Angry in the Great White North

The original article is available online, but most of my readers probably can't read it. Here is the English translation:

Dion gets first Member of Parliament of Chinese descent wrong

Liberal Party leader Stephane Dion, speaking before a Chinese audience, mistakenly referred to the first Member of Parliament of Chinese origin Douglas Jung, as Arthur Lee, prompting calls from Secretary of State for Multiculturalism, Jason Kenney, for Dion to apologise to the Jung family and the Chinese Canadian community. Dion's press secretary, Jean-Francois Del Torchio, acknowledged that Dion's remarks were wrong, and offered an apology to Douglas Jung's family, but did not apologise to the Chinese-Canadian community for the mistake.

On July 18, Dion attended the inaugural event of Chinese Canadian Liberal Association where he gave a speech saying that, "Do you know who is Arthur Lee? He has been the first MP of Chinese origin." But the first person of Chinese descent elected to Parliament was Douglas Jung, in 1957, on behalf of the Progressive Conservative Party. Arthur Lee was elected as a Liberal member of parliament in 1974.

Jason Kenney called on Dion to apologise to the Jung family and the Chinese community. Kenney accused Dion of having a total lack of understanding of the history of Chinese Canadians. "The history of Jung and his generation of veterans is a key part of Canadian history and how somebody aspiring to be Prime Minister doesn't know about Jung's trailblazing success is amazing."

Dion's press secretary indicated that Dion misspoke when he said Arthur Lee was the first person of Chinese descent elected to Parliament. He meant to refer to Lee as the first Liberal Party Member of Parliament, in keeping with the theme of his speech. "This was certainly not intended as a slight against Mr. Jung or his family and Mr Dion apologizes for any misunderstanding." He also said that Dion understands Douglas Jung's contribution.

Dion's mistake recently became the subject of discussion on various political websites. Conservative blogger Steve Janke questioned whether Dion was trying to erase Douglas Jung's contribution to Canadian history because he was a Conservative. "Chinese Canadians, whatever their political affiliation, ought to feel insulted."

But Liberal blogger Jason Cherniak disagreed with Janke on his blog, saying that Douglas Jung was born in Victoria, British Columbia. "At the very least, it is debatable whether this constitutes 'Chinese origin'," said Cherniak. But Cherniak afterwards made an apology, stating that Arthur Lee was born in Alberta.

Cherniak says on his blog that he is Dion's blog campaign co-chair and president of Richmond Hill Federal Liberal Riding Association. Dion's press secretary said that Cherniak is an independent blogger and does not speak for the Liberal Party.

For the purposes of disclosure, I ought to say that I was not interviewed for this article in any way, and had no contact with the Sing Tao Daily. I don't want anyone to get the idea that I had anything to do with Jason Cherniak's mention in this piece.

So Stephane Dion is not planning to apologize to the Chinese Canadian community at large. He misspoke, and if the Jung family feels slighted, then they'll have to be satisfied with a second-hand apology delivered by his press secretary, Jean-Francois Del Torchio.

Apologies aside, the explanation is that Stephane Dion meant to say the first Liberal MP. Now go watch the video again, and put in the word "Liberal" where it makes sense:

It would seem, then, that the Liberal Party was the focus of Stephane Dion's apparent disappointment with the length of time it took to get an MP of Chinese descent elected. Presumably, then, he feels the Progressive Conservatives deserve some credit on this count. Let's rewrite what he said to fill in the unspoken bits:

It took time, eh? Only 1974, the first [Liberal] one[, long after the first Conservative one].

Oh yeah, that sounds better.

By the way, I don't anyone seriously thinks Jason Cherniak speaks for anyone but Jason Cherniak when he's writing on his blog, and certainly not for Stephane Dion. I certainly don't speak for anyone but myself. Of course, I don't mention being Dion's blog campaign co-chair on the front page of my blog either, so maybe Stephane Dion's press secretary felt Cherniak's true status needed clarification, and thought it important to distance Stephane Dion from Jason Cherniak's comments that suggested that Douglas Jung didn't count as someone of Chinese descent.

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