What Would Jenny Do?

I am at a loss to explain Jenny Kwan and Gabriel Yu's participation in the anti-Japan rally in Vancouver yesterday. It was my belief, up until I saw the two of them in a 24 Hours photo from the protest march, that New Democrats left pandering to ethnic communities to the BC Liberals, whether or not we came from those communities. I thought as New Democrats, we were class warriors who focused on changing the injustices in our world that we could change, not finger-pointing at someone because we think they haven't apologized enough.

Make no mistake, the occupation and the Rape of Nanking are atrocities. So is Japan being attacked with nuclear weapons.

So is Tianmen Square, and I don't think anyone can reasonably deny that the Butchers of Beijing are exploiting the justified grievances of the Chinese people to distract them from the cruel strain of Social Darwinism and totalitarianism that makes up modern China. The only reason anti-Japan protests have become a concern to them is the possibility they may be harnessed by dissidents to turn them against Beijing instead of Tokyo. Re-establishing Japan as the 'bad guy' in the Far East also makes it that much easier for the PRC to pursue its less than benevolent foreign policies, like threatening Taiwan and occupying Tibet.

Jenny Kwan was born in China, and I can certainly understand her deep personal motivation to attend the demonstration yesterday. My family arrived in Canada from the Ukraine as a result of Russia's occupation and systematic famine under Stalin. However, unlike China, Ukraine has fought for and won democracy, and in a democracy, those elected represent all the voters.

In her riding of Vancouver-Mount Pleasant, that would include the people who live in and around Powell Street, home to the largest Japanese Cultural celebration in British Columbia. Many of them remember being forcibly removed from their homes in Vancouver around the same time the Emporer they had turned their backs on was assaulting China. Those people had to be warned by Vancouver Police to stay off the street yesterday.

I will still be voting for Jenny Kwan on May 17, but I implore her to ask herself what yesterday's demonstration was really about, and if she could have done something with her time yesterday that would have encouraged others to vote for her, rather than alienating some of them.