Vancouver councillor Kerry Jang criticizes New Brunswick professor’s anti-Chinese screed

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      A University of New Brunswick professor’s anti-Chinese polemics that have invited white supremacist feedback are drawing a response from Vancouver.

      Councillor Kerry Jang has written university president H.E.A. Campbell about blog posts and emails by social science professor Ricardo Duchesne.

      “The nature of the blog postings and e-mails received are troublesome in that they go beyond fair comment and abuse the privilege of academic freedom by their pejorative nature that is based on poor scholarship,” Jang wrote.

      According to Jang, a second-term councillor whose family came from China during the late 1890s, Duchesne’s online articles and e-mails promoting them are attracting some unwelcome reactions.

      “These postings have prompted ‘white suprem[ac]ist’ e-mails in support of his postings,” the UBC psychiatry professor also wrote to Campbell. “Dr. Duchesne sends the links to his blog postings using his university affiliation and I felt it important to bring them to you[r] attention.”

      Duchesne writes on the online site of the Council of European Canadians. The council describes itself as a “group of public-minded individuals who believe the European heritage and character of Canada should be maintained and enhanced”.

      “We are against an establishment that is determined to destroy European Canada through fanatical immigration, race-mixing campaigns, imposition of a diversity curriculum, affirmative action in favor of non-Europeans, and promotion of white guilt,” the council states on its site’s homepage.

      ‘White guilt’ is among phrases used by Duchesne in a May 26 post titled “Chinese Head Tax, White Apologies, and ‘Inclusive Redress’”.

      The piece was in reaction to a motion filed by Vancouver councillor Raymond Louie that called for research into city laws, regulations, and policies that discriminated against the Chinese between 1886 and 1947. The measure passed unanimously the next day.

      “The Chinese understand ‘white guilt’,” Duchesne wrote.

      The University of New Brunswick professor also stated that Chinese are “not always straightforward” in their goals on securing apology and redress for historical discriminatory measures such as the head tax.

      “The insanity of all this apologizing and redressing is that no one has cared to conduct a proper historical study of the events leading to the implementation of the head tax,” Duchesne wrote.

      For that, the social science professor relies on Dan Murray of the anti-immigration group Immigration Watch Canada. Last April, Murray’s group circulated flyers denouncing South Asian immigration in Brampton, Ontario.

      Duchesne quoted Murray’s argument that the “conventional wisdom that the Chinese were victims of persecution by the B.C. government or Canada’s federal government is incorrect”.

      According to Duchesne, the concept of inclusive redress is nothing more than a “White-created cultural Marxist term employed by Chinese cultural nationalists to promote their ethnic interests in Canada”.

      For Duchesne, redress is aimed at the “goal of taking Canada away from the Europeans and transforming the nation into a multicultural and multiracial society”.

      In an email dated May 30, Duchesne promoted his articles as works “challenging Chinese efforts to exploit and profit from White Guilt”.

      In another email on June 2, he stated that most of the articles on the Council of European Canadian site are about “efforts of Chinese migrants to profit from White guilt and extract apologies from emasculated White males”.

      Comments

      31 Comments

      Truth Serum

      Jun 6, 2014 at 5:13pm

      Interesting.

      This article lists several key points from the Council Of European Canadians article that professor Ricardo Duchesne made in his well articulated and written piece.

      It seems as if councilor Kerry Jang can only fall back on the usual “White supremacist” accusations as he can’t seem to form a reply of his own. Why exactly are they “troublesome” to you, Kerry? Hurt your feelings? A little too truthful perhaps?

      Typical.

      Xander Davis

      Jun 6, 2014 at 5:31pm

      So it is election year, and Dr. Jang pretends to be Asian at the moment.

      He has ignored so many such notices before now, as detailed in the Chinese press.

      And see his Little Saigon district with so many empty stores.

      Does the Straight read Chinese yet?

      frances

      Jun 6, 2014 at 5:50pm

      Councillor Jang should focus more on garbage & sewers and quit hustling votes for the November election.

      Jason

      Jun 6, 2014 at 6:34pm

      Dr. Jang should recognize that Dr. Duchesne has a personal life outside of his academic profession, just as Dr. Jang has, and since the site claims no affiliation with the UNB, his letter to the president of UNB comes across as a strong-arm silencing tactic to suppress free speech.

      Memory Babe

      Jun 6, 2014 at 9:19pm

      Councillor Jang has, one observes, been rather more circumspect than the situation warrants. A more succinct response, perhaps in a personal telephone call to the professor - say, "Up your ass with Mobil Gas" - yes, something like that might have been more appropriate.

      @Xander Davis

      Jun 6, 2014 at 9:56pm

      I am pretty sure that the proper term is "Little Ho Chi Minh City"

      Tannenbaum

      Jun 7, 2014 at 5:43am

      Being an academic himself, I wonder why Mr Jang doesn't first goes into details about Mr Duchesne supposed "poor scholarship" on the history of the Chinese immigrants in the Vancouver region. Because this issue, the issue of factual accuracy of Mr Duchesne's research, should be at the heart of the debate, isn't it?

      Unfortunately, heavy-handed accusations about "white supremacy" make it appear as if Mr Jang is more interested at politically intimidating a dissenting voice than engaging in a discussion at eye level. Therefore, I find it difficult to believe that academic freedom is really close to his heart in this matter, rather their curtailing, I am afraid.

      Save Vancouver

      Jun 7, 2014 at 7:32am

      "The piece was in reaction to a motion filed by Vancouver councillor Raymond Louie that called for research into city laws, regulations, and policies that discriminated against the Chinese between 1886 and 1947."

      Seriously, what is the point of Louie's motion? What a waste of city resources. We all know there was discrimination. Why hasn't council been so quick to pass a motion to research the effect of Mainland Chinese money on Vancouver's housing affordability?

      Nigel

      Jun 7, 2014 at 7:37am

      Don't wanna rile up guys from New Brunswick...especially if they own guns, Kerry is right. But no question there was wild white supremacism running rampant back in the day right here in Canada, not only affecting Chinese, but also immigrants from India, Japan. Maybe Duschene is one of the few remnants of the era exposing himself by speaking. By the way, what's a doctor doing beside a boxing ring?

      RightSide4

      Jun 7, 2014 at 7:38am

      How interesting that a politician would assume that writing a university president could stifle free speech. Is that the way things are done in China?