding change.

Their national association is running on a shoestring budget, their employees are overworked, and the CRTC has not responded to repeated requests to change its discriminatory policies.

They are in the final throes of their annual conference, held this year at SFU Harbour Centre in downtown Vancouver. In preparation for their annual general meeting, members are preparing motions that renounce their marginalized position in Canada's broadcast spectrum.

Conference hosts CiTR 101.9 FM were hoping for a 1.5 hour final plenary, but motions from the membership may keep delegates busy into the evening on June 16.

Station managers, programming coordinators, board members, and volunteer programmers representing stations across the country will be at Harbour Centre throughout Saturday to prepare, present, and hash out the controversial motions. They are ready tell reporters from public and commercial media what it's like to be relegated to the sidelines of the media consolidation debate.

For more information, contact Joanne Penhale at 778-999-9954

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TV, internet are changing China; let market bring down walls

I have had some very interesting read from the famous China blog Danwei. According to the "about" section, "Danwei is a website about media, advertising, and urban life in China. With frequent reference to and translations from Mainland Chinese media, we publish fresh information about China that you won't find anywhere else."

Talking first hand from non-Chinese (presumably whites), the insight about the real China Danwei presents is very worth reading especially for ignorant westerners like Stephen Harper and Jason Kenney (and could be more convincing for them too, as the writers are not evil Chinese).

In the latest post, Danwei talked about how rapidly the TV industry is changing in China, quoting reports from the recently held 13th Shanghai Television Festival:

During the last year, news programs have become one of the leading formats for attracting advertisements. CCTV holds 3/4 of the market, but in regional markets CCTV has met with unprecedented challenges from local stations.

In 2006, news programming amounted to a total of 640,000 hours. General news made up half of programming; arts, sports, and legal news showed growth. General arts and entertainment news made up more than 10% of programming. Viewers watched an average of 22.8 minutes of news every day.
...
The Report says that in the future, the country's news programming will exhibit a few changing trends.

CCTV, using its advantages of position, resources, and policies, occupies a leading position. Minority cable stations use financing, technology, and innovation to compete with CCTV in certain time slots.

In regional markets, local stations have used "locally-targeted news" (民生新闻) to break out and occupy a relatively large share of the viewership. The Report predicts that in the next few years, "locally-targeted news" will become a major player and may approach or even replace the traditional broadcast position of CCTV's news.

And read this if you still think people in China are dinosaurs left out with the rest of the world:

Chinese people today have access to a plethora of information, and hundreds of thousands of Chinese share their opinions online on topics that were considered taboo only a few years ago. Yes, some sites are blocked. Yes, some topics better be avoided. And yes, self-censorship is routine. But any tech savvy teenager could teach you a dozen ways to access a blocked web site, and, with all due respect, a news report about elections in America/Palestinian Authority or even the latest shenanigans of Brad and Jennifer advances the cause of freedom and normality much more than a photo of the Dalai Lama or the online manifesto of the FaLunGong.

The web, with or without Tibetan rebels or the BBC, is the main driver of change in China. Concerns should focus on the fact that currently only 110 million people in China have Internet access. This comprises the world’s second largest online market, but counts only for 10% of China’s population.

US lawmakers should keep that in mind when approaching China. It is necessary to set ground rules for U.S. companies operating abroad, but as far as China is concerned, the imperative should be to allow access to as many people as possible. After that, when 400 million Chinese citizens are online, leave it to the market to bring down the walls.

Tags: danwei, china, media, tv, internet,

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Justice now for Amanda Zhao!

Don't let us wait, wait, wait forever. There should be an end to that wait. The days of our lives are numbered. And if you don't bring justice to our daugher, we will not die in peace."

CIV - Remember Amanda Zhao?

Yes, time flies. Four years and eight months have passed after her death and her parents are still no where near a closure. The parents want to go to Ottawa for an answer. However, local politicians are not interested in helping them.

Mother Yang Baoying and father Zhao Zisheng wrote a letter in April on the Chinese "Grave Sweeping Day" (April 5th) to Canada's department of justice. The letter, obtained by Ming Pao , was written in Chinese and has been relayed to DOC through the RCMP representative in Beijing.

Yang opened her letter by blasting the Canadian government as cold-blooded and merciless.

"I'm Amanda Zhao's mother. I am extremely outraged at your cold-bloodedness and remorselessness, and your non-interest, no-sincerity approach to apprehending the murderer."

"We lost our only daughter. Five years are gone and justice still isn't served. Is this fair?" Yang wrote.

"The two old people are still in extreme pain, so painful that we don't want to live on. Everyday is a torture. If the same thing happened to you, would you be able to take it?"

Yang continued to write: "I beg you tell us your timeline or agenda on this case so that at least we know something. Don't let us wait, wait, wait forever. There should be an end to that wait. The days of our lives are numbered. And if you don't bring justice to our daughter, we will not die in peace."

"Please stop pressing for some unreasonable requests... so many years have passed and there is no excuse for you to not finishing the case."

At the end of the letter, Yang asked the DOJ to give her a reply ASAP.

However, by press time, Yang obviously hasn't got a word from Canada yet.

The letter was co-signed by Yang's niece, Li Junjun, who had accompanied Yang to Canada years back to deal with Amanda's funeral. Li said the old folks are worried that DOJ would continue to ignore them even after they read the letter. Yang very much wants to go to Ottawa and at least talk to someone from the DOJ.

But Li said she couldn't go with Yang if she finally decides to do so. She said she was worried about Yang because she doesn't speak English and knows no people and no places in Canada.

Amanda Zhao's boyfriend, Ang Li, reported her missing to the police in October 2002, saying Amanda didn't come home after a trip to Safeway. However, her body was later found in a luggage in Mission. On the same day her body was retrieved, Ang Li flew back to Beijing.

Amanda and Li were both foreign students from China. Amanda's parents had used their combined life savings to get their daughter to study in Canada.

Amanda and Ang Li shared a basement in a Burnaby rental house with Li's cousin Zhang Han. Zhang Han was arrested and charged as an accessory after the fact. He told the court that Li killed Amanda and Zhang was asked to help disposing her body.

The RCMP later issued a second degree murder charge against Ang Li. However, as China and Canada do not have an extradition agreement, the case has been stuck for years. A major reason is that the DOJ wants to get Li to stand trial in Canada and wants the Chinese cops to arrest Li and fly him over.

However, the Chinese side says they have the jurisdiction to investigate the case and prosecute Li if necessary because according to Chinese laws, Chinese police have the right to investigate crimes committed by Chinese citizens overseas. China has been asking the DOJ to share with them details of the case so that the Chinese cops could kick off the investigation in China. But multiple requests have been rejected by Canada, a police source says.

