JOURNEY TO FREEDOM DAY AND VIETNAMESE CANADIANS

Hon. A. Dix:

I rise to make a ministerial statement.

The 30th of April is observed by many of the Vietnamese diaspora around the world as a day of remembrance. The Journey to Freedom Day Act was passed by the Canadian Parliament in 2015, marking it as a national day of commemoration. The bill was sponsored by Senator Ngo, who is sitting with us in the House today.

Something significant was omitted here: many of the Vietnamese diaspora around the world decisively DO NOT observe April 30 as a day of remembrance because it is a partisan political event put on by people who are seeking validation.

Some celebrate April 30 as a day of victory. Most do not celebrate it all. This is especially true in Canada, for uniquely Canadian reasons. ^[3]

This event marks the day that the Saigon military dictatorship collapsed at the end of the Vietnam war. It is an expression of regret that the Saigon regime lost. This information is in the bill.^[1] Senator Ngo is a former official of the Saigon regime and he does not hide his extensive anti-Vietnam agenda.^[2]

By making this omission, you are stereotyping Canadians of Vietnamese origin in the image of a small political faction that happens to mark the fall of Saigon as a negative event. That stereotyping delivers powerful and harmful messages to the Vietnamese community. ^[3]

According to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, deteriorating living conditions and human rights abuses suffered by individuals after the fall of Saigon contributed to an exodus of approximately 840,000 Vietnamese people to neighbouring countries in search of safety and freedom. It has been reported by the UN that at least 250,000 Vietnamese people lost their lives en route by drowning, illness, starvation, violence, kidnapping and piracy.

Dix is quoting verbatim from the Senator’s bill and this is a good illustration of the nature of that bill.

The point to focus on here is the contextual assertion that the UNHCR declared the fall of Saigon to be the cause of all this misery.

The UNHCR never made any finding of human rights abuses in Vietnam. It was exactly for that reason that Canada had to relax its refugee policy during the boat people crisis and the reason UNHCR ended the boat people program in 1997 and replaced with the ODP. That, after the fact, made the boat people episode quite controversial.

It’s unfortunate that so many boat people suffered, but they were not leaving Vietnam because of the fall of Saigon. The Saigon evacuees left in US military transportation, not boats. Senator Ngo came by commercial airline.

Neither UNHCR nor Canada nor anyone else recognized the fall of Saigon as a refugee crisis. For the US it was an evacuation of their former allies, not a refugee crisis. The evacuation consisted largely of the military leaders, government officials and their families. Of course, the people involved self-identify as victims and refugees, but UNCHR did not endorse that and Canada did not participate in the evacuation. ^[4]

UNHCR declared the refugee crisis in July 1979 when it became evident that Vietnam was giving its ethnic Chinese population an opportunity to leave. The difficult relationship between Vietnam and its ethnic Chinese had existed for millennia before the fall of Saigon. The final straw was that China invaded Vietnam in Feb 1979. Hundreds of thousands ethnic Chinese from all over Vietnam got into boats.

Do you know any former boat people in Canada? What’s their first language? (Note that they do identify as Vietnamese because their families were there for generations.)

I am moved by the members of this resilient community of Vietnamese boat people and their families, who join us today to mark a key moment in Canada’s and British Columbia’s history. For the first time today, the government of British Columbia hosted a commemorative event at the Legislative Assembly to honour the perilous journey that millions undertook at the end of the Vietnam War and the acceptance of 60,000 Vietnamese refugees into Canada — the majority by community groups, churches and other organizations — and the incredible spirit of resilience and the contributions that Vietnamese-Canadian people have made to their communities.

It would be very moving if the Legislative Assembly were indeed honouring 60,000 Vietnamese refugees. It would be even more moving if it was honouring all 160,000 of them along with another 40,000 that came from Cambodia and Laos as part of the same UNHCR initiative that Canada so generously responded to in 1979, precisely in the manner described by Mr. Dix.

Now, how did we decide on 60,000? ^[5]

It’s enough of a stretch to claim that 60,000 came “at the end of the Vietnam war”, considering that the war had already been over for over four years when the first of those 60,000 arrived. It took 18 more years for the rest to arrive. The war was a very distant memory by then and the US had already lifted its post-war embargo.

It’s a key moment in BC’s history when the NDP formally raises the national flag of a defunct military dictatorship at the legislative building, knowing that it can only justify the act by exploiting the boat people with an invented history. It’s an unpleasant message to the former boat people. ^[3] They can read it clearly because they know who invented it.

You referred to your guests ^[7] as boat people. It’s plausible -- some of the former Saigon military families posed as ethnic Chinese to get out of Vietnam with the boat people. Those are generally the ones whose departures were delayed for several years because they were in prison, not because Canada responded to the fall of Saigon. The Senator or his friends often point that out because it is another badge of "victimhood".

April 30 is also Ancestors Day in Vietnamese culture, a civilization that has been around for 4,897 years. The 43 years since the fall of Saigon is a long time in our lifetimes but merely a drop in the history of Vietnam. It is essential that all governments understand that our time here is short and that what we do with it, especially with respect to the rights of the powerless, will say much about how we are remembered.

A poetic attempt to distract people from the 20-year old elephant in the room. Let’s look at the elephant …

Journey to Freedom Day is not a cultural celebration. It is unequivocally grounded in the ancient political history of 1975. The yellow flag is not a cultural symbol, it is the national flag of a “temporary” regime that managed to extend its life to 20 years by fighting a war against its own people. 20 years -- a mere nano-blink in 4,897 years.

Ancestors Day is the most important day in Vietnamese culture. But its a moveable event, different for each family. Every day of the year is Ancestor’s day for someone. This illustrates the truth that the French-educated Saigon leaders were not enamoured with Vietnamese culture. ^[8]

The Saigon regime existed in Vietnam for 20 years, from the time it was imposed on the Vietnamese people by foreign powers (Geneva Accords) until those foreign powers abandoned it (Paris Accords). Both accords defined the Saigon regime as “temporary”, so it fought a war to try to become permanent. It could not sustain itself against the anger of the Vietnamese people, so it collapsed in 1975. The PAVN walked into Saigon on April 30. There was no final battle because the Saigon leaders were long gone, with their families. Not in boats. No one heard Saigon fall.

20 years is a much shorter period than the 43 years that have passed since the regime collapsed. I’m 65 so the Saigon regime is a mere drop in my life, and I was there in Saigon for that entire 20 years. I didn’t waste the next 43 dreaming up vengeful political ideas, so that time has not been short for me.

It should now be obvious why these people are seeking validation in Journey to Freedom Day.

There are no powerless people in this story. The former boat people do not consider themselves to be powerless victims, and the people who fought the Saigon regime were not powerless because they won. The former Saigon leaders who would otherwise be powerless now are made powerful again by BC’s adoption of their fictional history.

What the government of BC is saying to the former boat people today will be remembered at the next election, only 3 years away, a mere blink in the history of the BC NDP.

I look forward — and I know members of the House and the government do — to joining with the Vietnamese community every year to recognize their Journey to Freedom Day on or around April 30.