Art Sabotage

I have my photograph at the "Sunflower" exhibition hosted by Visual Arts Mississauga.

It is of the barn, with sunflowers, at Visual Arts Mississauga, which I titled Barn Glow with Sunflowers.

I sent the same photograph for the Art Gallery of Mississauga's "Juried" exhibition, coming up in November. The AGM's site was long in describing the event, and who the "juries" were to be. Very close to the application deadline, they produced this list:

You can see their credentials at the site, here (or by clicking on their names at the announcement page, here).

Both Asma Sultana and Asma Mahmood are "South Asians."

Here are a few details about their artistic activities, and associations.

Mahmood's Face Book page has as its header this image:

Her post on this image says this:

I contacted Bushra Mahmood, through her website (I found through google - there is no link on Asma Mahmood's post) and asked her this:

To whom it may concern:

I found this image (attached) on the web, and was wondering if it is yours. The background looks like a "sunflower halo." If so, would you have a title for it, and its context.

Of course, the "sunflower" would fit in the theme of the recent Visual Arts Mississauga exhibition, of which Asma Mahmood would be aware.

I never heard back from B. Mahmood, but I found the image's exhibition history (through image search on google) at mybindi.com, supposedly posted on September 2013, although the actual site does not display the image. 

 

So what is it?

It looks like, besides the sunflower "glow," (or a sunflower crown?) of a youngish girl slurping blood through her hand, while holding a goat (a lamb?) on the other.

After the initial horror - blood, and young animals - I realized that this is clearly a "Christian" theme of the Lamb of God, the sacrificial lamb of God, surrounded by a halo, which Mahmood has translated into her own fetish. And hers is a kid (a goat) not the sacrificial lamb that Abraham offered to God.

Mahmood's webiste address is goatsandbacon.com, where she "builds tools for the future," but there is no posting that directly reference goats, or bacon, or this goatherd with blood on her hands and mouth surrounded by a sunflower .

Bacon is the Muslim prohibition against eating pork meat, the goat is a well-known symbol for Baphomet, and at the final judgment, God separates the sheep, who stay with him, from the goats: 

31 When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne

32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

This drawing now stands as the Face Book header of Asma Mahmood, a Mississauga woman who has been given the task of judging art work that is meant to represent Mississauga's artists. 

I sent an email to the jury group for the Juried Show of Fine Arts:

I find it very interesting that you purport to be a "Mississuagan," i.e. a Canadian, organization, yet your jury is composed of two women (out of four jurors, that is 50% of the jury) who call themselves "Asma" and whose works is posted all over the internet for all to see advocating their Pakistani and Bangladeshi roots, and even presented in their own script and language.

What dies the twitter head of Asma Arshad Mahmood mean? What does that have to do with Canada? Hwo will she "judge" my entry if I don't even understand what she says on her twitter page?

Why is Asma Sultana's facebook page, and her webpage showing me her work mostly in an Indian language script? What is she saying? How will she "judge" my entry if I don't even understand what says about her own "art?" 

You don't even attempt to present yourselves as "multicultural" and instead you have been hijacked by Indians/Pakistani/Bangladeshi who will have their own criteria for judging and critiquing Canadian art and artists.

This is a very interesting, and important, development 

Kidist Paulos Asrat

Art and Commentary by Kidist Paulos Asrat

By the way, the other two aren't much better.

Fauste Facciponte photographs dolls, which Globe and Mail writer R. M. Vaughn describes thus in a 2011 article "Double Visions and Scary Dolls" (the excerpt is of a screen shot from a pdf file):

 

 

And here is Jay Wilson's Toothpick Mountain

And here is Asma Sultana's twitter page entry, clearly a self-portrait. But what does it say?

And the banner for the show? The background to the banner is what looks like clipped paper collage,

 

whereas it is an acrylic painting, by Elizabeth Elkin, 

who nonetheless paints still lifes and flowers with skill.

The Multi-Culti Mississauga Art Establishment Implodes

Below is a Facebook post from a (now former) staff, Sharada Eswar, at the Art Gallery of Mississauga (posted in full after the dotted lines). This multicultural, Indian woman, writes this article on her Facebook page.

Who knew!

For more on my views, and the anti-west, anti-Canada, AGM, see my posts here.

The AGM is imploding, and that's a good thing!

I wrote about Eswar here, in a post I titled White Out at the AGM:

Eswar talks about her childhood with her grandmother in India.

More information on Eswar here, a 2019 post at Reclaiming Beauty I titled: White Out at the AGM

"...In her Brampton [Ontario] living room, a Ganesha statue sits on a side table...Now, Eswar is bringing her grandmother's ancient stories, and some contemporary South Asian tales, to life in the GTA [The Greater Toronto Area, which includes Mississauga]."

------------------

Eswar's Facebook post on June 22, 2020:

This is a fairly long post, so thank you for your time.

Until December 2019, I was leading a community engaged arts project at the Art Gallery of Mississauga (AGM). A project that I conceived and birthed, and was nurtured lovingly by the racialized and marginalized communities of Mississauga. A project that received funding from the Ontario Trillium Foundation (a grant that I wrote) to the tune of over $420,000. A project that used stories as a common denominator, to bring together the diverse cultural groups and the racialized communities in Mississauga and beyond, engaging with ideas of self-representation to question colonial narratives. A place to share stories, laughs and the heartbreaks associated with them. There were plenty of laughs alright, and heartbreaks a plenty. A project that consumed my very being, every single day for over three years. A project that I had to abandon because the then Treasurer (and I believe, currently the Chair) decided that he had the right to be a bully, an obnoxious and aggressive force that undermined this initiative. An aggression so toxic that to this day, I fear going to Mississauga, lest I see him again.

It began as a pilot project in 2017. It was a runaway success. The community wanted their voices heard, their stories told and I decided to expand the project. In 2018, things began to change. A number of events dramatically transformed the working environment at the AGM. We were told that the Gallery was financially unhealthy and the very existence of the Gallery was at risk. The one silver lining was receiving the Trillium funding for my project. However, things escalated in 2019. I witnessed, along with my colleagues and many members of the arts community, an alarming deficit of clear communication, leadership and respect from the board and the directorship of the AGM. But all of this paled in the face of patriarchy and white supremacy that was rampant in the Board. The then Director was asked to leave and the predominantly white governance Board decided to become an operating board (there was no public announcement about this shift, nor was the membership informed). A Board that had no clue on how the arts world functioned, let alone how community engagement and relationships are built and nurtured. With no Director to act as buffer, the staff were at the mercy of the Board. Staff were constantly micro-managed and belittled. Things came to a head when the last remaining full-time staff’s position was suddenly and mysteriously dissolved. I say suddenly because despite the position being part of the new 5-year strategic plan approved by the Board and the then Chair & Interim ED, it was dissolved soon after.