When the DOJ was reached, a staff told Ming Pao the department couldn't say anything, quoting privacy. They couldn't even acknowledge the receipt of Yang's letter.

The RCMP said they have no new information that could be released.

Raymond Chan, MP of Richmond who had recently helped a couple with similar circumstances to fight for justice for the death of their only son in Canada, says it's very limited he can do to help Yang.

Chan said if Yang came, he could meet with her and wrote some letters for her. However, he didn't expect Yang would have any chance meeting with anyone of the DOJ.

NDP MP Bill Siksay was also asked if he could help out. Sven Robinson, Siksay's precedent and whom Siksay has worked as his assistant for years, was very active demanding justice for the Zhao's in 2002/2003. While Siksay has not returned call promptly as he always does, his office told reporters that they didn't have enough information to comment. But his office staff believed they too couldn't do anything.

Perhaps the fact that Amanda and Ang Li weren't Canadian residents or citizens made it unattractive for politicians to work hard to bring justice to Zhao. Perhaps if Amanda and Ang Li were not Chinese but, say, foreign students from Britain or Australia, our politicians and enforcement officials could have been more serious.

Perhaps, seeing all the cold shoulders shown to the reporters, Yang is right that Canadian are without sympathy.

Perhaps, dear parents of Amanda, Canada does owe you.

See also:


Tags: amanda zhao, china, canada, department of justice, yang baoying, zhao zisheng, foreign students, ang li, murder

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Okinawans protest whitewashed WWII history books

UPI - Four local assemblies in Okinawa filed protests Thursday against descriptions in new Japanese high school textbooks of World War II mass suicides.

Hundreds of civilians took their own lives as U.S. forces took control of Okinawa. The protests accuse the Japanese government of de-emphasizing the part played by the Japanese military in encouraging the suicides, Kyodo News Service reported.

"It is an undeniable fact that 'mass suicides' could not have occurred were it not for an order, coercion, manipulation or other acts by the Japanese military," the Tokashiki assembly said.

The protest was addressed to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Minister Bummei Ibuki. More than 300 civilians are believed to have died in Tokashiki -- either killing themselves or being killed by relatives using grenades and even farm implements.

Takeshi Shimamura, president of Tokashiki Assembly, said children might grow up unaware of the suicides.

"I believe we have the responsibility of conveying the miseries of war to the generations to come," he said.

Tags: history, japan, war crimes, okinawa, wwii, mass suicide

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China issues formal protest to US, Australia, Japan, India for security pact plans

Being a Chinese, no matter how much I don't like the communist regime, I'm happy to see China stands up against the "China threat" theory.

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theage.com.au - Angry Chinese authorities have issued formal diplomatic protests to Australia, the US, Japan and India because they feared the four countries were ganging up on them in a security alliance.

The protests came after the Chinese discovered that officials from the four countries were planning a joint meeting.

The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said last night that the meeting of officials went ahead last month, but a spokeswoman insisted there was no plan for a security alliance.

And the spokeswoman said the department had no comment to make about the demarche notes — a formal diplomatic protest — reportedly sent to the four nations.

But a senior Indian official told The Hindu newspaper that in the run-up to the meeting, China sent demarches to each country to find out what was going on.

"We were conscious of thus not trying to create the impression of a gang-up against them," the official said.

He said India did not want to send such a signal to China and nor did the other three countries.

The idea of quadrilateral alignment was floated by Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (sucks! this guy is playing two handed policy) early this year and endorsed by US Vice-President Dick Cheney during his visit to Sydney.

Today's meeting between the Dalai Lama and Prime Minister John Howard could increase tensions with China, which earlier this week publicly opposed the meeting.

The Dalai Lama stressed this week that Australia should maintain good relations with China. But he also said Australia should be a "true friend" to China by standing up to it on subjects such as human rights, democracy, press freedom and the rule of law. "Remain firm, tell them, not negatively, but friendly."

Hugh White, a visiting fellow at the Lowy Institute and professor of strategic studies at the ANU, said China was clearly worried about developments and he would not be surprised if Beijing took the serious step of sending the demarche.

And he said he could see why the meeting upset the Chinese.

"This is not some mere officials business of low-level co-ordination."

What the Indian official described as the first "exploratory meeting" took place on the sidelines during the Association of South-East Asian Nations regional forum in Manila in May.

At that time, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer went into overdrive in his public reassurances to Beijing that China was not under threat.

Australia was represented by Jennifer Rawson, the first assistant secretary in DFAT's international security division.

Rawson was asked about the talks in a recent Senate estimates committee hearing and explained that a "trilateral strategic dialogue" involving Japan, Australia and the US had been under way for several years.

She said the talks were not motivated by security considerations and would cover, for instance, disaster relief.

The Indian official said the officials were mindful of China's concerns, and met without a formal agenda and decided not to publicise the event widely.

Professor White said the sending of diplomatic notes by China to the four countries would demonstrate how concerned it was about the way the strategic architecture of the region had changed in recent months.

"They are worried about all of them but I think what irritates them is that the Australian policy has changed. The Japanese and the Americans have, for some time, been developing the view that they'd like to have a closer relationship to, in a sense, hold China out at arm's length.

"They see this as a pattern in which the US and Japan have been trying to consolidate an alliance of democracies in Asia, which they feel is directed against them."

A spokesman for Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said last night that the minister's recollection was that China was relaxed about the meeting.

Tags: china, diplomacy, china threat, containment policy, usa, australia, japan, india

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Germany completes compensation for war slaves... what a comparison with Japan!

China Daily - The contrast between official and societal attitudes of Germany and Japan toward lingering war issues shows how much the latter is still in denial and refuses to accept its share of responsibility, say analysts.

The comments came as Germany on Tuesday formally completed its payments program for people coerced to work for the Nazi while Japan's top court recently rejected an appeal by Chinese citizens seeking government compensation for using them as wartime slave laborers.

Jin Xide, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said Germany had chosen a path of reconciliation by actively settling wartime forced-labor accounts while Japan has taken a different approach.

He said: "Germany expressed deep remorse for the past through legislation as well as administrative methods, which are very effective".
A Berlin-based foundation called Remembrance, Responsibility and the Future has paid more than 4.37 billion euros ($5.83 billion) to 1.7 million former slave laborers or their descendents in more than 100 countries since it was founded seven years ago.

"Many of the prisoners didn't survive this martyrdom, and the ones who did are physically and mentally marked. They could barely overcome the trauma from these inhumane times," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said during a ceremony in Berlin to commemorate the completion of payments.

