UBC history prof should be fired for discrimination, says former spokesman of B.C. anti-immigration group

 

 

BY SAM COOPER, THE PROVINCE NOVEMBER 24, 2014

 

 

Prof Henry Yu in Vancouver, BC, June 12, 2013. Yu is a history prof who likens BC’s white supremacist policies to apartheid in South Africa. He is an expert in Chinese Canadian history and has been involved in redress with honorary UBC for students interned during WWII and other history projects. Bradley Saltzberg, former spokesman for the group Putting Canada First is circulating a petition to have Yu dismissed claiming his "writings and teachings are a violation of UBC’s policy on discrimination, as well as a potential human rights violation."

Photograph by: Arlen Redekop , PNG

The ousted director of a B.C. anti-immigration group has launched a campaign attempting to get a well-known UBC history professor fired.

Bradley Saltzberg recently was dismissed as spokesman for the group Putting Canada First, an organization which has advocated against Chinese language signs in Richmond and West Vancouver.

Putting Canada First distanced itself from Saltzberg after an expose article by the South China Morning Post, which alleged Saltzberg had used aliases while attacking Vancouver mayoral candidate Meena Wong. According to the South China Morning Post, Putting Canada First’s chairman Paul Bentley said Saltzberg had harmed the group with deception and “inappropriate inclusion of race in his discussions.”

Saltzberg’s stream of press releases arguing against the influence of Chinese culture and Chinese-Canadian figures in B.C. is widely emailed to Lower Mainland media and politicians. In the run-up to elections in Vancouver, Saltzberg singled out Meena Wong and Toronto mayoral candidate Olivia Chow, writing: “Do voters really want two pro-multicultural, ethnocentric candidates running our largest cities? I don’t and from my direct experience, neither do most Canadians of European origin.”

Saltzberg’s latest public target is UBC history professor Dr. Henry Yu.

Dr. Yu has lectured and written about racism in B.C., and submitted writing for The Province’s 2013 series Racism in Paradise.

On Friday, Saltzberg circulated a petition seeking Yu’s removal, claiming: “Dr. Yu teaches that the social history of our province is little more than an organized campaign of prejudice and oppression against non-white Canadians.”

In response to questions from The Province, Saltzberg said that he “departed” and was not “thrown out” of Putting Canada First, and his media campaigns and actions against Meena Wong and Henry Yu are not racist.

“Of course I disagree (actions against Yu are racist),” Saltzberg wrote in an email. “The point being made regarding Dr. Yu is that his writings and teachings are a violation of UBC’s policy on discrimination, as well as a potential human rights violation.”

Yu told The Province he has no comment on Saltzberg’s campaign and allegations.

In a statement, UBC’s managing director of public relations Susan Danard said: “The University of British Columbia makes hiring decisions on the basis of academic merit. There are well-established processes for making those decisions, consistent with those used at other universities. UBC has no further comment.”

In interviews with The Province, Meena Wong said she faced isolated incidents of racism in the Vancouver election campaign, but she believes Vancouver is a mostly “inclusive” society that would welcome a Chinese-Canadian mayor-elect.