At first it seemed as if I would be spared but how wrong I was! Within weeks I was subject to aggressive emails demanding why the artists I had contracted for the project were paid so high (mind you this was a funder approved budget and were being paid as per industry standards); why are there no European voices in this project (one of the main objectives of border crossings was to make room for communities and voices that were until now absent); and then some questions that were beyond the scope of my job description and expertise, though I tried to the best of my ability to answer them all. Emails, so aggressive that I began to dread logging into my computer. I was made to feel incompetent, incapable of doing minor tasks correctly and peppered with questions that felt more like inquisitions. Then there was the gaslighting behaviour. On one occasion I was asked about a missing camera that had “supposedly been bought” for the project – in spite of me insisting that there was no camera bought, I was repeatedly interrogated, making me feel like a criminal. Finally, I was told that if the camera couldn’t be traced, it was my job to lodge a complaint with the police for insurance purposes. It reached a point where I began to question my own sanity, my memory, my actions, my thoughts. After much heart wrench and soul searching, I resigned. I left the project and everything that I had worked towards to that point behind.

Until today I have chosen not to make a broader public statement of the toxicity that my colleagues and I walked into every single day. So why am I speaking now? I, like several others, left space for the funders (specifically the City) and the community members to voice their concerns about the organization. But I realize that to remain silent out of respect for our community may be taken as complicity in an erasure of agency, which was in no way my intention.

Two things happened that galvanized me into action -- the first of the two was on June 3, 2020. There was a post from AGM as part of the #BlackOutTuesday in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. I saw the post and laughed. The hypocrisy I thought! A “leadership” that treats its BIPOC staff with utmost disregard and disrespect now expressing solidarity! I was tempted to comment something nasty but desisted. Then there was a post on Twitter that for me was the tipping point. A podcast (a podcast I had produced and hosted) with the Treasurer as guest. I haven’t been able to bring myself to listen to it. It has brought back all the toxicity to the fore, everything I thought I had under control, the fears, the anxiety, the shame, the rage, the guilt at abandoning the community members, who had time and again made themselves vulnerable, trusting me with their stories. The fact that I had to let go of my project, my creation that was second only to my own child, and this bully is still about exuding power!

Video on Theresa Tam

The Council of European Canadians have posted a video by Youtube video reporter Jill Colton, which discusses Theresa Tam, and which has my a screen shot of my CEC article. Colton also briefly discusses my article, which now has a record of 179 comments by concerned readers on the CEC website.

Update: Empty Outlines and the Multi-Culti-COVID-Era

The article Empty Outlines and Multi-CUlti-COVID-Era has been slightly updated, with some extra commentary, especially near the end and in relation to art and artists in Canada.

Empty Outlines and the Multi-Culti-COVID Era

I wrote earlier about textile designer Chung-Im Kim, who teaches at the Ontario College of Art and Design:

Kim's designs are a combination of these "deconstructed-reconstructed" works of postmodern art and works that reference her Korean/Asian background.

As an artist, when I embarked on a new, and challenging, art discipline, I took time out from the normal in-class instructions and went out into the outside world to research, and understand, this new discipline.

I had just finished at Ryerson University, not graduating, but completing what I had set out to do: study, understand, and create films and photographs. My films (and videos) were exhibited in various galleries around Toronto, and including in exhibitions in France. And I had compiled a large collection of works based on a variety of photographic methods.

One method that intrigued me was silk screening, or more precisely, working on textiles. I did my first screen prints, which I titled Toronto Gables, in a small silk screen laboratory, with make-shift lights and printing boards, in one of the program's photography labs.

When I left Ryerson, I started looking for ways to advance this knowledge, including taking workshops in a downtown member-run centre Open Studio. And soon after, I started taking courses in the Ontario College of Art and Design's continuing studies program, for textile art, and specifically, repeat pattern techniques. I took the same course for four consecutive sessions, paying the $200/course fee. Kim was the instructor for all, as I describe here.

As I wrote here:

I wondered later why she [Kim] never introduced us to the endless list of "white" designers. All artists, however limited their education, at some point come across some textiles which are too breathtaking to ignore. I don't think she was intellectually limited. Nor can she use the "excuse" that she is an immigrant. She had lived in Canada by then too many years to not even have casually wandered across some of these works.

I believe it was (is) this inherent dislike of whites. Perhaps not individual whites, and certainly not the leftist whites which now make up Canada and America who hate "whites" or white civilization themselves, but the white people as a collective, the white civilization, the white mind.

Kim's designs are a combination of these "deconstructed-reconstructed" works of postmodern art and works that reference her Korean/Asian background.

Kim did leave something behind, though, which became a source of investigation for me.

I had been to visit Kim's exhibition in Toronto, and saw a group of her textile works, including the two below.


'meditating'
1998
78" x 31"
industrial felt, silk dupioni,
fibre reactive dye,
silkscreen printing,
machine & hand stitching


'following tradition'
1999
78" x 23"
industrial felt, handmade felt, fibre reactive dye,
machine & hand stitching

I think the one that initially struck me was Meditating. It looked like the waxing and waning of a moon, but rather than depict an actual waxing and waning, Kim flattened this moon-like structure. And rather than flip the "reflective" image - the orange moon-structure, starting with the "flattened" first and ending with the full round one, to give the image a more interesting dynamic - Kim left each side of the "progression" of the structure the same.

The second image that struck me was Following Tradition. It looks like a take on the maple leaf, or some kind of leaf, once again with a mirror image that is not quite a mirror image, of shapes that are not quite leaves. Perhaps "tradition" means the Canadian "tradition" of maple leaves.

I thought seriously about why a skilled textile designer could not make clear and concrete images.

As I write here:

Their [Kim's] ethnic references are too far away, and they are too alienated from their current country [Canada], and all that is left is the "structure" of the image: its shape, its empty outline.

