Kerry Jang Wants to Curtail Academic Freedom, but the Canadian Public Disagrees

by Ricardo Duchesne

Kerry Jang at one of his part-time jobs (photo: Murray Bush)

Iwould like to challenge the allegations Kerry Jang made to the media as contained in two articles: Vancouver councillor Kerry Jang criticizes New Brunswick professor's anti-Chinese screed, and Prof faces complaint after 'white guilt' remark.

False allegation on communication mode

Let me start by questioning the veracity of Kerry Jang's claim that "Dr. Duchesne sends the links to his blog postings using his university affiliation and I felt it important to bring them to you[r] attention."

This is false. There is not a single reference to UNB in the blog Council of European Canadians. The link to my name takes the viewer to my gmail account. I communicated with Jang through this personal gmail account. I did receive some emails to my university account from some individuals in Vancouver in regards to the website, and I replied accordingly.

According to Jang, "the nature of the blog postings and e-mails received are troublesome in that they go beyond fair comment and abuse the privilege of academic freedom by their pejorative nature that is based on poor scholarship."

Sound scholarship

Before I take the issue of academic freedom, I will address the claim about "poor scholarship". He says that the articles I wrote for the blog Council of European Canadians (regarding the historical events leading to the head tax and other acts of discrimination against the Chinese) relied for their research solely "on Dan Murray of the anti-immigration group Immigration Watch Canada".

Jang knows that this is a false claim since I sent to him the four articles I wrote on the Vancouver motion, and all the articles are, by the standards of blogging, very well documented.

In the first two articles, Chinese Head Tax, White Apologies, and "Inclusive Redress" and Reply to Vancouver Councillors Kerry Jang and Raymond Louie, I relied on many newspaper articles, most of which were hyperlinked, and I also cited the following books: 

• Peter Li's Chinese in Canada (1998)
• Wing Chung Ng's Chinese in Vancouver, 1945-80. The Pursuit of Identity and Power (1999)
• David Dyzenhaus and Mayo Moran's Calling Power to Account: Law, Reparations, and the Chinese Canadian Head Tax (2005)
• Shanti Irene Fernando's Race and the City: Chinese Canadian and Chinese American Political Mobilization (2006)
• Lisa Rose Mar's Brokering Belonging: Chinese in Canada's Exclusion Era, 1885-1945 (2010)

In the third article, Chinese and Whites in British Columbia from an Ethnocentric Perspective, I went beyond mainstream newspaper and magazine articles by relying on the foremost historical work, namely, Patricia Roy's three-volume series: 

1. A White Man's Province: British Columbia Politicians and Chinese and Japanese Immigrants, 1858-1914
2. The Oriental Question: Consolidating a White Man's Province: 1914-41
3. The Triumph of Citizenship: The Japanese and Chinese in Canada, 1941-67

In this third article I cited many pages from volume two of this series. I also cited

• an article from the academic journal, Psychological and Cognitive Sciences (January 2011)
• Robert D. Putnam's study on diversity and integration, known as the most comprehensive study thus far on this whole issue
• highly respected journalist Douglas Todd, and his reference to a study by University of British Columbia geographer Daniel Hiebert
• an archived article from Library and Archives of Canada

In the fourth article, Head Tax? When Will Migrant Chinese Apologize for Rampant Racism in China Today?, I cited: 

• an MA Thesis by a Canadian Chinese
• Daniel Hierbert, professor at UBC
• David Ley's Migrant Millionaire: Trans-Pacific Life-Line
• Frank Dikötter's The Discourse of Race in Modern China
• Dikotter's Imperfect Conceptions: Medical Knowledge, Birth Defects, and Eugenics in China
• M. Dujon Johnson's Race and Racism in the Chinas: Chinese Racial Attitudes towards Africans and African-Americans
• journalist Peter Hitchens, including standard newspaper articles

In the fifth article, The Great Fear — Why Do Whites Fear their Own Ethnicity?, which is actually a commentary on a very prestigious scientific conference on ethnocentrism, I cited: 

• the words of Jeffrey Sachs, leading international economic adviser and director of the Earth Institute
• Oxford University geneticist Bryan Sykes's book Saxons, Vikings, and Celts: The Genetic Roots of Britain and Ireland
• Robert Putnam's work
• Newsweek journalists Po Bronson and Ashley Merriman

What really academic freedom is

Jang states that my articles "abuse academic freedom". It may be that Kerry Jang is not fully cognizant of the meaning of academic freedom considering that he is currently not a professor at UBC but is on a leave of absence as an active politician. Article 14 of the University of New Brunswick Collective Agreement is quite definitive about the meaning of academic freedom: 

Contract Academic Employees shall have: a) freedom of discussion, freedom to criticize, including criticism of the University of New Brunswick and the Association, freedom from censorship by the Parties, and freedom to consider and study all available expressions of creativity, knowledge, and intellectual activity, including those which may be considered by some elements of society to be unconventional, unpopular or unacceptable.