It marked a milestone when "it has finally been possible to grant many former slave laborers the humanitarian aid they were promised," she said.

German companies paid half of the 10.1 billion deutsche marks ($6.9 billion) to the fund while the German government provided the rest.

"The law establishing the fund was intended to make up for a failure," Michael Jansen, the fund's chief executive officer, said in a statement.

"Together with German industry, the German parliament acknowledged the moral and political responsibility for Nazi victims and for the people forced into slave labor by the Nazi regime." The fund will continue to operate and will support educational and humanitarian projects in the countries which have suffered most under the Nazis.

While Germany is putting a full stop to its invasion history and moving forward, Japan's actions are starkly inadequate, he said.

Jin said the lack of legislation, the political atmosphere and public support have decided Japan's attitude toward history.

"Shirking historical responsibility makes it impossible for Japan to get rid of the shadow of the war forever," Jin said.

The ruling by Japan's Supreme Court said the plaintiffs could not seek compensation because a 20-year statute of limitations had expired and the current government was not responsible for the wrongdoings of leaders who followed the wartime constitution.

Tags: japan, germany, war crimes, forced labour, war slaves, wwii, compensation

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Celil granted access to lawyer after Martin visit with Chinese premier

The Chinese authority is sending Stephen Harper such a strong message: talk to us in a friendly way so deals can be made. Only just 2 weeks after former PM Paul Martin met with Chinese premier Wen Jiabao, Celil could see his lawyer. I wonder why this story hasn't been a bigger one in the mainstream media.


Globe and Mail - Jailed Canadian activist Huseyin Celil has finally been allowed to meet with his lawyer, more than a month after a Chinese court sentenced him to life in prison for terrorism-related offences.

Celil met with his hired Chinese lawyer last Thursday and Friday, according to the Uyghur Canadian Association. Each meeting lasted about two hours, marking a dramatic shift in the amount of access China allows to Celil.

Previously, neither his Chinese lawyer nor Canadian embassy officials were allowed to meet the prisoner.

Indeed, embassy officials were barred from entering the courtroom when his sentence was handed down in April.

Celil was represented by another court-appointed lawyer during his trial. His current lawyer was hired by relatives and supporters to work on his appeal.

Mehmet Tohti, head of the Uyghur Canadian Association, said Celil's Chinese lawyer was given assurances after his first two meetings that he would be granted consistent access to his client.

That's a sharp change from a little more than a month ago, when Celil's lawyer asked the jailed Canadian's family to deny his involvement in the case, for fear of potential retribution from the Chinese authorities.

Last month, former prime minister Paul Martin visited China to attend the African Development Bank's annual meeting. He serves as an adviser to the organization.

During his time in the country, Martin met with Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao for 35 minutes, where he raised Celil's case and repeated the Conservative government's demand that the imprisoned Canadian be given consular access. Yesterday, Tohti said the newly relaxed restrictions on Celil's access to lawyers is likely a sign that Martin's meeting and the current government's tough stand on the issue are working.

According to Tohti, the meetings between Celil and his lawyer included two other people: a translator and a representative of China's secret police.

Celil looked to be in good health, Tohti said, but it was unclear how honest he was able to be about certain topics, due to the police representative at the meeting.

Celil is an ethnic Uyghur, a Muslim minority group that resides primarily in the Xinjiang region of northwest China.

He was arrested in Uzbekistan and handed over to China more than a year ago. He was travelling on a Canadian passport at the time of his arrest.

Chinese authorities have labelled Celil a terrorist, and charged him with engaging in violent separatist activities.

His case has strained relations between China and Ottawa, as government officials in Canada continued to protest against his detention without consular access. Human-rights groups have also expressed concerns that Celil has been tortured during his time in Chinese custody.

Tags: china, canada, paul martin, stephen harper, celil

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NAP... is it really worthwhile?

A Chinese radio call-in show this afternoon talked about the pros and cons of the newly founded "Chinese Canadian party", the National Alliance Party. The views of the audience/callers ran to both extremes.

First, a Chinese politician (I won't say who) already part of an established political party said he saw no point for the NAP to exist. If people were really enthusiastic about politics and policy changes, they should engage themselves in big parties that were capable to become a ruling party or an opposition party. He argued that wasting the time and effort in participating in fringe parties like the NAP would do more harm than good. He also said the main messages of the NAP - to fight for the rights of immigrants and help them settle - are already part of the mission of all big political parties.

Many callers disagreed. One said the motto of the NAP "sounds good" and was talking his mind. He said for too long that the problems faced by many Chinese Canadian hasn't been taken care of, it's good to hear someone were doing something finally.

Some callers argued that the emergence of a Chinese Canadian party would split the votes among Chinese voters, further axing their political influence.

Some comments believed it's good to hear Chinese Canadians are awakening to their political consciousness. However, to set up a party aiming to serve a particular ethnic group could easily fall victim to manipulation and misunderstanding. These would only hurt the Chinese community further, especially under the current anti-China atmosphere thanks to the relentless bashing effort of the Tories.

I think having a party fighting mainly for the rights and lives of immigrants could bring these problems to a higher level of public awareness. The Green party used to be a fringe but its existence has proven worthwhile as the environmental issues are better represented and disseminated. The Marijuana party is a fringe but its particular lobbying has heightened the debate of legalizing the pot - no matter what the outcome is.

Similarly, if a political party like the NAP could bring the immigrants' problems to the spotlight, it might help the average Canadians to understand the hardships of immigrants more.

However, it's not wise to do it under the flag of a certain ethnic group. In a pluralistic and culturally sensitive society like Canada, fighting for one particular ethnic group would mean discriminating against others. The concept won't sell in the mainstream.

But perhaps it's really too early to say what direction the NAP would take and what role it wants to play in helping immigrants to settle. A friend of mine who's a reporter with a national English paper told me the party leader turned down her request for an interview because "he couldn't speak good English." The reporter was even blocked initially from participating in the press conference of last week, which she was told it was a Chinese media only event. Absurd.

Perhaps if the NAP doesn't want to look like a clown, its members should better brushing up their English ASAP before they could even talk about running for office, or fighting for anybody's rights.

Annon and chinktalk mentioned in some previous messages on this blog that locally born Chinese Canadians who can speak fluent English are also discriminated against in this country. After all, we need to fight for the rights of the entire group regardless of whether they are born locally, or have immigrated from PRC, Taiwan or Hong Kong etc.

We should stop playing the immigrant card, and we should stop pointing fingers at each other for not being "the real Chinese or Canadian". Dissent like this would never bring us together and politicians can easily use this as an excuse for not giving us full rights.