I think this population, responding to false and exaggerated reports on a virus that hardly can be called a pandemic, is the result of an incredible, alienated, "multicultural" legacy, where cultures have no language with which to speak to each other, to denounce falshoods, and attacks on their well-being.

And how do you dare say the government is a liar if your existence depends on the government, and did so prior to such a societal event? Even as they suffer, these good "Canadians" still believe the government WILL save them, and those that have any inklings of a doubt are told by everyone and everything around them to just keep quiet.

But I believe a third group is the opportunistic ones, who have come to depend on grants and funds for their art projects which otherwise not see the light of day.

They cannot tell the truth, otherwise they incur the wrath of this government, which gives them the easy money they have become experts at acquiring, and are on various committees and organizations which look out for them, and for each other. These same people could "snitch" on them. Truth-telling becomes a dangerous sport (and art).

For all their fervent "anti-establishment" and "anti-[Canadian]tradition work," they are dependent on "government," and carefully glean what art will displease this government and what will not, and work accordingly.

It takes courage, and independent thinking, to go against this grain, including to say "I don't want your money."

Or, "I don't believe your story."

Welcome to the Multi-Culti-COVID-Era.


Steve Heinemann, Chung-Im Kim's "partner," contemplating eternity while self isolating,
from a post I wrote here

John Derbyshire's: VDare's Contract Man

When Danny comes marching home

Danny shipped off to Fort Benning, Ga. at the end of July
to train as an infantryman in the U.S. Army (2013) [source: Derbyshire's homepage]

[Source: John Derbyshire's homepage and VDare]

I wrote about John Derbyshire's article on Tedros Ghebreyesus, the World Health Organization's Director-General, here, and some background on Derbyshire here, and his half-Chinese children, here.

Why is VDare using Derbyshire, a white British man (naturalized American), married to a woman he met in China, as their white representative to "save" America from immigrants and multiculturalism?

I believe VDare's underlying principle is IQ. People with high intelligence, on par with the intelligence of whites, make better Americans than all the others - Hispanics, Arabs, Africans,etc.

Therefore Derbyhsire's Chinese wife is of no concern, since she comes from a country which purports to have high IQ population groups.

Of course, the high Asian IQ theory has its problems, which I've discussed here.

And a high IQ is not a guarantor that anyone, or any nation, will be successful. There are other factors, what I would call the Aesthetic IQ, which determines how one views beauty, the Spiritual IQ, how one lives in accordance with higher principles, and finally the God IQ, how nations and their people figure the Biblical God in the formation of their civilizations.

I presume that Derbyshire has a high "traditional" IQ, which he uses exclusively, and which led him to discard his God IQ, publicly proclaiming his atheism. I also think he is deficient in the Aesthetic IQ, but I won't go into that.

Derbyshire's two children, a half-Chinese son and a half-Chinese daughter, appear in many of his posts, where he has documented their birth to early twenties life in his family album posts. But there is no report on their current situations. Both Danny and Nellie Derbyshire are now nearing their 30s. What are they doing?

Perhaps nothing so impressive as to live up to the subtle IQ hype Derbyshire proudly presented in their earlier years.


My daughter and I had a very instructive morning yesterday

A friend at NYMEX...got us visitor passes,
with a view to Nellie possibly getting an internship
at the exchange in her summer vacation.
[Source: John Derbyshire's posts at The National Review's The Corner, 2010]

My end-2012 puzzle was a splendid 2,000-piecer of van Gogh's The Starry Night

I summon Danny and intone the ritual words:
"Help me out here, please, son. I've almost finished; but there's
this one pesky last piece left, and I can't figure out where it goes."

I then hand the piece to Danny and he completes the puzzle.

[source: Derbyhsire's hompage]

Derbyshire writes about his high IQ son here:

Danny took the AFQT (basically an IQ test: the cutoff for the Army is IQ 92) and the ASVAB
(a vocational test to see which military specialty suits you).
A smart kid - it’s genetic - Danny aced both tests and is in A-1 physical condition,
so they basically told him he could pick his own specialty.
He picked Airborne Rangers, the most dangerous specialty on the list.
They jump out of planes to do Navy-SEAL-type super-hazardous missions.

Where do Derbyshire's Expertise Lie?

From
Ici Radio Canada: Des habitants de Markham ont manifesté contre l'immigration plus tôt cet été August 2018

-------------------------------

I wonder why VDare allows John Derbyshire to write his articles on blacks? I would think his multi-culti expertise would lie more with the Chinese, to one of whom Mr. Derbyshire is married.

Derbyshire has a fascinatingly public "personal" page, where he posts photographs of his English "coal mine" family along with his wife's "Chinese peasants," and his daughter's Hispano/Arab boyfriend called "Mike." So, Derb's progeny continue with his multi-culti example, after all.


"The family Christmas picture, with Nellie's guy Mike at left." [Image and text source]

Merry X-Mas from the atheist and his family

-------------------------------

I'm not the only one to notice this BF. Here's a photo from the Hapa & Eurasian Community: Asian Pacific Halfies, who comment:

noblemagistrate
...maybe his buddy Jared Taylor will excuse him for letting his daughter date a Jewish guy.

By the way, why do his kids look 1000% Asian? They don't look mixed at all. I know that WMAF typically look more Asian than white but they look more Asian than their mother, lol.

Here is one fascinating article where Derbyshire discusses Chinese immigrants in Markham, Ontario, Canada(!).

Derbyshire's point in this article is how LEGAL Chinese immigrants organized protests on ILLEGAL refugees being shipped into Markham:

More encouraging is news from Markham, Ontario, a suburb of Toronto with a big concentration of Chinese immigrants.

This started when Toronto found they had more illegal aliens than they could find accommodation for. Numbers coming across the border from the U.S.A. have been swelling the past couple of years, and of course they are all claiming to be refugees from something or other.

[...]

The rumor started that Scarpitti had agreed with the mayor of Toronto to take and house five thousand of these illegals.

Once that got around, a demonstration was organized. To judge from videos and press accounts, the demonstrators were all Chinese. There were big signs on display in English, Chinese, and Chinglish. Samples:

MARKHAM SAY NO TO ILLEGAL BORDER CROSSERS

SAY "NO" TO MAYOR FRANK!

ILLEGAL FREE RIDER NOT INVITED

PROTECT OUR CITY, PROTECT OUR HOME!

[...]

