• “铁路华工纪念日” 网络签名，具体情况请Email 郭晓明 guo_simon@yahoo.com 。 链接为签名表格，信息齐全才为有效。 (水城百事)

by admin , Tuesday, July 12, 2011, 10:45
edited by 喜羊羊, Tuesday, July 12, 2011, 13:04

Concerned Canadian citizens

Honourable James Moor
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6

Dear Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages:

On June 22, 2006, our government made officially apology to Chinese Canadian community for the use of a head tax and for the exclusion of Chinese immigrants from Canada. This apology was an event worth to be remembered because it upholds the principles of Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Because the head tax was originally to expel Chinese Railroad Workers, and because Chinese Railroad Workers made great contribution for our nationhood, we would like to remember the day by designating June 22 as Chinese Railroad Workers’ Day.

On July 1, 1867. the federal Dominion of Canada was officially formed with only four province: Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The new Dominion was not yet a cohesive nation but a bundle of isolated villages. To achieve our transcontinetal national deam, a railway was a necessity. Canadian Pacific Railway would stitch the scattered provinces and empty territories of the West together and lure West colonies into Canada confederation. BC province joind Canada Federation on 1871 under the condiction that a trailroad been connected within 10 years. 10 years passed and the railroad could not go through Rocky Maountains. Canadian Pacific Railway was so difficult to build that Alexander Mackenzie regarded it an “act of insane recklessness”. The Canadian Pacific Railway was impossible without Chinese Railroad Wrokers, as Sir John A. Macdonald, arguered to Parliament in 1882: "It is simply a question of alternatives: either you must have this labour or you can't have the railway." Politically unification of Canada could not achieved, industry revelution of Canada could not been lauched, and enteprises and industrolization cannot grow in Canada without Canadian Pacific Raiway. And without Chinese Railroad Workers, Canadian Pacific Railway was impposible.

Most Canadian knows how important is CPR to the nationhood of modern Canada, and also knows how important were Chinese Railroad Workers to Canadian Pacific Railroad. However, our “Choo Choo Train” entertainments during Christmas Season make not connection to Chinese Railroad Workers, and most of our railroad and locomotion museums display no trace of Chinese Railroad Workers. CPR remains an indisputable icon of Canadian nationalism while Chinese Railroad Workers were missing from our Canadian culture life. We Canadian value human lives, especially those who laid their lives for the building of one of the key foundations for modern Canada. Under every mile of the railroad, there laid one life of Chinese Railroad Workers. Without commemorating Chinese Railroad Workers, our heritage culture is incomplete and our Canadian identity is distorted.

Dear Mr. James Moor, please help our Canadian to preserve one of the most important heritage by raise this issue in Parliament. We would like to observe our Parliament to pass a bill that designate June 22 as Chinese Railroad Workers’ Day.

Canadian citizens concerning our heritage culture.

This is the link of the Petition letter:

https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Aj7TiTWxg7oAdFhlUHd3VHZwWkdNV1pFeWhibnhhU1E&hl=en_US