Anyway, it's good to see someone kicked start the debate on how to unite all Chinese Canadians.

Tags: chinese canadian, politics, immigrants, national alliance party

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'Product of Canada' = 'Made in China'?

CBC - "Product of Canada" doesn't necessarily mean what many shoppers think, says a consumer advocacy group calling for more transparent labelling regulations.

Bruce Cran, president of the Consumers' Association of Canada, says that consumers have a right to know where their food was grown.

"Secrecy is not something that we should be having to fight here," he said.

Under current federal regulations, goods can be stamped with a "Product of Canada" label if 51 per cent of the production costs are Canadian. For example, companies can label their juice Canadian by adding water to imported fruit concentrate and bottling the product.
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But critics say this could raise consumer concerns, particularly in light of recent food safety problems involving Chinese imports. China's food safety regulations have come under scrutiny in recent months after it was discovered that imported wheat flour used to make pet food in North America was tainted with melamine — an industrial chemical used to make plastics and fertilizer.

Over the past 10 years, imports from China have ballooned nearly 400 per cent. Many retailers say, based on price, other countries just can't compete. For example, a case of garlic from Mexico costs as much as $55, whereas a case from China costs $13.
CFIA screens companies with past problems

Canada's food watchdog is currently holding and testing all shipments of vegetable proteins being brought into the country. Canadian Food Inspection Agency officials in late May said they had intercepted one shipment of corn gluten imported from China that tested positive for melamine and cyanuric acid.

For all products, the CFIA has adopted a risk-based approach that zeroes in on companies with a history of problems.

"Our program is based on risk and of course the risk that is posed to any consumer is related to the food itself, not the country from which that food is derived," Paul Mayers, a CFIA spokesman said.

As an alternative, the government could introduce a certification program, a method used by the European Union, says Mansel Griffiths, a food science professor at the University of Guelph.

"Individual companies that export to the EU are certified for export of food materials to the union and only those companies are then allowed to export the food to those markets," he said.

Meanwhile, the Canadian Federation of Agriculture is in the early stages of proposing a new labelling system that would spotlight food produced in Canada. CFA president Bob Friesen says the program could help boost support for Canadian farmers.

"It's a big concern to our farmers because it is tough to compete against production that does not have the same high standards that we have here in Canada," Friesen said.

"And so that is why we feel this is a positive way of making sure that our Canadian consumer has that choice and then they can make the decision on what they would like to buy," he said.

The details of the proposed program, including qualification criteria, are still being developed.

Tags: china, canada, tainted food, import, agricutlure

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Japan's another bid to white wash war crimes

No atrocity coverup

China Daily opinion - It is both ludicrous and unreasonable for Japan's long-time conservative lawmaker Takeo Hiranuma and his new parliamentary league to request that China's museums dealing with the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression remove "unjustifiable" photos showing atrocities committed by Japanese troops.

The parliamentary league is to be formally launched today.

It is ludicrous because the request was made in the name of removing obstacles to the relationship between the two countries. The photos were described as having "distorted history" and as constituting barriers to advancing the friendship between China and Japan.

Yes, the history of the war does constitute an obstacle to the progress of these relations and even hurts these relations. But it is not because of the display of these photos, which are important evidence of the atrocities committed by Japanese aggressors. It is because some Japanese politicians have tried to whitewash the war crimes and their repeated official visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, where Japanese war criminals are enshrined.

From this perspective, the request for the removal of the photos is nothing but another attempt to deny what Japanese troops did during the war.

These photos function as reminders to anyone visiting the museums that such crimes should never be repeated.

We remember and want future generations to know what happened not because we want to incite anti-Japanese sentiment but because we do not want the world to forget that horrific page of human history.

Just as Holocaust museums have never cultivated an anti-German sentiment, we do not believe the museums of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression will provoke anti-Japanese sentiment among Chinese people.

The advancement of friendship between the two peoples in the past several decades is evidenced by the rapid expansion of trade and increasing exchanges in other fields. This friendship would have advanced farther if Japanese politicians had not insisted on repeated official visits to the Yasukuni Shrine.

The best way to promote Sino-Japanese ties is to face up to that part of history. Let it function as a lesson to guard against the rise of militarism, which would truly pose a threat to these relations and to world peace.

Tags: yasukuni shrine, japan, history, china, wwii, war crimes, atrocities, asian holocaust

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China to cancel limit on foreign travel agencies

China Hospitality News - Wang Zhifa, deputy director of China National Tourism Administration, has announced that CNTA will cancel the limit on foreign travel agencies' forming of branches in China from July 1.

Wang disclosed the news at Pan-Pearl River Delta Region Chief Executive and ASEAN Countries Business Official Meeting where he said that CNTA would continue to care for and support the Pearl River Delta Region.

Wang says CNTA will offer the same treatment to foreign travel agencies with that of domestic travel agencies, as part of its commitments to the World Trade Organization. In order to achieve this goal CNTA would eliminate the limits on foreign-funded travel agencies and further its cooperation and exchange with tourism industry in Hong Kong and Macau. In addition, CNTA will cooperate with Hong Kong and Macao tourism departments to jointly launch Olympic Games travel and "one-stop" travel services.

According to Wang, CNTA is working out now how to attract powerful international travel enterprises to come to the China market and is actively encouraging Chinese travel companies to run businesses in foreign destinations, while offering support to ASEAN countries for them to come to seize more opportunities in the booming Chinese travel sector.

tag: china, travel, travel agencies, tourism

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'First Chinese Canadian party' not too sure about direction

CIV - The National Alliance Party, which claims to be the first Chinese Canadian political party, ends up not too sure about its identity - at least during its infant stage.

In the inaugural press conference last week, party leader Chen Weiping at one time denied the NAP being a Chinese Canadian only party, while at another time quoted the famous line of Chairman Mao Zedong to celebrate the establishment of the NAP. Mao's famous line "Chinese people are standing up!" was said during an inaugural speech by Mao on the creation of Communist China in 1949.

According to Chen, the NAP currently has 20 members, all are immigrants from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The party was set up in April. Chen urged more Chinese Canadian to join the party in order to put an end to a popular image that "Chinese are so un-united that they are like a pool of sand." (which is a famous line by Dr Sun Yatsen.)

However, Chen added that it's too early to say whether his party aimed at running in any election. When asked whether the party was a left, centre or right one, Chen said taking up any of these would mean they'd be running in an election. Since the party was too young to consider sending any candidates to any election, Chen refrained from stating the political inclination of the party - if it even has one.

