Christepher Wee 王崇偉: Welcoming Refugees To Our Home

Sunday, May 15, 2016

Welcoming Refugees To Our Home

Let’s remember that we are all immigrants to this land that those before us colonized from our First Nations brothers and sisters. Let’s acknowledge the many from all walks of life who helped build this great “True North Strong and Free” we all call our home today.

I am proud to be a Canadian because our political correctness and progressive activism set us a part from others and allow us to lead by example. I am proud to be Canadian because our laws protect my rights to be authentically myself and embrace the rights of humanity in our outreaching national and global effects.

Look around you as you study, work, dine, coffee, or stroll. I am reflecting as I sit across the views of the snow covered North shore on Adolph Mueller II’s bench at the Stanley Park seawall, home of the shared territory of three Coast Salish Nations – the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh. Along my walk from downtown Vancouver to here, I saw you…a person of colour, the lesbian couple holding hands topped with a gentle kiss, tourists, bankers, bus drivers, cafe clerks, float plane staff, the child touching names on “The Komagata Maru” monument, the gentleman working on his laptop on the bench beside mine, the parents and their children enjoying this sunny Winter day.

We inter-exist in this space on this land regardless of who we are and where we came from.

Citizenship is a word that embodies layers of compassion, respect, understanding, diversity, unity, and harmony that celebrate our daily lived experiences in Canada and the World.

I encourage you to be proactive instead of reactive to what it means to be a true citizen of Canada and the World. Be that individual who is at the centre of the solution and progress. Be the catalyst that will create “a nation where differences are respected and traditions are honoured.”