Allegations that a supporter of federal Liberal Vancouver-Kingsway candidate Wendy Yuan placed racist advertising in the Friday October 10 edition of Sing Tao Chinese-Canadian newspaper have been raised to a Vancouver photographer and political observer.The ad claims NDP candidate Don Davies neither speaks Chinese nor has Chinese community leader support and that he has a "union background" and would "raise taxes."
The ad points out that conversely Yuan "speaks Chinese" and has Chinese community leader backing.
However Davies' website does list a number of prominent Chinese Canadian supporters, including NDP MLA Jenny Kwan, Vision Vancouver city council candidate Kerry Jang and Coalition of Progressive Electors activist Meena Wong. Davies campaign responded with its own ad.
Photographer Patrick Tam sent an email to Yuan's campaign complaining about the content of the ad and copied his email to several media outlets.
"If my humble opinion counts, Wendy or whoever authorised this ad should apologise for this racist, un-Canadian ad," wrote Tam, an NDP supporter.
But the Wendy Yuan campaign strongly denies it placed the ad.
"Let us be very clear that this was a 3rd Party Ad and it was not published by the Wendy Yuan campaign. We did not authorize it and had no prior knowledge of it," says an email from Peter L. Xie, from Yuan's campaign, that was sent to several media, including this blog.
The ad was allegedly sponsored in Sing Tao by "Yi Xin Chen" but no information was immediately available as to Chen's identity or whether such a person placed the ad.
Here is a verbatim English translation of the ad provided by Patrick Tam:
* * * * *
PLEASE CAST YOUR VOTE FOR WENDY YUAN
Liberal Party candidate Wendy Yuan:
Liberal Party candidate Wendy Yuan:
- successful entrepreneur
- cut taxes
- cut taxes
- speaks Chinese
- has [CHN] community leader support
NDP candidate Don Davies:
- union background
- has [CHN] community leader support
NDP candidate Don Davies:
- union background
- increase taxes
- do not speak Chinese
- no [CHN] community leader support
This federal election, the Conservative party candidate is so unknown that he's only an also-run.
Please unite, on 10/14 cast a vote for our Chinese community candidate, Wendy Yuan.Thank you!
- do not speak Chinese
- no [CHN] community leader support
This federal election, the Conservative party candidate is so unknown that he's only an also-run.
Please unite, on 10/14 cast a vote for our Chinese community candidate, Wendy Yuan.Thank you!
Authorised by Yi Xin Chen
14 comments:
Hi Bill, There's more about Wendy Yuan and this time she clearly shows her penchant for the Communist regime. Funny that no media has picked up this news release either. Have a look.
Liberal Candidate Wendy Yuan’s View on Rights Abuses against Falun Gong in China Consistent with Chinese Communist Party Line
CIPFG Calls on Dion to Reject Yuan’s view, and to affirm
that party policy is to the contrary
Vancouver – At an all candidates debate organized by Chinese Radio AM 1320 in the Vancouver-Kingsway riding on October 4, 2008, Liberal Party candidate Wendy Yuan spoke of Liberal Party policy regarding the rights abuses against Falun Gong in China.
Ms. Yuan stated: "For Falun Gong, our policy is not to interfere in other countries’ internal affairs.” Aside from Ms. Yuan, all the other candidates spoke in favour of protecting the basic rights of Falun Gong practitioners.
Clive Ansley, chairman of the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (CIPFG), is demanding that Liberal Party Leader Stephane Dion disassociate the Liberal Party from Ms. Yuan’s indefensible position which in effect holds that the torture, genocide, and mass murder of Falun Gong practitioners for the purpose of harvesting their organs is an internal Chinese issue, and that Liberal Party policy is to turn a blind eye toward these atrocities.
“Human Rights are universal and non-partisan,” said Mr. Ansley.
“It was shocking to hear from Ms. Yuan that the Liberal policy toward genocide, torture, and murder for the theft of organs is to cooperate with the Chinese Communist Party’s cover-up of its crimes. Under International Law, Human Rights abuses and Crimes Against Humanity can never be considered the internal affairs of any sovereign state. No state is permitted, under International Law, to violate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention Against Torture, or the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Humanity. It is imperative that Stephan Dion, in the light of Ms. Yuan’s troubling statement, make absolutely clear whether the Liberal Party stands on the side of International Law or on the side of the Chinese Communist Party — the most prolific perpetrator of Crimes Against Humanity in this era.”
