Ontario minister Michael Chan accused of playing 'race card'

SunNewsNetwork.ca
Feb. 26, 2014
By Antonella Artuso

An Ontario Progressive Conservative candidate has accused a Liberal cabinet minister of playing the "race card" during the recent byelection campaign in Thornhill.

Tourism, Culture and Sport Minister Michael Chan made statements that encouraged Chinese-Canadians to resent Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his support of Israel and Jewish-Canadians, said Liang Chen, a PC candidate for Scarborough-Agincourt and an associate dean at the University of Toronto.

"In a recent interview about Prime Minister Harper's Israel delegation by Today Commercial News, a Chinese newspaper, Michael Chan questioned Prime Minister Harper's unwavering support for Israel and the Jewish people, and asked in what way Chinese are inferior to Jews and why didn't Harper support Chinese or other ethnic groups the way he supported Israel and Jews, as both Chinese and Jews were massacred during World War Two," Chen said in a public statement posted on her Facebook page and linked to Twitter Friday.

"He levelled an accusation that Harper treats Jews better than Chinese and that what Harper was doing was essentially converting Canadian's multiculturalism to some kind of uniculturism."

Chan said in a statement Wednesday, in response to Chen's article, that he is a long-time supporter of Ontario's Jewish community and Israel and has personally attended several Holocaust commemoration ceremonies over the years at Queen's Park and within his own riding of Markham-Unionville.

"I'm disgusted by the absolutely false accusations made against me from the (Tim) Hudak PC party that targeted 'foreign workers' in the last election," Chan said. "In the article, I called on the Harper government to recognize the important contributions made by all our cultural communities, including Filipino, South Asian and Chinese Canadians."

In an interview, Chen said that the Feb. 9 article, which ran a few days before a hotly-contested Thornhill byelection, upset her so much she wrote a reply that ran in the same publication.

Chen said she is fluent in Mandarin and translated the article herself, as well as writing the response article.

The minister was pushing Chinese-Canadian voters to send a message to the federal Conservatives by voting for provincial Liberal candidate Sandra Yeung Racco over PC candidate Gila Martow, an optometrist who went on to win the Thornhill riding, Chen said.

Chan's comments in the article were "irresponsible," she said.

A non-partisan source provided a translation of the article for QMI Agency.

The author of the article quotes Chan saying that the Conservatives have been unfairly partial to the Jewish people, and questions whether Harper's political position is motivated by party fundraising goals.

In the article, Chan expressed sympathy to the Jewish people who suffered the cruelty of the Holocaust, but noted that Chinese people suffered enormously under the Japanese.

Chan is quoted by the author repeating a Chinese proverb that all who are treated unfairly will give voice, and expressing hope that "voice" will be a vote for Racco.

There are large numbers of Chinese and Jewish voters in the riding of Thornhill, and the PC candidate is Jewish.

QMI Agency provided Chan with the opportunity to respond to the key points made in the article, which was independently translated by our source.

"We feel that the interpretation provided by (QMI Agency) omits the point that overwhelming support to one community without providing similar support to other communities creates inequality," his office said in a statement. "Apart from that it seems more-or-less accurate."

In his statement, Chan said he acknowledged the outstanding achievement of the "strong and vibrant" Jewish community and remained unwavering in his support.

"Along with all Ontarians, I take pride in our reputation as an equal, inclusive, and multicultural society," Chan said.

Chen said she believes that politicians need to be held accountable for interviews they give to the ethnic press.

"We live in this multicultural society, country, and somebody from my community is coming out for a political reason, and attacking the Prime Minister's position," she said. "Being friendly with one country wasn't at the expense of the relationship with another one."

Chen is an associate dean at the Scarborough U of T Campus and a certified general accountant. She is married to Louis Florence, a senior lecturer in finance at U of T.

Born and raised in Taiwan, she describes herself as fluent in English, Mandarin Chinese and Taiwanese.
A spokesman for Today Commercial News could not be reached for comment.