It was a good spirited gathering, though. There was a counter-protest on behalf of the illegals, carrying signs of their own: REFUGEES WELCOME, NOBODY IS ILLEGAL, and so on. A lot of them were Chinese, too, but there were also round-eyes in evidence on that side.

Inevitably there were fisticuffs, but no-one was seriously hurt. I would like to have seen some Chinese martial arts on display, but the most fearsome participant was a young Dragon Lady type with an ear-splitting voice out of Chinese opera, who chased some of the counter-protestors right off the field.

Chinese immigrants, and their several-generations-down inheritors STILL refer to their Chinese, from China, background, and intrinsically search for that reference, and assurance.

Even, Derb's daughter, rather than go for the Whites of her father's background, chose instead an undecipherable (at least in presentation) of a brown man as her mate. What good is having a white father if even he cannot convince you of the goodness of his race?

Derbyshire forfeited that wisdom, and authority, when he traveled across the oceans and married a Chinese woman. His British adventurous fore-fathers never did that, at least not officially, and publicly. The reason colonization worked is because they kept the natives, the inhabitants, of those countries in their countries. They didn't make a bargain through "love and marriage" and opened up the Pandora's box of multiculturalism through multi-racial offspring. Derbyshire is now having to maneuver through that conundrum, with a boyfriend (future son-in-law?) his daughter brought home, with a foreboding face, who might not really like him.

Then what?

Mississauga: A Blue-collar to White-collar Canadian Suburb

I have posted below an email correspondence along with an introduction, from December 2016, originally posted here: The Great No-Longer-So-White North.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Below (with an introduction) is an email letter I received from a blog correspondent which I left as a draft when I first thought of publishing it in June 2015.

Now it is more relevant than ever. Note the reader's contempt for the "Trudeau Liberals" by which he meant Trudeau Sr., not the Justin cavorting around as a politician now.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Great no-longer-so-White North

This letter below is from a correspondent, who describes the Toronto of the 1970s (and into the early 80s).

The history of the Loyalists shows how different Canada and the United States are, which is how it should be despite all this Free Trade lingo, which puts us together with Third World Mexico! The anti-Americanism which the Canadian media (aka CBC), the stooge of the liberals and the Liberal Party, loves to spout is taken on in a healthy way by the ordinary Canadians, who love their flag, their foods (however few there are that are different from the Americans'), their holidays (next week is Canada Day, yes a reaction to Fourth of July, but still celebrated with gusto), and so on.

But, there is a unity with the US when it comes to the European heritage. And I strongly believe that this multicultural fetish is a "white guilt" thing.

He [the correspondent] very astutely observes that this "hate" or rather this identification of difference is projected into Quebec, and the endless wrangles we have with that Province. And I am actually a proponent of "freeing" Quebec. Let them deal with NAFTA, terrorism, the vacillating currency, maintaining a First World way of life, WITHOUT dipping into the Canadian coffers. Let them do it alone. Cut off ALL the strings. VIVE LE QUEBEC LIBRE!

One more thing.

Question: Who are the HABS?!! (Confession: Sin of all Canadian Sins. I don't watch hockey!!)

Answer: Habs is an abbreviation of "les habitants," the informal name given to the original settlers of New France, dating back to the 17th Century. So it's a natural fit for the The Montreal Canadiens, established in 1909 and marketed as a French-Canadian hockey team.

Yep, even in hockey, there is the Quebec Narrative. So, my correspondent is insightful to view these hockey games as war-like rivalry to release those ancestral tensions.

Here is the email/letter:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Kidist,

Good luck with the Hildebrand project [link]. This is some text!You're doing good work, even (especially) if the thought-police don't approve!

Mississauga really has changed. My father spent the last 10+ years of his career in Toronto (living in the City of Toronto itself from 1972 to 1983), and -- as a landed immigrant, not an illegal alien --- I worked a lot of temp jobs in Toronto during school and university days. I got to know greater Toronto pretty well.

At the time Mississauga was a blue-collar to white-collar Canadian suburb, which is [to] say the inhabitants were Canadians. Friends of ours who lived there had been in Ontario from its beginnings: United Empire Loyalists who went north from New York after the American Revolution made New York an uncomfortable place for loyalists to live. We haven't been in touch with them for many years, but I suspect they have long since white-flown Mississauga for somewhere much farther out.

Toronto proper at that time had immigrant pockets, some (European; I remember particularly a Portuguese enclave) of fairly long standing, but was still preeminently a Canadian city, united by belief in the Leafs and hatred of the Habs. There was, however, a growing West Indian area which, perhaps coincidentally, was considered the most sketchy part of town.

I hope the Canadians wake up in time to salvage some Canadian Canada. But when I look at what Americans are accepting, and remember it was a Canadian government (Trudeau's Liberals from 1968 through the early '80s; not that Mulroney's Tories did anything to undo Liberal sabotage when they got in) that introduced the world to official multiculturalism and mandated racial and sexual diversity, it's hard to be too hopeful. So far, from what I see, Canadians have swallowed almost all of it without a peep, and tell themselves it's all a Good Thing. The only outlet English Canadians allow themselves is to be annoyed at the Quebecois - to go any further would be racist...

Please keep up your good work in the Great no-longer-so-White North!

Best regards.

January Garden

January Garden
[Photo By: KPA]

"The belief in objective truth is the keystone of traditional Western culture, and the explicit basis of the United States of America. For America's founding generation and their posterity, man's inalienable rights to liberty and self-government proceed, not from from the will and desire of man, but from "nature and nature's God." Man's freedom is ordained, and constrained, by a reality higher than man. It was the shared experience of that truth that formed the American nation."

Lawrence Auster
Our Borders, Ourselves: America in the Age of Multiculturalism
Chapter 4: The Spiritual Effects of Multiculturalism
P.58

Ash Wednesday

I was in the lovey department store Simons today, and was glad to see that they had put aside the winter items (some at exorbitant sales prices) and replaced them with the cheery patterns of spring.

But a young girl reminded me of the real occasion.

Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent in the Catholic calendar. The girl (in her twenties) had the charcoal cross on her forehead to signify this liturgical date.

She must have gone to mass to have that cross marked on her forehead by a priest. And in the morning too. I saw her around noon so she could have been on her lunch break. At first I thought she was a salesgirl.

