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March honours 100-year anniversary of Chinese student school strike over segregation

Published

2 years ago

September 5, 2022

VICTORIA — The first day of school in Victoria one hundred years ago marked the start of a student strike over segregation that helped Chinese-Canadians solidify their place in a country that was not always welcoming, say historians and cultural experts.

It was on Sept. 5, 1922, that the British Columbia capital’s more than 200 Chinese-Canadian students refused to attend Victoria School Board mandated Chinese-only schools, launching a one-year student strike that eventually saw the board reverse its segregationist policy in time for the start of class in 1923.

A Monday march to commemorate the student strike was set to start at the elementary school that still bears the name of George Jay, the school board chairman in 1922, and was scheduled to end at the nearby Kings Road park which was the planned location for the Chinese-only schools.

“We talk about history and we talk about Chinese-Canadian history, well this to me is the defining moment,” said Grace Wong Sneddon, a University of Victoria Chinese culture and Asian identity expert who grew up in Victoria and went to public school there.

“Up to this point, there were Canadians and there were Chinese,” she said in an interview. “They didn’t go together. But this moment, this act of defiance and this demonstrated piece of agency, I think, really set the moment and made Chinese-Canadians as a concept and a reality. That is so cool.”

Wong Sneddon said Chinese-Canadians endured racist policies and racial stereotypes, but the community united and drew the line at the proposal to place their children in segregated schools.

“The parents said education is too important to our kids and if we don’t stand up now, future generations will be affected,” she said. The whole community supported this move: clan associations, county associations, merchants, rich, poor, individuals, families led by the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association.”

Wong Sneddon said the local Chinese-Canadian community hired two teachers from the United States who conducted classes throughout the year to ensure the students did not fall behind as the strike wore on.

The Greater Victoria School Board issued a formal apology earlier this month for the 1922 segregation policy, and current board members are expected to attend Monday’s anniversary march.

The school board also plans to erect a plaque honouring the student strike.

“Among a long list of historic wrongs perpetuated against the Chinese community in Victoria, this stands out as a particularly dark incident for our school district,” current board chairman Ryan Painter said in a statement. “The racist discrimination that led to this act is unacceptable and viewed with regret.”

Former Victoria mayor Alan Lowe, who is Chinese-Canadian, issued a statement saying the actions of the students 100 years ago helped pave the path for students like him to excel at public schools decades later.

“What started as a school boycott became a protest movement for equality which brought together the Chinese community locally, regionally and nationally from county and clan associations to individuals,” said Lowe, who is also chairman of the Victoria Chinatown Museum Society.

Tim Stanley, a University of Ottawa emeritus professor who studied the history of racism in Canada, said the Victoria student strike was a monumental event in establishing Canada’s Chinese-Canadian community.

He wrote a book about the strike entitled “Contesting White Supremacy: School Segregation, Anti-Racism and the making of Chinese-Canadians” and said he planned to attend the march commemorating what he described as a pivotal time for the community.

“This is the moment where the Chinese say, ‘Look, we’re Canadian. We’ve been here since before the country existed and we’re not going to take it any more,’ ” he said of the strike. “‘We’re prepared to do this for our rights.’”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 5, 2022.

Dirk Meissner, The Canadian Press

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Langford, Heim lead Rangers to wild 13-8 win over Blue Jays

Published

21 mins ago

September 17, 2024

Anne Joseph

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Rookie Wyatt Langford homered, doubled twice and became the first Texas player this season to reach base five times, struggling Jonah Heim delivered a two-run single to break a sixth-inning tie and the Rangers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 13-8 on Tuesday night.

Leody Taveras also had a homer among his three hits for the Rangers.

Langford, who also walked twice, has 12 homers and 25 doubles this season. He is hitting .345 in September.

“I think it’s really important to finish on a strong note,” Langford said. “I’m just going to keep trying to do that.”

Heim was 1-for-34 in September before he lined a single to right field off Tommy Nance (0-2) to score Adolis García and Nathaniel Lowe, giving Texas a 9-7 lead. Heim went to the plate hitting .212 with 53 RBIs after being voted an All-Star starter last season with a career-best 95 RBIs. He added a double in the eighth ahead of Taveras’ homer during a three-run inning.

Texas had 13 hits and left 13 men on. It was the Rangers’ highest-scoring game since a 15-8 win at Oakland on May 7.

Matt Festa (5-1) pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings to earn the win, giving him a 5-0 record in 13 appearances with the Rangers after being granted free agency by the New York Mets on July 7.

