Lost Canadians to take Canadian government to court, advocate tells war vets
As Lost Canadian advocate Don Chapman announced that his group expects to take the Canadian government to court over ongoing discrimination, a wave of approval went through the room of Chinese-Canadian war veterans. Chapman looked out at the group of Chinese-Canadian war veterans of Pacific Unit 280 and members of Chinese Canadian Military Museum Society assembled at Foo's Ho Ho Restaurant. "We're 100 per cent behind you on this, Don," Alfred Woo, a member of the Chinese Canadian Military Museum Society, said.
"You people were the only ones who supported the Lost Canadians as a group early on -- I thank you so much for that," Chapman answered.
Lost Canadians are a group of Canadian citizens stripped of their citizenship by the 1947 Canadian Citizenship Act and subsequent amendments to the law.
Addressing the cases of famous Lost Canadians, such as Jackie Scott, who was the child of a war bride, and World War II veteran Guy Valliere, Chapman spoke about the sexist and racist policies that have led to legitimate Canadians being denied citizenship. The Chinese-Canadian war veterans, some of them wearing their medals, nodded as they listened. Themselves denied the right to vote in Canada until 1947 -- two years after serving the country during the war -- many older Chinese-Canadians understood what it was like to be denied equal rights.
Gim Wong, an 88-year-old former air force member and war veteran, stood up to share his story of how he was turned down from signing up for the army based on his race. A talented air gunner, he wasn't allowed to vote at the time that he signed up for the army in 1943, and fought with the government on citizenship issues such as immigration and the Chinese head tax throughout his life.
The group discussed posthumous citizenship for Chinese-Canadians who fought in the war and died during combat.
"These people fought for Canada and paid the ultimate price," Chapman said. "They are Canadians of the highest order."
Although an amendment to the 1947 Citizenship Act granted citizenship to the majority of Lost Canadians in 2009, Chapman said the legislation created a new class of stateless individuals and continues to leave out five per cent of Lost Canadians who were born prior to 1947. He said that he would continue to pressure the government until all legitimate Lost Canaidans are granted citizenship.
Read more about the Lost Canadians in other Vancouver Observer stories.
(8) Comments
I am so happy to see this article. Don has made it his mission to get justice for the Lost Canadians. I admire his tenacity and determination over the many years he has devoted to this.
As one who has written countless letters to countless politicians and countless journalists without ANY response from any of them, I often shake my head in wonder at how little this serious matter seems to be to those who have it in their power to make it right.
Jenny, kudos to you for taking up the torch and giving a media voice to this terrible inequality which has been thrust on so many loyal Canadians and those who deserve to be Canadians.
This is where you really see the links between the kind of discrimination that CIC has been practising for nearly seventy years and how the government has been able to divide and conquer so many identifiable groups - but they can't anymore thanks to champions like Don Chapman who has fought the honourable battle for human rights and is about ready to win the war. It takes guts, determination and a bottomless pit of patience to keep fighting when it would be so much easier to give up but that's not Don Chapman and hundreds of thousands of Lost Canadians have him to thank for it, but now is not the time to give up. There are still some Lost Canadians left behind, Jackie Scott being a good example, a war bride child whose only crime was to be born out of wedlock. Time to get into the 21st century Jason Kenney. We are in 2011, not 1911.
As a fellow Lost Canadian (my only crime is I was born before 1947 and my parents were married) I again commend the Vancouver Observer, and Jenny Uechi in particular, for being one of the lone supporters of the Lost Canadians. Now we have reinforcements from the Chinese- Canadian War Veterans and more thanks are in order. Don is an extraordinary man and I truly believe he will succeed in his tenacious endeavours to get recognition for the remaining Lost Canadians.
Thanks, Don Chapman, for keeping on keeping on to get justice for pre-1947 lost sheep. CIC keeps approving people for citizenship who are a danger to Canada, but ignores deliberately loyal sons and daughters of born and bred Canadians. Thanks, Don for your efforts!!
Awesome news!.
This should be in most neswpapers Headlines.
Let's see if justice exists in Canada.... I think so.
It is attrocious that the Canadian government still discriminates. How absurd that Chinese-Canadians who died for Canada did not receive Canadian citizenship postumously!
Lost Canadians born before 1947 also are being treated unjustly by CIC. Bring the Citizenship Act up to present day, Mr. Harper. Treat all Canadians equally and don't discriminate based on gender, age, or marital status of one's parents.
Isn't it just something. This is great news. How the government have been allowed to continue was one thing but all the while they play wreckless games with peoples lives and rights. I am so proud to see the fight has many many supporters and I truly hope Don's hard work pays off sooner rather than later. Many of you have waited a long time to be seen as equals, yet treated like scum of the earth by a government who break the law time and time again. Let's hope judgement day comes to those who use power and greed to play roulette with peoples lives and let's hope- it ends with Canada being restored to a country of true equal rights.