"Good girl!" I said to her, and spoke with her (and her friend) for a couple of minutes before I went on my way (she is part Portuguese and part Polish).

It was a powerful and beautiful thing to see, the simple, crudely drawn cross on a young girl's forehead in the middle of a crowded mall.

It is with small steps like this, innocent, genuine, humble, and unaggressive, that we regain Christ's presence in this world.

This image was all the more powerful because of the jarring multicultural world that Mississauga has become. And in fact, only a few minutes after I left the store, a couple of men came behind me, walking very close behind me, talking loudly and unperturbed in Hindi.

I stopped and let them pass before I resumed my itinerary.

Who would Keep the Order?

I was waiting behind this gentleman in Walmart. There was the usual bustle of people in line where we have no cultural or social ties to induce or encourage civil behaviour. For one, many people still communicate in their "native" languages. Stay on line, keep a distance between shopping carts, avoid conversation which can lead to miscommunication, and pay your grocery bills with a friendly "hello" to the physically and mentally overworked cashier.

This old man was clearly in a hurry and, as luck would have it, he landed on a cashier with very limited English (a nice, old Italian woman). She got some figures wrong and he brought it to her attention, politely and quietly. Then, as he left, he saw a pile of cardboard in the way. He could have walked around it as most people would do, but he took the time to push them aside onto a ledge. Then he walked off to whatever engagement he had, without too much hurry and with no irritation.

This is the white man that multiculturalists are demonizing and slowly pushing out.

Who would keep the order once he's gone?

Year of the Pig

Year of the Pig
[Photo By: KPA]

Above is a photo I took a few days ago (with my zoom lense) of an old Chinese man standing in the main entrance of Mississauga's Square One Mall. He is standing below the banners "celebrating" Chinese New Year, the only ethnic festival in the mall that commands such a large and dramatic presence.



He was alone, probably "walking" around the mall for exercise, as many do. Hs family (a son? a daughter? a grandchild?) must have dropped him off to return later and pick him to take back home. What must it feel like to see such a grand acknowledgment for his country's most important, event but to be surrounded by people who look nothing like his countrymen, and who view this festival as just another quaint event?

He must have found this place of familiarity on his tour around the mall and stopped under the banners. The floor has a seprepsp of Chinese horoscope animals, and he instinctively stood on the pig.

There is a callousness in multiculturalism which affects the most vulnerable: the very old and the the very young.

His family, at one point, made the decision to uproot everyone and everything for pure opportunism to get to the "land of plenty." The material benefits of immigration for non-Western immigrants (including the much-touted Chinese) are beginning to look like minimal, according to various national and regional population statistics.

The damage to the psyche - inability to feel like they "belong," perceived discrimination by the dominant whites who, despite multiculturalism and all kinds of affirmative action rules and regulations still hold the positions of authority and still prefer "their own." Younger immigrants and children of immigrants, rather than blending in wth the mainstream (.e. white) society prefer to be with their own kind: the Chinese wth the Chinese; the Somali with the Somali; the Indians with the Indians.

The cruel works of immigration spawned multiculturalism, and multiculturalism is now officially a failure. And we are left wth an old man looking for a familiar landscape from his homeland in the indifferent space of giant mall in a foreign land.

Perhaps he was born in the Year of the Pig:

So where does the Pig fall on the fortune scale? According to Tai [a Chinese fortune teller and feng shui master based in Vancouver], pigs are definitely considered a lucky animal.
"They are lucky, especially people born in this particular year," he said. "Even if they have some sort of unfortunate thing happen, eventually they will have something happen to save their life, to help them overcome all the obstacles and barriers."[Source]

Will this old man "have something happen to save [his] life, to help [him] overcome all [these] obstacles and barriers?"

Update: White Out at the AGM

From the Art Gallery of Mississauga's "Who We Are" web post:

Our Mission

First. New. Next.

The AGM provides platforms for exhibitions, collections and experimentation in contemporary culture with a recent focus on artists and cultural producers from Indigenous, newcomer and youth communities. Through a broad range of educational programs, artist projects and other forms of critical dialogue, the AGM seeks to transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries, foster community, and provide spaces where alternative modes of thought are supported and activated in tangible ways.

---

I posted on the the Art Gallery of Mississauga's "White Out' snow closure where I surmise that it could be a long-term strategy to reduce the gallery's fees and operating costs (e.g. staff salary), which mostly come from grants provided by taxpayers' government funds.

The gallery was also closed for ten days, from December 22-January 9. That is 20 days!

The Christmas holidays, after the actual Christmas celebrations, are when people have time to venture out and visit museums and other such venues. It must be worth shutting down the gallery despite a guaranteed hike in gallery visitors. The thing is, there is no admission fee, so it costs the gallery money (those taxpayers' funded grant monies) to keep open. Shutting down saves money on staff salary, building maintenance, and other costs. The Canada Council for the Arts must be congratulating its Mississauga employees on their fund-saving strategies!

The Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto was closed early on Christmas Eve and all day on Christmas Day, and again early on New Year's Eve an New Year's day. Here is their instagram notice.

Could that be why Kendra Ainsworth, the white curator of the gallery, was recently fired? There was none other than Kendra who forcefully defended the gallery, its projects, and its "multicultural" views.


[Photo of Kendra Ainsworth from Kendra's Twitter page]

The problem is the gallery has now a majority of non-Whites running the show. And multi-cultis are easily offended, especially when a White tries to act as a champion for their "cause."

Here is the list of the current AGM employees and board members:

- Mandy Salter: Director, Curator


[Photo from The Art Gallery of Mississauga's Instagram page]

Salter explains her vision for the AGM:

"The AGM welcomes an active interest from artists and cultural producers with broad cross-cultural perspectives and seeks out opportunities to engage migrant, indigenous communities and visible minority groups to create synergies through art and culture.

The Gallery is a creative platform for equal opportunity that actively seeks out and welcomes cultural diversity. We are interested in hearing from exceptional people. Our recruitment and selection process is comprehensive and rigorous to ensure that all applicants receive fair, equitable and objective treatment."

------------------------------------------------------------

- Sharada Eswar: Community Activator, Education & Programmes


[Photo from Sharada Eswar's Facebook page]

Eswar talks about her childhood with her grandmother in India.

More information on Eswar here.

