Here is a summary of the media coverage from the research findings on the Town Planning Commission of Vancouver.
The research team at Landscapes of Injustice has uncovered new research that suggests that the City of Vancouver played a larger role in the forced sale of Japanese-Canadian-owned property than previously thought. “The dispossession of Japanese Canadians have largely been thought of as a federal policy,” explains project director, Dr. Jordan Stanger-Ross, “but the policy also originated at the City of Vancouver, which played a critical role.”
A report by Town Planning Commission (TPC) in 1939 deemed the area of Vancouver’s Powell Street, inhabited predominantly by Japanese Canadians, a slum, and in August 1942 the TPC described the uprooting and internment of Japanese Canadians as “an opportune time to clean up housing conditions in what generally known as ‘Japtown.’” On this basis, the city stuck a Special Committee to condemn Japanese-Canadian-owned homes and to convince federal officials that they should be sold, rather than preserved and protected.
Here are links to several stories that were picked up this week in the media related to these research findings.
On Saturday, January 16, 2016, Community Council Chairperson Vivian Rygnestad and Jordan Stanger-Ross discuss the findings on CBC Vancouver News.
Segment begins at 3:15. Click here CBC Vancouver News Saturday
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The story also appeared on the cbcnews British Columbia website.
City of Vancouver played role in stripping war-era Japanese Canadians of homes, says professor. This article also contains links to related stories, including the 2013 apology for a Japanese internment motion by the Vancouver City Council on February 16, 1942.
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An interview by Matt Kieltyka, senior reporter for Metro Vancouver News with Jordan Stanger-Ross resulted in this article on January 17th. Uncovered documents reveal Vancouver’s role in historic sell-off of Japanese-Canadian property.
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And an op-ed from project members Jordan Stanger-Ross, Eric Adams and Laura Madokoro ran in the Globe and Mail to coincide with the anniversary of the date January 19, 1943, when Canadian politicians authorized the forced sale of all the homes, businesses, farms and possessions of Japanese Canadians who had been uprooted from coastal British Columbia in the previous year under the pretext of national security.
Lessons from the Japanese Canadian internments: Policies built on fear won’t make us safer.
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January 19, 2016 – Globe and Mail
Vancouver prompted WWII sell-off of Japanese-Canadian-owned-property
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January 19, 2016 Georgia Straight newspaper – Craig Takeuchi
Uvic researchers find Vancouver played larger role in Japanese Canadian wartime dispossession
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January 19, 2016 Global TV Interview with Jordan Stanger-Ross
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January 20, 2016 CBC Radio Canada International – Lynn Desjardins
“More on forced sale of Japanese Canadians’ assets”
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January 28, 2016 Vancouver Co-op Radio, (23:20) –Jordan Stanger-Ross
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January 28, 2016 The Ring online – Tara Sharpe
“New findings sharpen view on Vancouver properties in 1940s”
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February 8, 2016 rabble.ca – Alyse Kotyk
“Researchers reveal City of Vancouver’s deeper involvement in forced sale of Japanese Canadian property”
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February 2016 Vancouver Planning Chronology
“Property of Japanese Canadians Seized”