We have written to Dion and still await his reply,” said Sue Zhang, Falun Dafa Association of Canada.
Contact: Clive Ansley Tel: 250-334-3586 or 250-792-3547
I've got several different posts on Wendy Yuan and other election issues on my blog:
Where is the Liberal Party?More on Wendy Yuan's Troubled Election Bid
One of the most interesting is this one, from Simma Holt, a former Liberal MP for Vancouver-Kingsway:
Open letter to Wendy Yuan from former MP Simma Holt
http://vancouverkingsway2008.blogspot.com/2008/10/open-letter-to-wendy-yuan-from-former.html
I hope you'll print this Bill, you haven't been adding my comments to your blog throughout this election. I find that quite curious.
Vancouver-Kingsway 2008
http://vancouverkingsway2008.blogspot.com/
To Vancouver Kingsway 2008 - I am unaware of any comments you have made to my blog - let alone had them rejected.
I only reject comments that are in my view libelous or obscene - a quick look at some of the attacks on myself will show that!!
Immigrants and children of Immigants (first generation) are usually more comfortable in their maternal language and Wendy Yan knows this and as a politician used it to try and get votes. She is no different than any other politicians.
It may be a racist comment to some but overall, I see nothing wrong with it if her constituency is mostly all chinese.
As I pointed out, Wendy is quite intelligent. She is comfortable in both English and Chinese.
I agree with her and her campaign that the ad is a 3rd party ad. But I am doubtful that her campaign is 100 % ignorant of Chen's intent.
As a fotog, any one who wants to use my fotos would be asked what it is used for, and where.
As a candidate, Wendy and her crew should have asked questions of Chen.
PK
This is a very interesting post by 'The Coalition'...
I debated Wendy Yuan some time ago (yes, I know, I was engaged in a battle of wits with an unarmed woman) and she was, well, considerably less than underwhelming.
I confronted her about her positions with respect to the Falun Gong/Tibetans, as I had heard about her extremist positions from friends in the Chinese community, and she was more concerned that my "hard position" against the Chinese people was a bigger concern. Needless to say, she was full of shit, still is...I have been an extremely strong supporter of the Tibetans because they are being persecuted. When I explained that I felt the Communist Chinese were committing genocide, SHE DEFENDED THEIR ACTIONS WITH ALL SORTS OF HORSE MANURE!!!
As an aside, but a significant one, she is FULLY backed by the Marissen/Dion group running the election for the Grits. Mike Hillman was her handler on the day of her debate with me...I can't understand why they would run such a bad candidate. I actually quite like Mike.
But if this is the group backing her, then let's not go any further..."do, say, commit to anything to get elected"--including of course "3rd party" advertising...
Incredible that they still survive. This is never the way to go about matters.
Think about what the Grits have offered up this campaign: smear jobs and "anonymous" leaks to the press about opponents (some true, but some not!) and a leader who is more useless than two tits on a bull.
It's sad really when you think about it...regardless of party affiliation, the level of candidate has fallen so significantly, while our demands as an electorate have risen exponentially.
Pity us...
Sounds like the Van Kingsway NDP is a tad bit sensitive to the ad. Doesn't seem that bad in terms of the factual background.
If the Libs in BC were actually tanking as the NDP says and they will be the beneficiary in Van Kingsway, who cares?
This does not surprise me coming from a Liberal party that thought it could increase its support among female voters by running more female candidates than its competitors. I guess they don't expect voters to look at their candidates very closely.
It seems a little extreme to call this ad racist. I expect that Chinese speaking voters will look beyond language skills in choosing who to vote for, but the ad is not inaccurate, unless Don Davies actually does speak Chinese and has support of leaders in the Chinese community that are not NDP/Vision candidates.
Also this has just a hint of hypocrisy since Wendy Yuan's english skills have been critisized repeatedly by pro-NDP bloggers and web commentators.
In light of this mysterious "Yi Xin Chen" not being known by Wendy Yuan and her campaign team, might I make a suggestion?
Peter L. Xie, who as a spokesperson for Wendy Yuan, has stated: "Let us be very clear that this was a 3rd Party Ad and it was not published by the Wendy Yuan campaign....."