"...In her Brampton [Ontario] living room, a Ganesha statue sits on a side table...Now, Eswar is bringing her grandmother's ancient stories, and some contemporary South Asian tales, to life in the GTA [The Greater Toronto Area, which includes Mississauga]."

------------------------------------------------------------

- Megan Judd: Communications & Gallery Assistant


[Photo from Judd's Linkedin page]

Megan Judd, name withstanding, is Asian-Indian. Her professional LinkedIn page lists her "language" skills as: English, Hindi and Urdu.

Her LinkedIn page also states that she is certified or licenced in "Intercultural and Conflict Resolution Training," but there is no reference to the school or program which awarded her this credit. NOnetheless she felt it important to include it in her professional profile.

------------------------------------------------------------

- Sadaf Zuberi: Business Operations Manager


[Photo from The Art Gallery of Mississauga's Facebook page]

"As a dedicated professional, I have passionately contributed towards education of marginalized groups, school reform, early childhood development, women empowerment, conservation of environment and promotion of art as a bridge, a catalyst and a connector. I blend my commitment to social change with focused expertise in operations, financial management, stakeholder engagement and donor liaison. A thorough planner and implementer, my work is an interesting amalgam of conceptual depth and practical ideas. I have been consistently involved since 2000 with groups as varied as the civil society, community consortia, private companies, donor agencies, public sector organizations and the non-profits. Coordinating thrusts of multiple stakeholders for societal enrichment and synergizing development efforts is the most rewarding part of my work."
[Source: Zuberi's LinkedIn page]

------------------------------------------------------------

- Jessica Palada: Gallery Animateur


[Photo from Jessica Palada's Facebook page]

Jessica Palada's facebook page has Spanish as one of her languages; the other: Canadian English. She communicates in Spanish on her Facebook posts. Although the facebook page doesn't indicate her AGM connection, I have met her and spoken with her.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And the Board of Directors, Executive Committee:

- Penelope Mathieson, Board Chair


[Photo from Mathieson's Facebook page]

"I worked for Fashion magazine in the early '90s and that is how I was introduced to Maria and her incredible custom swimwear - thank you FASHION! Some 20 years later I'm still enjoying her masterly suited bikini's - original fabrics, perfectly fitted, I could never wear an 'off the rack' bikini again...oye, feh, never! In fact, I wore a black velvet CC bikini for a recent photo shoot ...which appeared in Fashion magazine - full circle, what goes around comes around. Coral Coast suits last and last and always look amazing! Thank Maria, see you soon - XO"
[Source: Mathieson's LinkedIn page]

------------------------------------------------------------

- Zainub Verjee, Vice-Chair

"Zainub Verjee is a major driving force on the global cultural landscape distinguishing herself as a thought leader, innovator, policy maker and administrator."
[Text and photo from Zainub Verjee's website]

------------------------------------------------------------

- Vandana Taxali, Secretary


[Photo from Vandana Taxali's Linkedin page]

"Vandana Taxali is an art agent an lawyer and the founder of We Heart That. She is passionate about bringing art in the streets, instagram and other unconventional places to the forefront...We Heart That curates, creates and inspires by showcasing art content around the globe"
[Text from Taxali's website We Heart That]

[More information at Taxali business website Entcounsel]

------------------------------------------------------------

- Saiyid M. Jafari, Treasurer

[Note: I am unable to find reliable information on Jafari. Although there are a couple of sites which identify a "Saiyid M. Jafari," a chartered accountant from Oakville Ontario (a town near Mississauga), none show his position at the Art Gallery of Mississauga.]

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Board Members

Catherine Hale: Director, Creative Campus at Sheridan College


[Photo from Sheridan College's webpage]

“A lot of my experience was built around seeing myself as a facilitator and liaison with different communities. It’s really important to me that the communities being represented in an exhibit have a role and a voice in that process...That is what so much of my work is about – using creative work to initiate dialogue and ask tough questions...[Source: Curating Creativity, Sheridan COllege]

------------------------------------------------------------

John Kovac: Mississauga Ward 4 Councillor


[Photo from Kovac's Facebook page]

Carassauga Festival

"The countdown is on to [Mississauga's] Carassauga 2017. Carassauga is a city-wide multicultural festival featuring live performances, artisans,food, history and culture with 31 pavilions representing over 70 cultures. On May 26, 27 and 28, come out and travel the world without leaving the City!" [Source: John Kovac Ward 4 News, Spring/Summer 2017]

White Out at the AGM

Toay: January 29

The Art Gallery of Mississauga, whose majority funds come from taxpayers money, closed shop today (and will most likely close tomorrow also).

Imagine if Walmart closed shop, or ABC News anchors stayed home and skipped reporting the news because of: -17 degree temperature.

Or the guys that clear the snow and sprinkle salt on the roads decided that they would be a no-show because of, well the snow.

There was a time when -30 temperatures were par for the course during winter and we could handle it. Many of us still can.

And many have cars, which they drive on diligently clean highways (by taxpayers paid city cleaners) and park in mostly free or city subsidized underground parking lots (i.e. the case in downtown Mississauga).

Those who show up at the museum are not like me: people who walk or take public transport. These have cars. They can drive. They can park, underground.

But beyond the jokes, I've written about the focus on non-Western art and communities at the AGM in recent (3-4) years.

Those raised in warmer temperatures can never get used to this cold. Winter becomes a time for paranoia and panic, and the AGM obliges these mostly non-Western patrons by closing the museum.

Perhaps it is a clever ploy by the AGM's staff to have as many "non-working" days as possible, to reduce the number of paychecks the government has to dish out to these "cultural worners," and to have a lower dollar amount for their next application for a government grant. After all, it's all about the multi-culti, and why not use that ticket, that argument to its max.

It is all about accountability, after all!

China in Mississauga

Last year. I posted on the Chinese New Year event in Mississauga. There was really just one place which organized its store's activities around this holiday, the Holt Renfrew department store.

This year, the number of stores hosting or publicizing the holiday has grown exponentially. At last count, I saw about a dozen. It is becoming the second most celebrated holiday in the mall after Christmas.

Below are some store signs and images that I took yesterday. There is Chinese script in all of them, and most without any translation. "Happy Year of the Pig?" I don't know.

Such alien holidays are a conduit for other gods and godheads to enter the spiritual psyche of a country. Once people accept what looks like a benign "Happy Year of the Pig," there wll be other forces to contend with as the when the "pig" is actually a spiritual force that people genuflect to.

