Lifting up voices for housing justice as the July 1 moving day approaches in Québec

VANCOUVER – Former B.C. judge Randall (Bud) Wong remembers getting out of bed early one morning when he was five to greet his uncle at the train station in Vancouver at the end of the Second World War in 1945.

His uncle Delbert Yen Chao was returning from India after years of service as an infantryman.

“I remember very vividly my uncle coming off the train, and he was wearing his army uniform and knapsack,” said Wong, 83.

“We were so happy to see him that we took him home, and then he came to live with us.”

The service of Chinese Canadian soldiers like Chao in the First and Second World Wars will be honoured by a new exhibition at the Chinese Canadian Museum in Vancouver’s Chinatown.

The exhibition, titled “A Soldier For All Seasons,” is scheduled to launch in spring 2025.

The museum says that by the end of the Second World War, Chinese Canadians were in every branch of Canada’s armed forces — despite not being recognized as full citizens with the right to vote in federal elections until 1947.

The same year, the Chinese Exclusion Act that effectively banned Chinese immigration was repealed. It was another two years before Chinese Canadians were allowed to vote in all provincial elections too.

According to Veterans Affairs Canada, more than 200 Chinese Canadians volunteered to fight in the First World War, while more than 600 served in the Second World War.

Wong said the exhibition was important to keep the veterans’ stories alive as a reminder of their sacrifices and how they were fighting on two fronts – one overseas and the other at home, for equal recognition as Canadians.

“When they returned, their credo was ‘one war and two victories.’ Basically, one was helping Canada defeat its enemy and the other one is basically attaining the right to vote,” said Wong, a board member with the Chinese Canadian Museum and president of the Chinese Canadian Military Museum.

“It was on the basis of saying, ‘We fought for king and country, now please give us the right to vote.'”

Melissa Karmen Lee, chief executive officer with the Chinese Canadian Museum, said the exhibition would show Chinese Canadians’ involvement “in every single part of the Canadian war effort.”

Among the troops being honoured are those who fought as part of Force 136, a group of Chinese Canadians who conducted perilous special operations behind enemy lines in Japanese-occupied Southeast Asia.

They were trained to blend in with local communities, help resistance fighters and sabotage Japanese supply lines and equipment.

Wong said colourized photos of Force 136 veterans left him emotional, and their mission was so dangerous it had another code name — Operation Oblivion.

“Because they said if you volunteer for this, there’s a good chance that you may not come back. You might get captured. You may get killed,” said Wong.

Wong said that as the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War next year approached, there were only four Chinese Canadian veterans left.

If he could travel back in time to thank such veterans, he would tell them “we are forever grateful for what you have accomplished.”

Wong said his uncle’s ethics, hard work and service influenced him growing up. Wong would go on to become the first Chinese Canadian provincial Crown counsel in 1967.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.

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FREDERICTON – New Brunswick health officials are urging residents to get vaccinated after 11 new cases of measles were confirmed in the province.

The new cases were detected in Fredericton and parts of the upper Saint John River valley area.

A news release today says 25 measles cases have been confirmed in the province since October.

Public health officials say the situation is evolving and more people may get sick.

The release says people who visited a Fredericton Walmart Supercentre on Tuesday between 1:30 p.m. and 3:45 p.m. may have been exposed to the virus.

Horizon Health Network is hosting measles vaccination clinics in Fredericton and Carleton North next week.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Three NASA astronauts whose prolonged space station mission ended with a trip to the hospital last month declined to say Friday which one of them was sick.

Astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps publicly discussed their spaceflight for the first time since returning from the International Space Station on Oct. 25. They spent nearly eight months in orbit, longer than expected because of all the trouble with Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule and rough weather, including Hurricane Milton.

Soon after their SpaceX capsule splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico off the Florida coast, the three were taken to a hospital in nearby Pensacola along with Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, who launched with them back in March.

One of the Americans ended up spending the night there for an undisclosed “medical issue.” NASA declined to say who was hospitalized or why, citing medical privacy.

When asked at Friday’s news conference which one had been sick, the astronauts refused to comment. Barratt, a doctor who specializes in space medicine, declined to even describe the symptoms that the unidentified astronaut had.

“Spaceflight is still something we don’t fully understand. We’re finding things that we don’t expect sometimes. This was one of those times and we’re still piecing things together on this,” said Barratt, the only member of the crew who had flown in space before.

Epps said everyone is different in how they respond to space — and gravity.

“That’s the part that you can’t predict,” she said, adding, “Every day is better than the day before.”

Dominick said little things like sitting comfortably in a hard chair took several days to get used to once he returned. He said he didn’t use the treadmill at all during his time in space, as part of an experiment to see what equipment might be pared on a long trip to Mars. The first time he walked was when he got out of the capsule.

The two astronauts who served as test pilots for Boeing’s Starliner — Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams — will remain at the space station until February, flying back with SpaceX. Starliner returned empty in September.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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