Vietnamese flag at Ottawa City Hall angers protesters

2014/09/05 Leave a comment

More diaspora politics. But if we recognize the country, and have diplomatic relations, hard for a municipal government to have any other policy but the current one of basing it on diplomatic recognition:

“The flag of the communist regime being flown here today is something that represents a government that denies human rights,” said Kalvin Nhan of Canadian Youth for Human Rights in Vietnam, which organized the protest.

“We don’t believe that it should be flown side by side with the Canadian flag, something that represents freedom and hope.”

…. Under city policy, any country with which Canada has diplomatic relations is invited to provide the city’s protocol office with a flag to fly outside city hall on that country’s national day. The city defers to the Department of Foreign Affairs on which flags the Canadian government recognizes.

“Right now the policy that we apply is we will fly the flag of any nation that is recognized by the Government of Canada,” said Cathy Bowles, the city’s chief of protocol. “It’s a practice that has continued over the years to recognize our diverse population, and to recognize the number of embassies that make Ottawa their home.”

Bowles said Tuesday’s controversy was “unexpected” because this is the eighth year the flag has flown at city hall. “We have flown it since 2006, and this is the first year that we’ve experienced resistance.”

Nothing that prevents members of diasporas from protesting what the flag represents to  them.

Vietnamese flag at City Hall angers protesters | Ottawa Citizen.

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Retirement home a tribute to a generation of Vietnamese

2014/08/13 Leave a comment

An increasingly common trend, retirement homes for specific communities, given language and food issues, among others:

Almost four decades ago, the first Vietnamese refugees began arriving in Toronto, traumatized and penniless, following the Communist takeover of South Vietnam.

Today, many of those refugees are aging, including about 100 living in nursing homes scattered across the GTA.

As a community volunteer, Thanhnha Nguyen often visits elderly Vietnamese in those homes. She will never forget one woman — the only Vietnamese resident in one of the largest nursing homes in the GTA.

Like many Vietnamese of that generation, the tiny woman spoke no English. Unable to eat the pasta and meat-based meals that the home provided, she weighed only about 90 pounds. “She was just bones and skin,” recalls Thanhnha.

Many Vietnamese seniors feel like outsiders in these retirement homes, says Thanhnha, but for this particular woman the sense of isolation was so devastating that she had tried to end her life.

Thanhnha recalls asking the elderly woman why her face was so pale and blue. “She told me she had tried to bang her head against the wall to try to kill herself,” says Thanhnha.

For Thanhnha, it was a turning point. “That’s when I said, we have to do something for our community — for our parents.”

Retirement home a tribute to a generation of Vietnamese – Toronto – CBC News.

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