Chinese New Year is far from a "fun" event with gold coins and wish envelopes, and dragon dances and bright paper lanterns. It is a spiritual event that has ancient roots and has sustained a culture for hundreds of years.

But aside from the invisible spirits, the population of Chinese in the Mississauga area is growing at a fast rate with immigrants coming to Canada leaving behind their overcrowded cities and falsely reported prosperity. There is no prosperity in China, only a few who have managed to get very rich.

This year, Walmart is selling New Year's foods and clothing, Roger and Bell digital stores are promoting special promotions, and various clothing stores have decorated their stores with Chinese script and displayed red garments in accordance with the red color that goes with the New Year.

The idea is not participating in a multiculturalism, but a way for China to find a way into Mississauga and into Canada, using . multiculturalism as the ploy for an entry point. So far, it has been tremendously successful.

My Message is Simple: Go to Where You Belong

The Cloisters, New York
[Photo By KPA]


I have always been consistent about my Western civilization part. What all this reflection has shown me is my uniqueness. I don't want to be in the West for opportunistic reasons, but because I am really part of it, because I really love it, I identify with it. I have found no-one else like me and not for lack of trying. And it has made me profoundly empathetic towards those who search for this authenticity. Sometimes I am short towards them, sometimes harsh, and sometimes even hostile. And the level of my anger shows the level of my concern.

Perhaps Larry Auster is the closest example to what I'm trying to do, where even as his Jewishness defined his being, he became a powerful voice for the West and specifically for America, and his message was received all the more because of that.

It is a tough call, what I've dedicated myself to. People will get confused by me, people will reject me, they will call me a hypocrite and a traitor as they bring my race to the forefront and even attack me for it. It has already happened. And I even have an answer, a response, for that: the Amhara race is different from other African or Arab races, and has always looked to the West for guidance. If I am to cite my ancestry, it will be in that manner. And I am the only one to follow it through. My persistence will show my authenticy.

I have developed a tough skin, starting from my childhood. And I have always been independent, which my childhood has also taught me. And I think people will ultimately listen to me. My message is simple: go to where you belong.

Chinese Canadian Veterans' Military Museum asking to receive funds as a Charitable Organization

My previous post, Chinese Aesthetics: Where Harmony and Cohesion Trumps Individuality and Innovation, was my perspectives on what Ricardo Duchesne of The Council of European Canadians wrote in an article he titled The Transcendental Mind of Europeans Stands Above the Embedded Mind of Asians

Recently, I watched The Cable Public Affairs Channel present a November 5, 2018 meeting of The Special Senate Committee on the Charitable Sector to:

"...examine the impact of federal and provincial laws and policies governing charities, nonprofit organizations, foundations, and other similar groups; and to examine the impact of the voluntary sector in Canada."'

Here is the transcript to that session.

Senator Terry M. Mercer, chair of the committee introduced the panel, including

"...from the Chinese Canadian Military Museum Society, King Wan, President"

I have posted below the full presentation by King Wan, and below that excerpts from the Q&A session with him and the senate.

The whole session is an eye-opener on how specific ethnic groups demand governmental funding to advance their very specific ethnic organizations. In this case, it is Chinese Canadians who served in the Canadian military. This particular session is about the funding source for a museum for Chinese Canadian veterans requested by The Chinese Canadian Military Museum Society.

A normal country would say: All veterans who served in the Canadian forces are Canadian Veterans and will receive their pensions and charity funds from such a general pool.

But guilt is the great weakner. One of the arguments to allow the Chinese Canadian Military Museum Society charitable status presents is by indirectly referencing the Chinese railway workers who came to Canada's west coast at the turn of the 20th century to start building the cross-country railway system. When they remained in Canada after the work was done, the Canadian government took many years before establishing their Canadian citizenship. That was never the government's plan, but rather to expedite their return to China. This is seen as a great "racist" affront by all Chinese Canadians, and is part of their lore.

All other special interest requests and interactions with the government as an ethnic body is colored by this background. And the government more often than not concedes.

King Wan, President, Chinese Canadian Military Museum Society: Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. The Chinese Canadian Military Museum Society is a nonprofit organization consisting entirely of volunteers. We have no paid staff, and I am just a volunteer. Thank you for the opportunity to come here to talk to the senators about our situation.

I am not as eloquent as Mr. McRae in that, as a volunteer and in terms of our time committed to the museum, it is all in our spare time. Most recently, we had a big dinner last Saturday night, which is our annual fundraising event where our main funds come from for operations.

I would like to talk about a few things. One is that we would like to share with the senators on the committee here that we would like to see broader cultural giving in our society to provide funding for smaller organizations like ours. We are a small organization. Our only funding is through donations from our members and then sponsors. As I was saying before, the major proceeds that we receive in the year is from our annual fundraising dinner. We are fortunate to have had a large crowd of people attend our function.

We looked at the tax credit that is given to charities, and I found that the current CRA tax credit given to donors is adequate from our perspective because we are a small organization. Those who give us funds will get their normal percentage of tax credit. However, that doesn’t mean that it cannot increase to provide them with a further incentive to donate to smaller organizations like ours.

I would like to see more government programs to support smaller organizations like museums. I know for a fact that there are multiple departments in the government that would provide funding for different charities, foundations and so on, and I think there is opportunity for more, be it from Veterans Affairs Canada, Canadian Heritage or other departments, where they could spend additional funds to provide that incentive for the smaller community museums to pursue their particular objectives.

One of our objectives, again, is narrowly focused. The Chinese Canadian Military Museum Society is mainly to promote and preserve the legacy of the Chinese Canadians who served in the Canadian military. I personally served in the military myself. At the same time, there are not many left of those who served in World War II. We have post Cold War era veterans that also need to have their stories told. Most recently, Afghanistan veterans coming home should have their say and their stories preserved for prosperity for our fellow citizens.

Some of the reporting requirements in the CRA are somewhat cumbersome. I also belong to a number of other organizations where, because they are national in scope across the country, their filings of T3010s and other forms are somewhat of a challenge. When you are dealing with volunteers, people may not be as responsive as people who are paid staff, so sometimes the timing of those reporting requirements is somewhat onerous for those who are working on a voluntary basis.