Chen's speech aired the party's anguish towards the current immigration policy and the low status of Chinese Canadians in society. He said while Chinese immigrants usually have the highest education level, the proportion of them engaging in low skill, labour work is also higher.

"Many people are struggling at the lowest level of the Canadian society," Chen said.

The status of Chinese Canadians can only be changed through strong political involvement, which would translate into effective policy changes, Chen said.

But he later said the NAP wasn't a Chinese Canadian party and he intended to recruit immigrants from all ethnic groups. "However, first we have to do a good job to show people that they should join us."

When asked how the party could attract non-Chinese members if its website was all in Chinese, Chen said the English version was in the making.

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Picture of the Day - Giant skelen in the iceberg

Scientists in Canada, Greenland and Norway are puzzled by pictures that appear to show a mammalian skeleton jutting out of an iceberg that recently drifted past the east coast of Newfoundland. The photographs taken by a resident of Bonavista Bay have ignited the curiosities of researchers who are debating the species and age of the skeleton.(CP PHOTO/HO/Department of Fisheries of Oceans)

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So now the Chinese media are part of China's spy network, too

OK, I GOTTA love this. As I expected in another post, the Chinese media in Canada would be the next target of being accused as part of China's "huge spy network" in this country. The day has come today.

Being a member of the Chinese media in Vancouver, I feel insulted by the claims made by Mr Chen Yonglin (CKNW story below) that China is controlling the Chinese community through the Chinese media. I am not sure which Chinese media outlets Mr Chen is referring too, but bashing the entire Chinese media for being the running dog for China is barely unfair.

Throughout my experience working in Vancouver's Chine media for more than a decade, I have never felt any pressure from the above that I have to take order from the Chinese government - not even anyone. It's totally BS to say China is controlling us. Being the news editor, I have total freedom in deciding what stories to cover and how.

Quite contrastly, we cover news stories of all sides: be them Taiwanese, Hong Kongese, Chinese, Canadian, American... etc. As long as we believe the subject matter or the subject being interviewed is credible, we'd do it. We are critical of the Chinese government from time to time, as would we so for the Canadian government, Taiwanese government and the Hong Kong government.

(Actually the Tories have been avoiding us because we have been more critical of their policies than some other media outlets. Tory ministers are more responsive to some "friendly" Chinese media but seldom return our calls. Well, Harper doesn't like people criticizing him, unlike what he told Putin that Putin should listen to criticisms as that means a "true test" of democracy.)

In fact, I have a feeling that the Chinese media in Vancouver are being more balanced and fair when it comes to political alignment. It has come to my attention only lately that the editorial policy of some English mainstream media states clearly that they would not publicize for unions. I was shocked when I found out... because this is something we've never come across: gag order for covering certain groups or organizations.

Look at the editorials of the Sun and the Post etc, they are always trumpetting for the Tories, praising every move Stephen Harper makes. Can we say the Canadian government is controlling the Canadian society through the English media?

People like Mr Chen are only alienating more people by pointing fingers irresponsibly, irrespectfully. And shame on the English media for publishing such comments irresponsibly. They should at least check the background of people making such comments and why.

VANCOUVER/CKNW - A former high-level Chinese diplomat says there could be as many as one-thousand Chinese spies operating in Canada.

Chen Yonglin, who spent 14 years as a dipolomat before defecting, says China uses overseas spies to gather information on everything from military secrets to the Falun Gong.

He says Canada's close relationship to the United States makes our country a target.

"You can consider it as a backdoor to access the United States. And share a lot of high-classified and security information, military information."

He says the Chinese Communist Party tries to control the local Chinese community through the Chinese media.

Two years ago, Chen left his job as First Secretary of the Sydney Chinese Consulate, saying he could no longer support the persecution of people with different opinions from the communist party.

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Man throws soft drink bottles at Lee Tenghui

It's not about politics. It's not about embracing everything anti-China. It's not about "discrimination" against Japan.

It's about dignity and conscience, as a person.

Lee Teng-hui has insulted every person of Chinese descent. Even the most pro-independence newspaper in Taiwan, the Taipei Times, has an editorial blasting Lee.

Lee wants to be a Japanese? Be it! But don't say things like "Japan should be tougher on the Yasukuni Shrine", "the shrine issue is an invention of China and South Korea."

Traiter.


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Editorial: Lee Teng-hui's Yasukuni shuffle

Taipei Times - Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) is being coy about his latest trip to Japan. While his previous trips have all attracted controversy, this one is sparking additional fireworks because of Lee's presence at the Yasukuni shrine.

Lee has tried to downplay the Yasukuni visit by describing it as a personal matter. His brother, who was killed fighting for the Japanese navy in 1945, is enshrined there along with convicted Japanese war criminals.

But it would be unwise to assume that Lee considers himself to be just another old man taking a nostalgic journey in memory of a family member.

China has been helpful enough to give Lee widespread publicity in the world press with its cookie-cutter condemnation of his "splittist" activities. Meanwhile, Taiwan's pan-blue media outlets have predictably dedicated a generous helping of editorial space to racist attacks depicting Lee as a Japanese lackey.

Lee says it is purely a personal matter of emotional importance to him. But the arrangement of the trip seems at odds with that assertion. Lee has made a number of trips to Japan since 2000, but he has forgone chances to go to Tokyo to visit the shrine.

Even if the visit is serving a personal purpose, as a former president he will have a hard time convincing anyone that anything he does is merely personal, much less visiting a shrine that is a painful thorn in the side of Japan's relations with the rest of Asia.

And now, deliberately or not, he is planning to symbolically associate Taiwanese independence with it.

Of late there seems to be a widening gap between the extent of Lee's actual influence on Taiwanese affairs and the perception of it. His role in mainstream politics has in fact been greatly truncated.

He does still have a degree of influence: His reference to a "third force" in politics last October has been repackaged and advanced by various legislators and pundits ever since. But the extent to which he can influence the next generation of pro-Taiwan forces has been hampered by puerile attacks on his own "side" of politics.

One certain purpose of Lee's Japan trip this time around is to reaffirm the strength of Taiwan's ties with Japan. Japan's last significant Taiwanese visitor was former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who last July bumbled through an embarrassing grilling from Japanese Diet members over his involvement in anti-Japanese demonstrations in his youth.

But Lee may find that a visit to Yasukuni -- a symbol that many Japanese themselves are not comfortable with -- could undermine the goal of bringing Japan closer to Taiwan.

Perhaps Lee is trying to be provocative. Perhaps he doesn't care what anyone thinks. Only Lee knows what the intended effect is, and in the past, the effects of his maneuvering have proven enormously destructive for his enemies. The question that needs to be asked, therefore, is whether it is possible his strategizing in the twilight of his career will be destructive for his friends.

