Richmond anti-racism award nominee accused of ‘discriminating’ against LGBTQ community

2019/03/22 Leave a comment

Oops:

Edward Liu, a Richmond resident recently nominated for the BC Multiculturalism and Anti-Racism Awards, has been accused of holding a discriminative view towards sexual minorities.

Liu, who is also the sub-editor and columnist of the Metro Vancouver edition of Sing Tao Daily, a Chinese-language daily newspaper, has denied the accusation.

Liu received the nomination earlier this month for his work in organizing an anti-racism rally in Richmond in 2016 and speaking in front of 4,000 people at a major anti-racist demonstration in Vancouver.

However, in an open letter sent to the minister of B.C. Tourism, Arts and Culture last week, North Vancouver resident Samson Kong said Liu’s editorial pieces on a number of Hong Kong religious websites in Chinese (not the Sing Tao) shows his “discriminative views” regarding sexual minorities.

“…it will be highly inappropriate and really unfortunate if the nominee Edward Liu is made a recipient of the BC Multiculturalism and Anti-Racism Award,” Kong wrote in the letter.

Kong pointed to a 2013 article Liu published on the Christian Times website, which warned that the Hong Kong government should be “very cautious” on the then hotly debated sexual orientation discrimination legislation.

“(Some) are worried that there will be serious ‘reverse discrimination’ after the legislation, which will erode other core values of Hong Kong, including freedom of speech and freedom of religion, and will bring the brainwashing education of homosexuality to the school,” wrote Liu in translated Chinese.

“Such worries are actually not unfounded. It is a process I have witnessed in Canada over the past two decades.”

Liu also stated that, after same-sex marriage was recognized in Canada, “the traditional definition of marriage between a man and a woman has disintegrated, the gender boundary has been dismantled and the (partner) number limit of traditional marriage has begun to be challenged.”

In another article Liu wrote in 2012 for The Gospel Heraldin Chinese, he said the Bill C-279 introduced to Ottawa, to add gender identity to the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Canadian Criminal Code, “protects the human rights of people with psychological gender changes on the surface, but in fact opens the door to sexual harassment of women” and “causes distress to the public.”

“If Bill C-279 is passed, a man only needs to claim he is a woman at the moment, then theoretically he is protected by the human rights law, and can freely get access to female washrooms and changing rooms,” wrote Liu.

Liu: I’m not against anyone

Liu doesn’t deny his earlier writings, but he does deny they are discriminatory towards LGBTQ2+ people. Rather, he claims he was just trying to talk about possible problems in society if such a policy was implemented in Hong Kong.

“My focus was always about policy and what is good for the community…not just a so-called standpoint,” said Liu.

Liu added that he was contacted by the editor of the religious publications in question to write something about the sexual orientation discrimination legislation debate in Hong Kong at the time.

“Someone said that’s absolutely good, that’s why the editor said (to me), ‘is there any potential consequences to those policies if we don’t write it carefully?’” said Liu.

“I’m not against anyone. If you read the article, you will see it’s just about the policy and what could be the potential problems.

“And the conclusion is, we should open up the forum to let people have more discussions, instead of saying this is the only view on the issue.”

Award committee: It is extremely disappointing

The Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture responded to the Richmond News regarding the letter on Monday.

“It is extremely disappointing that a nominee may have made statements or written articles that run contrary to the principles of an inclusive society,” said the ministry in a statement.

“Inclusion and respect for all British Columbians, including members of B.C.’s LGBTQ2+ communities, is a fundamental principle of this government.”

Award winners will be announced on Thursday, March 21.

Source: Richmond anti-racism award nominee accused of ‘discriminating’ against LGBTQ community

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Justin Trudeau to apologize for historic persecution of gay Canadians

2016/08/13 Leave a comment

Working the way through the needed apology list:

As early as this autumn, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will apologize on behalf of all Canadians to those who were imprisoned, fired from their jobs or otherwise persecuted in the past because of their sexuality.

That apology is a key element in a broad range of reforms that will collectively represent one of the greatest advances for sexual minorities in Canada’s history.

“This is a long-awaited moment and a very emotional moment, to be honest,” said Helen Kennedy, executive director of Egale, a national organization that advocates for the rights of sexual minorities. “For the government to recognize the damage that it caused, the harm that it caused, to thousands and thousands of Canadians is a historic moment for our communities.”

The Globe and Mail has learned of the planned reforms from numerous sources within and outside the government.

In essence, the Liberals have decided to act on most or all of the recommendations of The Just Society, a report submitted to the government in June by Egale. The title refers to former prime minister Pierre Trudeau’s program for rights protection and social reform.

Those recommendations include:

  • Apologizing to people who were convicted of gross indecency for committing homosexual acts in the years before 1969, when same-sex acts between consensual adults were decriminalized. Those convictions will be pardoned, expunged or in some other fashion stricken from the records of those convicted;
  • Apologizing to those who were dismissed from the public service, discharged from the military or otherwise discriminated against in government work because they were homosexual. It was only in the 1990s that the federal government ceased efforts to identify and expel homosexuals in the military;
  • Eliminating the difference in the age of consent for sexual acts. The current age of consent is 16, but it is 18 for anal intercourse, which discriminates against and stigmatizes young homosexuals.
  • Examining whether and how to compensate those who suffered past discrimination because of who they were or whom they loved. This could involve individual compensation and/or funding for programs or services;
  • Requiring all police officers or others who work in the justice system to receive human-rights training, with an emphasis on the historic wrong of treating members of sexual minorities as criminals and on the current bias that all too often still exists;
  • Providing similar training to Customs officials, who still are more likely to ban homosexual materials from crossing the border, while permitting their heterosexual equivalents;
  • Implementing procedures to protect the dignity of transgender or intersex persons in prisons or jails;
  • Eliminating laws, such as keeping a bawdy house, that can be used to criminally charge those who visit a bathhouse or who practise group sex.

Some actions can be taken immediately; others will take longer, though the government is committed to fully acting on the Just Society recommendations before the next election.

Source: Justin Trudeau to apologize for historic persecution of gay Canadians – The Globe and Mail

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