1. This veteran has served in the Canadian Forces (CF) on 3 separate ‘tours of duty’ with the last tour, as a training Combat Systems Engineer in the Canadian Navy, providing the rationale for my spinal cord injuries and ensuing disability pension claims. These claims remain ignored by Veterans Affairs (VA) and several other government departments.
2. In my last tour of duty at Esquimalt, B.C., I was billeted to HMCS Qu’Appelle where I injured my spinal cord at three levels, subsequent to a fall in the showers onboard that same warship. Upon release from the Canadian Navy in 1993, I was assessed by a qualified medical general practitioner (GP named Dr. R.A. Killeen), in Lower Sackville, NS, who immediately identified a C5/C6 radiculopathy (occurring from one of the spinal cord injuries) which had resulted from the accidental fall onboard the HMCS Qu’Appelle. This same GP referred me for assessment initially to a diagnostic service in Halifax (i.e., spinal cord MRI), an orthopaedic surgeon, a neurosurgeon, and an internal medicine specialist. All of these graduates and post-graduates in medicine agreed that my three levels of spinal cord injuries (i.e., C5/C6; T11/T12 & L2/L3) most likely were the result of my previously described accidental fall when serving and training onboard the HMCS Qu’Appelle.
3. Beginning in March 1996 (initially attempted in 1994 but delayed due to unfounded and / or unsupported excuses on the part of the respondent or VRAB) and continuing to this year (2011), I applied for a disability pension with the Veterans Review and Appeal Board (VRAB; note: initially this pension was applied for in 1994, but delayed due to typical precursory and unfounded ‘excuses’ on the part of the VRAB). The VRAB ruled on (allegedly) ten separate occasions over the next 15 years against my application for a disability pension. I was accordingly forced to bring the VRAB into the Trial Division of the Federal Court (Fed. Ct.) on six separate occasions (Fed. Ct. case # T-157-98, T-2137-99; T-67-03; T-401-05 & T-617-09).
4. I submitted several letters/reports/etc. by graduates and post-graduates (in associated fields of internal medicine, neurology and orthopaedic surgery) in support of my claims in all of these cases which were brought before the Fed. Ct. Note that none of these submissions by professional graduates of medicine were contradicted by testimonies from similar medical professionals on the part of the VRAB.
5. The Hon. Mr. Justice Phelan (Fed. Ct. case #T-617-09) decided: “THIS COURT’S JUDGMENT is that the application for judicial review is granted and the Appeal Board’s decision is quashed.” Unfortunately, such a ruling did nothing more than refer the same matter back to the Respondent (e.g., Veterans’ Affairs), thus prolonging the history of this veteran’s claims and thereby moving these same claims from the ridiculous to the sublime, as far as the actual service of justice to this veteran is concerned.
6. While Canadian governments over the past 80+ years have continued to disregard their legislated obligations to veterans of the CF and Mounted Police, along with their spouses and dependants, to what extent do you believe these same governments are allegedly meeting their legislated obligations to the remainder of Canadian citizens?
7. The Bureau of Pensioners’ Advocates presented this veteran’s case to the VRAB on July 6, 2011 and the VRAB provided a decision applicable to this same latest presentation of my case dated July 5, 2011 (i.e., one day prior to the actual presentation of this veteran’s claims to the VRAB). Such pre-emptive decisions and complete lack of fair and due process, has been the ‘ear mark’ of the VRAB’s alleged handling of this veteran’s claims over the past 17 years .... not to mention the similar manner in which this same Fed. govt dept. has ignored it’s legislated obligations to other veterans, their spouses and dependants.
8. While successive Canadian governments have done nothing towards assisting this veteran towards obtaining the necessary medical attention required to address his spinal cord injuries (at a current cost of $48,000.00 [US] / one-month treatment session in Beijing, China, the only treatment centre in this world for these types of injuries, with the current medical estimate requiring between 18 and 21 one-month treatment sessions), when do you expect that a Canadian government will both recognize it’s legislated obligation to this veteran?
9. Which countries, if any, of this world are willing to countinue trading with Canada which has demonstrated itself in the above facts and paragraphs to be: a) deceitful; b) disreputable; and c) unlawful in disregarding it’s legislated obligations to both this veteran and and his family, along with thousands of other veterans, their spouses and dependants?
10. The critical and unanswered question, after 17+ years of seeking a settlement with the VRAB remains: “If this is the manner in which successive Canadian governments (including the present one) have treated men and women who have placed their lives on the line for these same Canadian governments, to what extent are these same travesties in justice being forced on all Canadian citizens with or without their knowledge of these same unlawful transgressions?”
Yours truly,
Brian C. Bradley
9520 Bonaventure Dr SE
Calgary, AB T2J 0E5
Phone: (403) 455 - 9353
email: bcbradl5y@inbox.com