Markham is part of a growing number of cities across Canada urging Parliament to officially designate February as Canadian Chinese Heritage Month.
A group of 29 organizations announced on May 27 that 12 municipalities have recently passed motions backing this initiative, including Markham, Richmond Hill, Brampton, and Toronto.
The motion in Markham was brought forward earlier this year by Coun. Amanda Collucci. It was first talked about during an April 21 General Committee meeting, where members approved it with an 11:1 vote.
During the discussion, some councillors raised questions about how urgent it was to speed up the motion, how many heritage months are already recognized by the city, and if similar requests had been made to York Region or the Province of Ontario before.
The motion was seconded by Mayor Frank Scarpitti and later got council approval.
This campaign is led by a coalition that includes United Against Hate Canada along with several Chinese Canadian community groups nationwide.
The coalition points out that while Canada currently recognizes 68 commemorative heritage days and months, it does not officially acknowledge Chinese Canadians at a national level even though there are about 1.8 million people of Chinese descent living in Canada.
This movement follows Ontario’s decision in 2024 to recognize February as Chinese Heritage Month at the provincial level.
The organizers say that over 700,000 residents of Chinese heritage live in the Greater Toronto Area alone.
“Chinese Canadians have made extraordinary contributions to the economic, cultural, and social development of Canada for generations,” said Dr. Ken Ng, chair of the Federation of Chinese Canadian Municipalities and founder of the Taste of Asia Festival in Markham.
Collucci mentioned that this campaign seeks to fill a long-standing gap in national recognition for Chinese Canadians.
“Between 1885, when Canada first imposed a head tax on Chinese migrants, until 1947 when Parliament revoked the discriminatory Chinese exclusion act legislated in 1923, the Chinese have faced barriers in Canada confronted by no other ethnic or racial group,” she said in a statement.
Despite facing official discrimination, Collucci added that the Chinese community established deep roots in Canada and has contributed significantly to its growth.
The next steps for organizers include presenting this proposal at the upcoming Federation of Canadian Municipalities convention in Edmonton this June.
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