I also agree with Mr. McRae on a number of issues he mentioned. I learned something from him, as well, this evening, which is the whole concept of charity in our current setup in Canada. I read a lot of submissions that were sent to us earlier through your website. We are fairly progressive, but there are countries like the U.K. and the U.S. that have certain features we should consider emulating or learning from. I am not an expert in those charities. At the same time, I do share some of the more advanced charity-giving policies and procedures.

Again, I want to thank you for giving me the chance to come here to speak to you. I appreciate any comments and questions from you.

---------
Q&A

[About the museum]

Mr. Wan:
We are located in Vancouver — Chinatown. The Chinese Cultural Centre of Greater Vancouver has a building, and we are a lodger of that building. We occupy a hallway and a small room. Fortunately, since I look over as president a few years ago, we believe in the museum, not only to present something on a one-time only basis, but I believe it has to be refreshed on a regular basis. If you have seen the museum once, you may not go back if there is nothing new to show. For a number of years, we have been changing our theme and focus of displays on a fairly regular basis. To do that requires funding. Although our volunteers are very active and passionate about what they do, at the same time, it requires a lot of effort and funds to create those new displays.

[About the museum's funding sources]

Senator Omidvar:
...You talked about government grants and donations. On an average year, what is the level of charitable contributions you receive from individuals?

Mr. Wan:
We have been fortunate in the last year or so to have one or two major benefactors. For that, we are thankful that we received maybe $20,000 to $30,000 over the last few years.

We have been also receiving some grants from the government. That was back in about 2011-12. We got funding from the Canadian Heritage group. There was a historical community fund that came out, and we were able to get about $50,000 or $60,000 that year to hire someone to help us create some exhibitions, and we were able to use that to get to the Canadian War Museum for a short time.

[About charitable organizations' reporting standards]

Senator Omidvar:
Thank you. If you in an average year get $20,000 in charitable donations from individuals and you have to make a pretzel out of yourself to report on it, do you think that there should be a change in the law that requires variable reporting and depth of reporting based on the levels of contributions you receive? Why should a small organization like yours have to go through the same hoops as the SickKids Foundation, which gets millions of dollars every year?

Mr. Wan:
Exactly. We are small potatoes in terms of the big picture, but we have also been fortunate. When I say $20,000 or $30,000, that is strictly through individual donors and through membership, and we were able to get a bit more the last couple of years. But it is quite correct that small museum charities should not have the same standard of reporting as someone like the hospital foundations that get $60 million or whatever the case is.

[About the uniqueness of Mr. Wan's organization: The Chinese Canadian Military Museum Society]

Senator Martin:
Mr. Wan, it is nice to see you here in Ottawa. It is fitting, with Remembrance Day coming up and Veterans’ Week, that you are representing a unique society in Canada. In terms of the society, is it quite unique in Canada? Are there other such societies? You have a very specific mandate, as you explained. Does that limit your access to funding? I want to understand whether funding opportunities are available to you, or, with a specific mandate, whether it is more challenging?

Mr. Wan:
Yes, it is more challenging because we are narrowly focused on veterans and on a certain ethnic group as well.

The major government funding would come from Veterans Affairs Canada or Canadian Heritage. Those are the two main ones we can get money from. Sometimes the procedures are more onerous, and we are competing against other veterans organizations as well. That is the challenge we have.

[About the bias and decrease in diversity in the approval of charitable organizations]

Don McRae, Charity Researcher:
The research that I have done shows that, over the past couple of years, the number of charities in Canada has remained stagnant. Since January, we lost about 200 charities. When I was going through my career, the number of charities increased every year. I wanted to find out about that.

CRA is being more restrictive in terms of their approval rate of registrations. I like numbers, so give me a minute. From 2002 to 2006, the approval rate was 74.5 per cent for charities. That changed and went to 44.8 per cent from 2014 to 2017-18. The rate has gone down approximately 30 applications per 100.

The revocations have increased in terms of how many charities lose their registration. If you fail to file your T3010, you lose your registration. You can get it back with a $500 penalty, but the rate of re-registrations has gone down. I did a study that looked at it from 2002 to 2014, and it went down by about 10 per cent. It is decreasing that way.

I also go through and see who the new charities are. By and large, the new charities are not as diverse as our Canadian society. I find that problematic. It hasn’t changed that much from when I was doing my job.

[On the national benefits of a localized (or ethnic) organizations, and why they need government grants]

Mr. McRae:
The problem with the [Canada Revenue Agency] regulator is that it keeps on reinterpreting some things like public benefit...I would say that one of the reasons why CRA thinks they are not charities is because of perceived personal [as opposed to public] benefit but, in a country like Canada, we can’t look at philanthropy as one whole thing. There is a spectrum of philanthropy. When you have newcomers coming to Canada, the first thing they want to do is support their family. The next thing they want to do is support their clan, to use a Scottish term...There is a spectrum of philanthropy, and people move. My research, when I was working in Canadian Heritage, showed that ethno-specific organizations move their philanthropy from local and focused on their own to being greater, and that takes time. In order to get them to that greater thing where there is no perceived personal benefit, we need to help them along the way. If we can get rid of restrictive agency agreements, that’s one way, but we need to try to move the definition so that some of those people are not seen as outsiders.

Senator Seidman:
Mr. Wan, I saw you nodding, so I will ask if you want to add to that.

Mr. Wan:
I think Mr. McRae was quite right in saying that. The museum has been established for 20 years, so we are somewhat mature in terms growth. Initially, it was the Chinese Canadian veterans. As I mentioned, we expanded to include other veterans activities, such as the Battle of Hong Kong. Canadian soldiers went overseas to help. We talk about Indigenous veterans. As they grow and have that foundation, they can build on expanding it to encompass all Canadians.

[On the government's obligation to fund organizations like the Chinese Canadian Military Museum Association]

Mr. Wan:
Better access to greater funding would certainly help our organization, being a small museum, to grow and expand. I think that is very important. At the same time, it would require some effort from the government or some other organizations to make those things happen for us in order for us to gain access to this funding.

[Senator Duffy on "every Canadian" and moving beyond ethnic groups]

Senator Duffy:
Thank you both for coming. Fascinating. I would encourage our viewers to visit Mr. Wan’s museum online. I’ve had a look. The stories that you tell there are amazing, about amazing Canadians, including Douglas Jung, who was a war hero and a spy. They are phenomenal stories about how this country was built, and every Canadian, not just those of Chinese descent, should hear about these amazing people.