Lee does not have the influence he once did, but he is far from lying down and accepting his fate. Whatever his intentions may be, going out with a whimper is not one of them.

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Lee raps China, South Korea over Yasukuni

Japan Times - Former Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui said Saturday in Tokyo that China and South Korea have lashed out at Japanese leaders over Yasukuni Shrine mainly because of their own domestic political problems, and Japan should not let other countries intervene in honoring its war dead.

Lee, speaking in Japanese at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan, also criticized the media for playing up and politicizing his "private" visit to the war-related shrine.

"Yasukuni issues have been made up just because China and Korea could not handle their own domestic problems. And Japan has been too weak (in reacting to the protests)," said the 84-year-old Lee, who led Taiwan from 1988 to 2000.

He did not elaborate on what domestic problems Beijing and Seoul are facing, but critics say Japan-related issues are often used in China and South Korea as a pretext to attack domestic political foes or as a means to distract public attention from other issues.

Yasukuni Shrine honors and enshrines dead Japanese soldiers and officers, serving as a spiritual pillar for veterans and relatives of the war dead. It is also widely regarded as a symbol of Japan's wartime militarism as it enshrines Class-A war criminals. Lee went to the shrine Thursday to pray for his deceased older brother, who fought for Japan when Taiwan was under Japanese colonial rule.

Saturday was the final day of his 11-day stay in Japan. He described the trip as "successful," saying it was designed for cultural and academic exchanges as well as retracing the footsteps of the noted 17th-century poet Matsuo Basho.

He added he wants to come back, saying this time he followed only half of the itinerary of Basho's journey in the Tohoku region.

Another purpose was to gauge recent changes in traditions and behavior. Lee said he found that the Japanese people have retained their strong spiritual discipline to maintain order in society and praised the tradition of Japanese culture.

"(Japanese people) provide the best public services and keep (everything) as clean as possible. There even is no dirt on expressways," he said.

As Lee wrapped up his trip at Narita airport later Saturday, a man hurled two plastic bottles containing liquid at him, but he was unhurt. The man, identified as a Chinese engineer, 34, currently living in Chiba, was taken into custody, police said.

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Lee Tenghui pays respects to brother at Yasukuni Shrine

Asahi Shimbun - Former Taiwanese President Lee Tenghui visited Yasukuni Shrine on Thursday morning to pay his respects to his older brother who was killed while fighting for Japan during World War II.

The 84-year-old Lee, currently on a trip to Japan, gave a silent prayer at the shrine in Tokyo, where the nation's war dead, along with 14 Class-A war criminals, are enshrined, sources said.

"The visit to pay respects to my brother whom I parted with 62 years ago is a private affair," Lee said.

Lee's brother, Lee Tengchin, who is honored under the Japanese name Takenori Iwasato, is said to have died while serving in the Japanese navy in the Philippines.

Lee's visit to the shrine lasted about 40 minutes.

Yasukuni Shrine officials declined to comment on how Lee paid his respects, saying the visit was made by a "private citizen."

Lee, a Christian, had earlier told reporters that he wanted his visit to the Shinto shrine to be regarded as "neither a political nor a historical" act.

"My father did not believe that my brother was killed. So there was not even an ancestral tablet at my home, and I could not mourn properly," he said.

Lee had visited Tokyo in 1985 when he was vice president, but he was not aware that his brother was honored at the shrine, he said. "It would lack human empathy not to go this time," he said.

Lee had also brushed aside concerns that Beijing, which regards Taiwan as a renegade province, would react strongly to the Yasukuni visit.

"Taiwan has experienced the colonial occupation of Japan and is different from China," Lee has said.

China on Thursday did not comment on Lee's visit to the shrine, but reiterated its opposition to Japan's decision to let him enter the country.

"We express our displeasure again with Japan for allowing Lee Tenghui to visit Japan," Chinese foreign ministry official Jiang Yu told a news conference. Jiang's remark indicates that China does not intend to make Lee's visit a new source of dispute between the two countries.

Beijing views Lee as a key figure among Taiwan's pro-independence forces.

China also takes a critical view of Yasukuni Shrine because of the Class-A war criminals enshrined there.

Some Japanese government officials had expressed concerns that Lee might make a political statement in Japan that could infuriate China.

"We were informed that the purpose of the current trip is academic and cultural exchanges," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki said. "He is coming as a private person, so there is nothing much the government has to say."

The consensus within the Foreign Ministry is that Lee's visit will have little influence on efforts to improve Japan-China relations, sources said.

Lee arrived in Japan on May 30 for "academic and cultural exchanges as a private person."

Before visiting Yasukuni Shrine, Lee traveled around the Tohoku region.(IHT/Asahi: June 8,2007)

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Man throws soft drink bottles at Taiwan President

news.com.au - A Chinese man threw two plastic bottles at former Taiwan president Lee Teng-hui as he was about to leave Japan on Saturday but both missed and Mr Lee was unhurt.

Both bottles were filled with soft drinks, a police official said. The man, who identified himself as a 34-year-old Chinese national living in Japan, was arrested for assault.

"The man said he did it because he dislikes Lee," the police official said.

The 84-year-old Lee, despised by Beijing for asserting self-ruled Taiwan's sovereignty, was concluding a trip to Japan that had threatened to chill an emerging thaw in Tokyo's relations with Beijing.

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Ex-Taiwan Leader: We're Independent

Forbes - Former Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui reiterated that the island is independent of China and slammed Beijing about its criticism of his visit to a Tokyo war shrine as he wrapped up a visit to Japan on Saturday.

A Chinese man, apparently angry over his remarks, hurled a plastic bottle at Lee at Tokyo's international airport as he arrived to board his return flight, police said. The bottle missed its mark and the man was arrested on the spot.

China, which claims sovereignty over Taiwan and has threatened war if the self-governing island tries to formalize its de facto independence, has accused Lee of using his Japan visit to push for independence. Lee has defended his visit as a "private event."

Beijing also rebuked Japan after Lee visited Tokyo's controversial Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Japan's war dead and is a source of friction between Beijing and Tokyo.

Speaking to reporters Saturday, Lee reiterated Taiwan's independence.

"Taiwan is already an independent country," Lee said. "It is natural that the Taiwanese people clearly assert that Taiwan is theirs, and that Taiwan is an independent country based on peace and democracy."

He also accused Beijing of overreacting to his recent pilgrimage to Yasukuni, and of using the issue to divert attention from problems at home.

