February 28, 2018

City of Ottawa effectively declares that the Vietnamese refugees came from Saigon, thus connecting them to a partisan statement about the Vietnam war.

A motion to name the corner of Preston Street and Somerset Street West “Saigon Square” was introduced by Somerset Coun. Catherine McKenney and passed by city council on Feb. 28. (Ottawa City Council, 2018).^[267]

The Centertown News carried a story on this accompanied by a first person story of a refugee couple who left Hai Phong in 1979. Unusually for newspaper reporting, a highly representative story of Vietnamese refugees. Nothing to do with Saigon or the war. The reporter did not point that out. (Emmanuel, 2018).^[266]

September 8, 2018

CBC also ran a story when the Saigon Square plaque was unveiled. They failed to point out the political faux pas of using "Saigon" as a reference to the Vietnamese refugees. Photos show mayor Watson in attendance and yellow flags in abundance -- it would have been a great opportunity for the reporter to ask how this was representative of the boat people. (Pfeffer, 2018).^[296]

April 28, 2018

Journey to Freedom Day events in Toronto and Ottawa featured a new main banner. The banner now describes the event in English as a "flag raising ceremony". The Vietnamese description on the banner is still "National Memorial Day of Hatred" -- a reminder to the boat people that they are not welcome here.

This indicates an abundance of confidence in the on-going government support for the military regime -- they no longer need to call it "Journey to Freedom Day" to pretend that it is about refugees.

Several federal politicians attended, as well as Mayor John Tory. The ritual of handing over recognition certificates is, as always, part of the event -- a message to the boat people that they are out of scope. Four certificates this time!

As always, it is a military ceremony, now complete with a portable memorial monument in case they are not allowed to 'borrow' the Cenotaph as they had in the past.

(Ngo, 2018).^[347]

March 25, 2018

City of Toronto passed a motion recognizing Journey to Freedom Day. The motion was brought by Mayor John Tory, seconded by Councilor Chin Lee.

"In recognition of Journey to Freedom Day and that both the Federal and Provincial governments display the Vietnamese community's Heritage and Freedom Flag at their respective legislatures, City Council amend the City of Toronto Flag Raising Policy to allow the Vietnamese Heritage and Freedom Flag to be raised at Toronto City Hall."

The motion appeared to be unnecessary for its stated purpose -- the ARVN have been holding multiple flag raising events in public squares in Toronto for years.. It's purpose appears to have been to get the Saigon national flag recognized as "the flag of the Vietnamese community". Subsequent events were referred to as "flag raising ceremonies" (see above).

(Toronto City Council, 2018).^[275]

Mayor John Tory, Councillor Chin Lee

Thoi Bao reported the decision and announced that a "National Memorial Day of Hatred" event will be held in Nathan Philips Square. (Thoi Bao, 2018).^[274]

TML Daily reported that Canada-Vietnam Society (not a communist organization) wrote a letter in response to mayor Tory, and published excerpts. (TML Daily, 2018-04-30, p. 16).^[432]

April 30, 2017

Journey to Freedom Day event at Mel Lastman Square, attended by federal and provincial politicians standing between a large "national day of hatred" banner and an ARVN lectern. (Ngo, 2017).^[351]

April 29, 2014

Flag rasising ceremony at Nathan Phillips square and a military memorial at the cenotaph. (Ngo, 2014).^[365]

April 27, 2013

Flag rasising ceremony at Nathan Phillips square and a military memorial at the cenotaph. (Ngo, 2013).^[366]

April 26, 2015

Journey to Freedom Day event. Note that banner refers to "refugees" and "Vietnamese Canadians" -- no hint that this is a partisan political rally specifically designed to divide the community. (Ngo, 2015).^[360]

Surrey has been running a massive multicultural festival since 2016 called Surrey Fusion Festival. A local Vietnamese family (former boat people, as most are) has run a Vietnamese pavilion every year, with Vietnamese food and culture. They refuse to politicize it by displaying the yellow flag. As a result, the ARVN has mounted large public protests against her pavilion every year, and written nasty letters to the mayor of Surrey. On occasion, B.C. politicians and Senator Ngo have visited the protestors, but no one visited the community pavilion.^[1]

In 2019, the Mayor of Surrey Doug McCallum made a point of visiting the Vietnamese pavilion and paying his respects to the people putting it on. Mr. McCallum is the only Canadian politician we know of that has gone up against the ARVN presence to talk directly to the Vietnamese community.