"The ad was allegedly sponsored in Sing Ta by "Yi Xin Chen" but no information was immediately available as to Chen's identity or whether such a person placed the ad."
We are one day away from our voting booths and I have to really wonder about the "race card" being dropped when all that has happened is that a misunderstanding has happened. LOL
I'm amazed at the preciseness by which my local newspapers manage to get the facts straight when it comes to names, and, had half expected that ethnic newspapers not printing in either of the official languages of either French or English, could follow suit. But how would I know, unless I trusted the source of the translation like it was handed down from on high by a third party entity like the United Nations department.
We've all seen how CTV has dropped their ETHICS card by mishandleding the Liberal Leader by first promising not to produce the three versions of the interview and then seeing their tv ratings dropping, did exactly the opposite.
Shameful! and on You Tube too as well!
But as to "Yi Xin Chen" not being known by anyone in the Chinese communtiy, well that may be true, but by way of an example, my registered handle on the blog is "North Van's Grumps". If someone were to take advantage of my popular writings they might want to register their own handle as NorthVan'sGrumps. Who would be the wiser? It would all look the same, sound the same as well.
Is there anyone out there who could, without a shadow of doubt, say that "Yi Xin Chen" doesn't SOUND like "Yixin Chen" but does READ differently when in print?
Point being, "Yi Xin Chen" does exist in the data base of Elections Canada, but as:
Name of Third Party: Yixin Chen
Date of Registration:
2008-10-10
Name: Mr. Yixin Chen
Address: 315-4833 Brentwood Drive
Burnaby, BC V5C 0C3
Phone: Telephone: 604-626-9956
Fax:
Burnaby you say, eh! only in Canada and dated October 10, 2008.
Here in British Columbia we have the lame duck folly of the BC Liberals having written what appears to be loophole in a toothless tiger of a Lobby registration that has no bite to it. Does Election Canada have less power, with it not having procured enough information that would ensure that the public would know who the heck Yi Xin Chen really is, and if he has any ties to ......... CTV.....?
An example of the local newspapers doing it right: Vancouver Sun on the Whitecaps win at Swangard Stadium:
"Charles Gbeke (pronounced Bee-kay) was the hero of the night, scoring the only two goals the team needed to down the Puerto Rico Islanders 2-1."
A "Yi Xin Chen" is registered on Elections Canada website as being a third party, however he is known to them as "Yixin Chen", a Burnaby resident.
Too bad third party advertising limits are not restricted to riding-residents-only-need-apply. As it is, it appears that non-Residents with deep pockets are secretly parachuting into a Riding of not their own making when it comes to casting a ballot.
The real question is if Yixin Chen aka as Yi Xin Chen received donations from foreigners from time to time? If the money from foreign sources was used for Canadian election advertising purposes. "A third party may not use for election advertising purposes donations that come from:
persons who are not Canadian citizens or permanent residents, as defined in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act
corporations or associations that do not carry on business in Canada
trade unions that do not hold bargaining rights for employees in Canada foreign political parties, or foreign governments or agents of a foreign government
See s. 358 of the Canada Elections Act."
Ads like these should be exposed for the racism they contain. In my experience, speaking in Chinese, racist epithets and thinking is very common and accepted by "educated" people - just as in the rest of society in BC.
The Chinese newspapers in BC are just terrible too, I might add. Full of typos, incomplete sentences, factual errors - not even worth calling a newspaper.
Anonymous said...
"The Chinese newspapers in BC are just terrible too, I might add. Full of typos, incomplete sentences, factual errors - not even worth calling a newspaper."
Wow! Sounds like it may be time for a Mandarin/Cantonese edition of the Tyee, Columbia Journal and other democratic public interest media!
As for Don Davies having a union background, as the racist ad says, that obviously worked in his favour, since that shows he is much more for the public good than a Yuan, who's another Richmond Richie who supports the fascist (so-called "communist")regime in China because it's such a great place to make money off of other people.
As to the actual nature of China's economy since the 1949 revolution, here's Uncle Mao himself, followed by the national business plan that forms CHina's infrastructure:
Mao: State capitalism on Building the Economy-- Conference on Financial and Economic Framework 1953
http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-5/mswv5_30.htm
With this type of "communism," it's no wonder "entrepreneurs" like Wendy like it so much.
PS: First time visitor to this blog. Good Job Bill! Keep it up!
Post a Comment