Taiwan is a former Japanese colony and Lee's elder brother, who was killed in 1945 while serving with Japan's navy during World War II, is listed among the 2.5 million war dead honored at Yasukuni.

Lee said that because his family never received his brother's remains, he did not have another place to commemorate him and that a visit to the shrine was an appropriate way to pay respects.

China views the shrine as a glorification of Japan's militaristic past, because it also enshrines executed war criminals, and strongly objects to public figures visiting the site.

Yasukuni has been a frequent flash point between Japan and China, which suffered under Japanese colonial rule.

"The Yasukuni problem was invented by the Chinese and Koreans because they could not deal with problems in their own country," Lee said.

"I see no problem with countries honoring young soldiers who gave their lives for their country," he said. "That is not something that foreign governments should criticize."

Later Saturday, a Chinese man was arrested after throwing a plastic bottle at Lee at Narita International Airport, according to police official Takeaki Akaike. Lee was unhurt in the incident, Akaike said.

Lee served as Taiwan's president from 1988 to 2000. He has been a strong critic of Beijing, which continues to claim sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan more than five decades after the two sides split during a civil war.

tag: taiwan, lee tenghui, yasukuni shrine, traitor

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Japan's grassroot effort to reveal comfort women history

Kyodo News - While references to wartime sex slavery have almost disappeared from textbooks, efforts to hand down its history and to unite with former so-called "comfort women" on a grassroots level are continuing, panelists at a Tokyo symposium said June 2.

In the symposium, teachers, college students and human rights advocates shared their activities to learn about the history of the wartime atrocities, with some 100 people attending.

"I was really shocked to know through a college seminar that women who were about the same age as I am now were forced to become sex slaves and they have been left without sufficient compensation even now," said Naoko Kotani, a senior at Kobe College.

She visited South Korea last year with classmates to meet with former sex slaves, known euphemistically as comfort women in Japan, who told the students it is necessary for people to keep amicable ties even if the relations of their countries are at odds.

"Since then, I have been requested to tell the experiences of learning about the sex slavery and seeing the victims to high school students," Kotani said. "Some of the students asked me at what college they could learn about the history of the wartime sex slavery."

The symposium was held at the start of an exhibition at the Women’s Active Museum in Tokyo, at which panels are displayed explaining how women were kidnapped and forced to serve as sex slaves, and who managed the wartime brothels and for what purposes.

Also exhibited are an example of a condom that the Imperial Japanese Army distributed to its soldiers for use at the wartime brothels and a preventive ointment for sexually transmitted diseases, as well as photos of comfort women and Japanese soldiers lined up in front of a brothel.

The event, named "Exhibition of 'Comfort Women' for Junior High School Students," will continue through May 25 next year.

Another panelist, Mai Murakami, who is involved in group activities in Kyoto to invite former comfort women to Japan, said, "I was once told by one of the former comfort women that people in Japan forget what she told them shortly after listening to her story."

"So I repeatedly attend their lecture meetings and say I do not forget them," Murakami said. "I also visit them in the Philippines and Taiwan."

She also said she sees some aggressive comments posted by people on her group’s website, such as, "Is there any evidence for wartime sex slavery?" or "The women are telling lies."

Tomomi Oda, a senior at Yokohama National University, said at the symposium she has also experienced facing biased counterarguments about sex slavery.

"But now I think it may be necessary to talk with those who have a difference historical perspective (to find out why they have come to have such thoughts)," she said.

From the floor, a social studies teacher at a junior high school in Tokyo said, "It’s difficult to take up the issue of comfort women in classes now in Tokyo," suggesting a rise in nationalistic education there. "A teacher would face harsh criticism only by distributing the leaflet of this exhibition at school, but I want to let my students see it somehow."

The participants, meanwhile, showed concern over the advanced age of the former comfort women, with Murakami from Kyoto saying, "I fear many of them will pass away within several years."

"It’s our responsibility to hand down what they’ve told us," Murakami said. Oda shared much the same view, saying, "As a citizen, I’d like to continue seeking ways we can commit to memory their stories and how we should hand them down."

tag: japan, comfort women, sex slaves, history, war crimes, wwii

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Harper promises to 'pursue' China on 'lack of democracy'

(caption: Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper (left) shakes hands as he begins talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao at the G8 Summit in Heiligendamm, Germany, Friday, June 8, 2007. CP PHOTO/Fred Chartrand) Canada)

Reuters, ChinaNews.com, CIV - Canada turned up the pressure on China over human rights on Friday, telling President Hu Jintao that it would pursue Beijing's "problems with the lack of democracy," Prime Minister Stephen Harper said.

Harper also told reporters he had brought up the case of Huseyin Celil, a Canadian-Chinese citizen and Uighur activist who was jailed for life in April for "terrorist activities." China has repeatedly told Canada not to broach the matter.

On the other hand, ChinaNews.com reports Hu Jintao telling Harper that China and Canada should "respect each other on an equal level."

Harper is one of the most vocal critics of China's human rights record among western leaders, shrugging off complaints from businesses who say his attacks could hit commercial ties.

"Despite problems with the lack of democracy and human rights that still exist ... the development of China over the last 25 years (has) in general been good and important for the world," he said after meeting Hu at a summit in Germany.

"That cannot stop the government from aggressively and appropriately raising very legitimate concerns that we have, not just about general democracy and human rights in China but obviously specific cases such as the Celil case which I raised very directly."

"Given what's happened in this case we think it's inevitable it will continue to be a factor in Canadian policy and therefore a factor in our relations," said Harper.

"It is essential that we can have such discussions, not just positive discussions but sometimes discussions that are more difficult. I think these discussions will continue."

Hu Jintao said it's for the mutual interests that the two Pacific countries continue to build "mutual trust " and "pragmatic cooperation".

Hu said it's normal for China and Canada to have different views on things, as they are two very different countries. He said China is serious about China-Canada relation. China hopes to work with the Canadian government to strengthen cooperation on political, economic, cultural and international affairs, so that the two countries can straight out differences in a constructive way. China also hopes to further develop a "strategic partnership" with Canada.

Harper said he had told Hu that as China "grows in importance and wealth, it will face increasing pressure from the world community on issues on democratic development and human rights."

China's record would also come under closer scrutiny when foreigners flocked to the country for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and the 2010 World Fair in Shanghai, he added.

"When you open your country to the world that way and ask every television camera in the world to come in, I would think it would be in your own self interest to make that image as positive as it could be," he said.

In fact, Harper has become obsessed with grandstanding on human rights and with lecturing other countries.