Nathan Eovaldi, a star of Texas’ 2023 run to the franchise’s first World Series championship, had his worst start of the year in what could have been his final home start with the Rangers. Eovaldi, who will be a free agent next season, allowed 11 hits (the most of his two seasons with Texas) and seven runs (tied for the most).

“I felt like early in the game they just had a few hits that found the holes, a few first-pitch base hits,” said Eovaldi, who is vested for a $20 million player option with Texas for 2025. “I think at the end of the day I just need to do a better job of executing my pitches.”

Eovaldi took a 7-3 lead into the fifth inning after the Rangers scored five unearned runs in the fourth. The Jays then scored four runs to knock out Eovaldi after 4 2/3 innings.

Six of the seven runs scored against Toronto starter Chris Bassitt in 3 2/3 innings were unearned. Bassitt had a throwing error during Texas’ two-run third inning.

“We didn’t help ourselves defensively, taking care of the ball to secure some outs,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said.

The Blue Jays’ Vladimir Guerrero Jr. had a double and two singles, his most hits in a game since having four on Sept. 3. Guerrero is hitting .384 since the All-Star break.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Blue Jays: SS Bo Bichette (calf) was activated and played for the first time since July 19, going 2 for 5 with an RBI. … OF Daulton Varsho (shoulder) was placed on the 10-day injured list and will have rotator cuff surgery … INF Will Wagner (knee inflammation) was placed on the 60-day list.

UP NEXT

Rangers: LHP Chad Bradford (5-3, 3.97 ERA) will pitch Wednesday night’s game on extended five days’ rest after allowing career highs in hits (nine), runs (eight) and home runs (three) in 3 2/3 innings losing at Arizona on Sept. 14.

Blue Jays: RHP Bowden Francis (8-4, 3.50) has had two no-hitters get away in the ninth inning this season, including in his previous start against the New York Mets on Sept. 11. Francis is the first major-leaguer to have that happen since Rangers Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan in 1989.

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Billie Jean King set to earn another honor with the Congressional Gold Medal

Published

1 hour ago

September 17, 2024

Anne Joseph

WASHINGTON (AP) — Billie Jean King will become the first individual female athlete to be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.

Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey announced Tuesday that their bipartisan legislation had passed the House of Representatives and would be sent to President Joe Biden for his signature.

The bill to honor King, the tennis Hall of Famer and activist, had already passed unanimously in the Senate.

Sherrill, a Democrat, said in a statement that King’s “lifetime of advocacy and hard work changed the landscape for women and girls on the court, in the classroom, and the workplace.”

The bill was introduced last September on the 50th anniversary of King’s victory over Bobby Riggs in the “Battle of the Sexes,” still the most-watched tennis match of all-time. The medal, awarded by Congress for distinguished achievements and contributions to society, has previously been given to athletes including baseball players Jackie Robinson and Roberto Clemente, and golfers Jack Nicklaus, Byron Nelson and Arnold Palmer.

King had already been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009. Fitzpatrick, a Republican, says she has “broken barriers, led uncharted paths, and inspired countless people to stand proudly with courage and conviction in the fight for what is right.”

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Account tweaks for young Instagram users ‘minimum’ expected by B.C., David Eby says

Published

1 hour ago

September 17, 2024

Anne Joseph

SURREY, B.C. – Premier David Eby says new account control measures for young Instagram users introduced Tuesday by social media giant Meta are the “minimum” expected of tech companies to keep kids safe online.

The parent company of Instagram says users in Canada and elsewhere under 18 will have their accounts set to private by default starting Tuesday, restricting who can send messages, among other parental controls and settings.

Speaking at an unrelated event Tuesday, Eby says the province began talks with social media companies after threatening legislation that would put big tech companies on the hook for “significant potential damages” if they were found negligent in failing to keep kids safe from online predators.

Eby says the case of Carson Cleland, a 12-year-old from Prince George, B.C., who took his own life last year after being targeted by a predator on Snapchat, was “horrific and totally preventable.”

He says social media apps are “nothing special,” and should be held to the same child safety standards as anyone who operates a place that invites young people, whether it’s an amusement park, a playground or an online platform.

In a progress report released Tuesday about the province’s engagement with big tech companies including Google, Meta, TikTok, Spapchat and X, formerly known as Twitter, the provincial government says the companies are implementing changes, including a “trusted flagger” option to quickly remove intimate images.

— With files from The Associated Press

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024

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