Multiculturalism and Anti-Racism

IN THE NEWS: Canadian Press - Canada’s Immigration Department revamps anti-racism strategy following criticism

NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan said the language in the strategy is positive, but doesn’t appear to be backed up by immediate action.

“As the government consults, as they examine and study these issues, the ongoing impact of discriminatory policies … is having a real effect for people,” Kwan said in an interview Friday. 

She pointed to speakers from Africa, South America and Asia who are planning to attend a major AIDS conference in Montreal who have been denied visas, often on the grounds that the Canadian government doesn’t believe they’ll return home after the event.

HANSARD: Jenny addresses Canada's environmental status and needed changes

IN THE NEWS: Hill Times - ‘Racism plays a role in immigration decisions,’ House Immigration Committee hears

NDP MP Jenny Kwan (Vancouver East, B.C.) her top priority on this topic is to convince the government to put an independent ombudsperson in place whose job it would be to assess IRCC policies and the application of said policies as they relate to differential treatment, systemic racism, and gender biases.

“Let’s dig deep. Have an officer of the House do this work completely independent from the government,” she said in an interview with The Hill Times.

At the March 22 meeting, Kwan asked all six witnesses to state for the record if they agreed that the government should put such an ombudsperson in place. All six witnesses agreed. Kwan questioned the ability of the department to conduct its own internal reviews.

IN THE NEWS: CBC - Chinese Canadian museum to open in historic building in Vancouver’s Chinatown

MP Jenny Kwan, who represents the riding of Vancouver East, has been lobbying for Chinatown to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which would deem it an international landmark with legal protection and could help secure the funding to preserve and maintain its streets.

IN THE NEWS: CBC - Cultural sites ‘under constant attack,’ director says, as graffiti and vandalism blight Vancouver’s Chinatown

MP Jenny Kwan, who represents the riding of Vancouver East that straddles both neighbourhoods, said she's been advocating for more financial grants for the community at the federal level.

She's also among those lobbying for the neighbourhood to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which would deem it an international landmark with legal protection and could help secure the funding to preserve and maintain its streets.

"We need to do it, and work together to recreate Chinatown with its history and to value its character," she said. "But we need capital investment."

IN THE NEWS: OMNI TV - Celebrating Asian Heritage with NDP MP Jenny Kwan

To celebrate Asian Heritage Month, OMNI Television sat down with some Canadian politicians of Asian descent to hear about their career path in politics, their thoughts on how to get more Asian voices into parliament and what Asian Heritage Month means to them. 
In our second installment, we hear from Jenny Kwan, NDP MP for Vancouver-Mount Pleasant

IN THE NEWS: Georgia Straight - MP Jenny Kwan pays homage to the lifetime contributions of artist Johnson Su-Sing Chow

“Professor Chow was a kind, compassionate elder and educator whose depth of knowledge and learning is truly immense," Vancouver MP Jenny Kwan said in a statement. "He moved to Vancouver when he was 58 years old and fostered the robust development of Vancouver’s Chinese-Canadian artist community through his work in education, writing, and community organizing leading to the establishment of the Chinese Canadian Artists Federation.
"Professor Chow’s paintings and drawing, particularly his beautiful Chinese ink paintings of North American scenery, have deeply enriched Canada’s art and cultural landscape.”

Straight.com: MP Jenny Kwan pays homage to lifetime contributions of artist Johnson Su-sing Chow

However, migrant groups have criticized the program, saying program exclusions and requirements shut out many refugees, undocumented people and thousands of migrants, with caps in application streams meaning few will be able to get their applications in before spots are filled.
In a statement, NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan said Wednesday that the rollout of the new pathways to permanent residency for the 90,000 applicants has been problematic, adding it excludes many essential workers and does not recognize those who have lost status.
Also Wednesday, Mr. Mendicino called for moving toward a paperless immigration system that would offer prospective new Canadians more opportunities to file claims online and even be sworn in virtually.

Ms. Kwan said that while digitizing the immigration application process is “long overdue,” the Liberals have been using this as an excuse to avoid talking about current delays.  “The process to move to a new system could take years and the government has failed to present a plan or provide resources to address current backlogs in a reasonable timeline,” she said.

IN THE NEWS: Make anti-racism part of COVID-19 response, opposition MP tells Ottawa

Anti-racism should be part of Canada’s response to COVID-19 in light of the surge of hate crimes across the country during the pandemic, says an opposition MP.

NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan is calling on the Liberal government to show leadership by hosting a federal-provincial-territorial meeting to discuss the rise in hate incidents and come up with ways to flatten that curve.

OPEN LETTER to Deputy Prime Minister and Cabinet Committee on federal response to COVID-19

In recent weeks cities across the country have seen an increase in hate crimes and racism related to COVID-19, particularly towards those of Asian-descent. In a Vancouver convenience store last month, a man hurled racist remarks related to COVID-19 at a 92- year-old man of Asian descent, before shoving him to the ground. Another assault was reported to the police where a visible minority woman was punched, grabbed by her hair, her face was slammed into the seats of skytrain and pushed out of the train. Similar disturbing incidents took place in Toronto where an Asian woman was hit by an umbrella, told to go back to where she came from and spat at. Most recently, a good samaritan intervened when an individual began to harassed two Asian women wearing protective masks on a bus by telling them to: "Go back to your own country; that's where it all started." The bystander was kicked, punched and wrestled to the ground by the suspect. Her hair was pulled so hard that a clump of hair was ripped from her scalp. Now, Dakota, an indigenous woman out walking her dog was punched in the face repeatedly and told to "go back to Asia".
Aside from such violent individual attacks, the Greater Vancouver Chinese Cultural Centre also saw hate messages written on their windows. The Millennium Gate in Vancouver's historic Chinatown was defaced with racist comments . These are just a few examples of the disturbing trends in the midst of COVID-19.