In an earlier report by Toronto Star, outgoing executive director of the Canada China Business Council Margaret Cornish says: "It's the 'lecturing thing' that troubles the Chinese."
Anson Chan, Hong Kong's former chief secretary of administration dubbed "the Conscience of Hong Kong" by Western media, recently spoke in Vancouver and she touched on whether Canada should raise human right issues with China. The keyword is: "be diplomatic".

Chan said most governments do not like to be lectured like a student. Extreme caution should be taken whenever the issue is brought up under any circumstances. Chan said if there is trust between the two countries, it will be beneficial if the issue is brought up behind the scene or occasionally - and occasionally only - in public. Chan emphasized that the way suggestions are made should be "constructive" and diplomatic. For example, Chan said, Canada might want to start the human rights topic with themes like "protection of a free economy"... etc. It'd be easier for China to take the suggestions this way.

Chan said the relations between China and Canada are multi-faceted. It's inevitable that the human rights issues will be brought up during the course of their interaction. At this time Canada can share with China its values and belief. Chan in fact agreed that Canada should speak up. However, it's all about how to say it.

And, not only China, no countries in this world would like to be "lectured":

“All the media hype around such cases that questions democracy and justice usually backfires because Arab leaders do not like to have their countries criticized in public,” said Azzam Azzam, an Arab Israeli who was sentenced to 15 years in prison for spying on behalf of Israel. He was released 8 years later and talked about how the West can deal with Arab nations.

Another recent example of Harper's obsession:

Putin showed little sympathy for Harper's dismay over recent developments. Their exchange at a meeting during the Group of Eight summit began with Harper telling Putin that it's his duty to allow protest.

Harper is following U.S. President George W. Bush in criticizing Putin's record on democracy.

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Mandarin immersion worth exploring

THIS POST AND ASSOCIATED COMMENTS HAVE BEEN MOVED. PLEASE CHECK HERE.


Burnaby Newsleader - Imagine if you will that the year is 2017 and the Burnaby school district succeeded several years ago at implementing a Mandarin immersion program. What would that program look like?

If it sounds like a difficult exercise, it shouldn’t be. All you really need to do is look at how similar programs around North America have grown.

This month, two schools in cities neighbouring San Jose marked significant milestones. For one, it was the middle school graduation of the first class of Mandarin immersion students. For the other, it was the end of a six-year battle to see the establishment of a similar immersion program.
While the two California schools may be miles from Burnaby, the experiences they’ve gone through in establishing the immersion program are worth studying at a time when Burnaby’s school district is striking a committee to explore the idea of Mandarin immersion here.

The school in Cupertino was considered a pioneer a decade ago when it became one of the first in the country to introduce Mandarin immersion.

But at the time, the program was not without its skeptics, including school officials who worried whether there would be enough interest to sustain the program.

That proved untrue, and what started with a single kindergarten class of 20, now sees two new classes enter the program each year and there are more than 100 students on the wait list.

In Palo Alto, opponents argued the program would crowd neighbourhood schools and cater to a small minority. That’s similar to concerns voiced here, as some complain Mandarin immersion is being pushed by Chinese parents and it should be the responsibility of those parents to teach Mandarin at home rather than in taxpayer-funded schools.

There may be some validity to that, but it overlooks the fact Greater Vancouver is home to second- and third-generation Chinese-Canadians, and for those families, English is often spoken ahead of Mandarin – if, in fact, that is the dialect they speak.

That certainly was the case with parents of children enrolled in Cupertino. One parent, who was the child of immigrants from Taiwan, understood early that learning Chinese was to be avoided if the family was going to fit in in America. But now he’s proud to have two children who are bilingual and biliterate.

As for the concern – both there and here – that such a program would only attract students of Chinese ancestry, while most of the children enrolled in Cupertino’s program are Chinese-American, there’s a growing interest from other ethnic groups. Students with Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean, Hispanic, Malaysian and Anglo-Saxon ancestries are also enrolled in Mandarin immersion.

Why? Because a growing number of people believe the more languages one speaks, the better the opportunities they’ll enjoy in the world, especially as technology further reduces the distances between countries.

That rationale should sound familiar – it’s the same one used by parents enrolling their children in French immersion.

And for those still doubtful about whether such a program would cater only to those whose mother tongue is Mandarin, Burnaby could always do what the Vancouver School Board did at Dr. Annie B. Jamieson elementary and mandate that students entering this region’s only Mandarin bilingual program must already be fluent in English (both reading and writing) and not have Chinese literacy skills.

There is good reason to think about introducing a Mandarin immersion program in Burnaby, especially when one considers the growth in the Chinese economy. If we didn’t expect that growth to continue in the future, then why have so many politicians and business leaders spent so much time lately trying to establish business ties in China and Taiwan. Amongst them is Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan who returns from the region tomorrow.

And given that, it makes sense that knowing Mandarin will soon be as important as knowing English and French for those looking to succeed.

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2/3 Canadians don't like free trade with China

It looks like that Stephen Harper and gang's relentless China bashing effort, plus propaganda from groups with questionable credability, have powerfully driven Canadians' friendly attitude away from China. More Chinese Canadian professionals are getting discriminated against in government offices, white-dominated corporations. For my 20+ years as an immigrant, I've never felt so strongly about Canadians not liking the Chinese. My friend chinktalk has correctly pointed out in a post on the CIV Forum:

The sad fact is that no matter how loyal we are to Canada, we are still being treated as second class citizens. We are still accused of being spies, traitors, human rights abusers, disease carriers, a burden to the Canadian economy, etc. There is no other ethnic group except for the Natives being treated worst.

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Poll finds Canadians wary of free trade with China

CP – A new poll suggests a majority of Canadians support the idea of free trade with most of Canada's major trading partners – but not with China.

The survey by Decima Research, provided exclusively to The Canadian Press, was conducted just days before Trade Minister David Emerson announced a new free-trade deal this week with four smaller European countries.


It's the first new Canadian free-trade arrangement in six years and Decima's survey indicates there's a public appetite for more.

Fifty eight% of those polled said free trade with the United States has been a good thing, while 33% disagreed.

Some 46% supported free trade with Mexico, and just 29% viewed it as a negative.

When asked about negotiating free trade with the European Union, 67% liked the idea and 17% disagreed.

But Canadians' free trade spirit was turned on its ear when Decima asked about negotiating an agreement with China. Just 28% said they liked the idea, while 62% were against it.

The poll of just over 1,000 respondents was conducted May 31 to June 4 and is considered accurate within plus or minus 3.1%, 19 times in 20.

See also:
China-Canada free trade pact may conclude in 2 years: Emerson
Canada considers free trade talks with China

Tags: poll, china, canada, relation, free trade,

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