A Clumsy Ruckus (for now)

This little skirmish has escalated to the point where people of Japanese extraction are being warned to avoid Chinatown. Aside from the negative effect on the flow of the almighty tourist dollars down Chinatown way, this clumsy ruckus has other ramifications when viewed in a larger context. It has to do with Vancouver’s social climate.

There is already tension in this city between the old-guard Canadians who view all immigrants as preferring to remain in a cloistered setting to the benefit of themselves and who could be viewed, rightly or wrongly, as generally apathetic to the history of this land and its culture which has so freely adopted them. Much of what it was meaning to be a Canadian has been arguably attenuated by this massive inpouring of immigrants in the last 20 years, a relatively short period in our history.

As immigrants were allowed to buy their way in (with family in tow) to citizenship with a $250,000 “investment,” a policy popularized under the VanderZalm regime, many Canadians of the lower economic class may have resented this throw-opening of the gates to their country. This resentment still percolates among many as some of the new Canadians, by their disinterest in the nuances of the English culture here and the social problems, may be viewed as thumbing their noses at the less fortunate Canadians by birth.

Indo Canadian and Vietnamese gangs were showing depths of depravity and inclinations for viciousness that long term Vancouverites had seldom been exposed to.