Posts from — July 2008

About 400 members of the Chinese, Sikh, Japanese Canadian and other South Asian communities gathered with friends from the labour movement July 23 in Surrey to commemorate the 94th anniversary of the Komagata Maru incident. Thanks to the work of Vision councillor George Chow, a member of the Anniversaries of Change steering committee that organized the event, there was a full table of Vision supporters, including executive member Tony Tang, school board candidate Narinder Cchina, council nomination candidate Kerry Jang and me. The dinner at the Surrey Convention Centre was a sequel to last year’s event that highlighted the racism that has confronted many in our society, including First Nations. The evening featured excellent Punjabi dancers, a panel discussion, great food and, most important, an opportunity for people from many different parts of the community to meet and get to know each other. Pictured here are Paul Sumal, a deputy sheriff in Surrey, Ruby Bhandal, constituency assistant to MLA Jagrup Brar, lawyer and former Vision executive member Raj Hundal, Vision school board hopeful Narinder Cchina, me, council nomination candidate Kerry Jang and Andrew Yan, the Surrey partner for Bing Thom Architects.

Today’s Globe features a wonderful profile of my old friend Ben Swankey, 94, whose autobiography I edited and produced last year. Tom Hawthorne’s article — see the a longer version here on Tom’s blog — traces the main events of Ben’s life and his determination to keep on fighting for peace, justice and a better world. You can order Ben’s book from Trafford Publishing. That’s me, right, with Ben at the June book launch for What’s New: memoirs of a socialist idealist.

This year’s Folk Fest exceeded expectations for good weather, great music and big crowds. Sunday afternoon I ran into my neighbour Karl Perrin who is about to move to the new, sustainable Univercity on Burnaby Mountain. Karl and his wife Anne have worked with people disabilities for many years and our False Creek community will miss them. With me is friend and supporter Summer McFadyen.

My friend and novelist Shaena Lambert has urged her circle of friends to support Andrea Reimer’s candidacy for a council nomination, as well as my own. I much appreciate Shaena’s vote of confidence and share her view that Andrea Reimer would make an outstanding city councillor. (I’ve been a supporter of Kerry Jang since the day he announced.)

Shaena’s first novel, Radiance, has been acclaimed in reviews in the United Kingdom, the United States . . . well, across the English-speaking world. It’s a wonderful book, set in 1950s America against the backdrop of the arms race and McCarthyism. It explores the complex and contradictory relationship between Keiko, a survivor of Hiroshima and two American women. One sees Keiko as a poster child for a national campaign about disarmament. The other sees her as a potential friend, a victim and a source of meaning in her own life. Read the book.

Here’s Shaena’s message:

I’m writing now to let you know about two people who’ve stepped up to join
Gregor’s team — Andrea Reimer and Geoff Meggs – who are both running to be
Vision candidates for City Council.

Andrea Reimer was the first member of the Green party in Canada to hold
public office, when she was elected to the school board in 2002. She works at the Western Canada Wilderness Committee, and has a deep knowledge of the environment. She is warm and funny. When she was a teenager she was a street kid for a while, so she has experienced homelessness first hand, and has the compassion and experience needed to find solutions. She’s great. I hope you’ll support her.
(www.andreareimer.ca.)

Geoff Meggs is also running for City Council. As well having years of strategic and political experience, for instance, acting as Larry Campbell’smain advisor when he was mayor, Geoff wrote the award-winning book Salmon,describing the destruction of the BC salmon fishing. He’s in my book club and always has extremely interesting ideas about books, art, and politics. He’s got the experience and knowledge to create big changes in the city.

As well, there are Vision’s present councillors — Raymond Louie, Heather
Deal (who brings much experience about the arts), Tim Stevenson and George
Chow. These people have all worked hard at city council, pitted against the
NPA.

So thanks again, if you were part of getting Gregor nominated. And if you
aren’t a Vision member already, but want to help shape city politics, I hope
you’ll join soon. You can go to the Vision website and download a form. And
come and vote for Vision council candidates, September 20th. You won’t have
to line up for hours in the hot sun, and there will – I can guarantee it –
be drinks after.

Thanks,

Shaena