This begins a series of articles that details chronologically how Harper implemented his pro-Saigon policy, including the rewrite of Canadian history and the creation of a hostile environment for Vietnamese Canadians.
To justify its pro-Saigon policy the Harper government created an entirely new history of Canada-Vietnam relations and the origins of Canada's Vietnamese community. Canadians generally now believe that origins of Canada's Vietnamese community lie in the the Vietnam war and the fall of Saigon.
By framing Canada's involvement in the war as a partisan one, and the war as unresolved, he created a hostile environment for most Vietnamese Canadians. That was not an accident - it was the first step of the implementation plan.
The articles that follow contain a detailed chronology of what Harper did to accomplish all of this.
If you are not familiar with the true history of Canada's relationship with Vietnam war and the boat people's arrival in Canada, we recommend that you first read the series of articles on the Community page of this web site under the heading Coming to Canada: a History.
The articles above this one on this page provide all the context information for this chronology: what Harper's motivation was and what he was trying to accomplish. The following pages are a chronology describing in detail what he did to accomplish his goal in a way that it would last beyond his administration.
We have written the core narrative of Harper's actions as a detailed chronology in 2008-2015 Rewriting Canadian history.
There are some supplementary articles that expand on certain key parts of the core chronology:
Fact checking bill S-219
Debating bill S-219