According to the dictionary, "unacceptable" includes views that are "intolerable". As it is, I did not express views that are "intolerable" or "unacceptable" insomuch as the views expressed in my blog are actually felt by millions of Canadians fed up with our immigration policies, divisive promotion of identity politics, and "white guilt". This is quite evident in the "comment" section of the two news stories which have appeared so far regarding this issue (more on this below).

The views I expressed on the ethnocentric tendencies of humans are also well attested in numerous scientific studies, of which I cited a number including a link to a long conference led by very renowned scientists.

The reason universities should take very seriously the principle of academic freedom is that the primary goal of a university is the search for truth through open debate and contesting ideas. These debates can be very heated and offensive to some, but universities in the Western tradition have long recognized that students and faculty should not be punished for holding views that are contrary to the ideology of particular groups, or politicians like Kerry Jang. The administration has a moral obligation to protect the right of academics and students to espouse unpopular views.

CEC consistent with Canadian Multiculturalism Act

Moreover, as stated in the blog, the principles of the Council of European Canadians (CEC) were actually written in a way consistent with the Canadian Multiculturalism Act of 1988. This Act clearly recognizes the right of Canadians citizens to promote and enhance their ethnic and cultural heritage: 

It is hereby declared to be the policy of the Government of Canada to (a) recognize and promote the understanding that multiculturalism reflects the cultural and racial diversity of Canadian society and acknowledges the freedom of all members of Canadian society to preserve, enhance and share their cultural heritage.

Jang's malicious allegation

In a statement that can only be described as malicious and censorious, Jang said that the University of New Brunswick should reconsider whether it wants to have Duchesne on campus: "I would not feel safe [attending there] knowing that someone like that was on faculty."

This is clearly a censorious attempt at control, instead of engagement in debate. Kerry Jang is clearly not used to a professor who fights back and is completely unimpressed with the bullying of powerful Chinese individuals extracting multiple apologies from current Canadians who are not responsible for historical events that happened over a century ago.

Kerry Jang may think that his views reflect the public consensus, but if we go by the comments posted in response to the two articles linked at the beginning we learn that most Canadians, if given a chance to express their views freely, tend to agree with my views.

Online comments

Check the comments in the Straight News article.

The comments in the CTV News have been disabled as it is now a normal occurrence in the mainstream media since the comment section is the only venue the public has to challenge our cultural Marxist establishment.

The comments in CTV News are pasted below (Note: I just learned, June 11, that the comments can be found in Facebook, a few more than below, but I will leave the pasted comments in case): 

Thy good professor is calling it like it is and as usual we've been conditioned to scream "racist" anytime someone has an opinion that counters the official position regarding multiculturalism. (Rosa Homepage)

He is so right! Apologies for what happened before most of us were born and during different government rule is ridiculous and that should include South Asians and FN as well. They need to stop milking the tax payers of this province, move on and contribute to society instead of always having their hands out and look after themselves. (Jim Perry)

Well said - I couldn't agree more! (Charlene Ratzinger)

The only way it's going to stop, is if we do something about it. Cause the government sure as hell doesn't care, especially when there's money involved. (Alex Cowan)

This guy knows that he's talking about. Whites are automatically labeled as racists, and we just cower back accept that nowadays. Well, f**k that. If you've even spent a day in Vancouver, you'd pick up really quick that the most racist people around here, are the Asian. They walk around like they're better then everyone else, stare down every White person they cross, and think they can just get away with whatever they want. Last month, I was in line at Superstore, and some old Asian guy just starts mumbling some words, and tries to cut in front of me in the line...Like how self-entitled could you possibly think you are?...The Political Correctness in this country, has just gotten so far out of control. If you want to play "guilty by association", then I guess every Asian has terrible hygiene, all Natives are drunks, all Blacks are thugs who dropped out of high school, and all Indians beat and rape their wives. No, that's not fair for me to say right? Then why the f**k do you think it's fine to label Whites then?... (Alex Cowan)

It was only 12,000 years ago, or less and this should be considered, in all those years the so called First Nations (John Blackrupert):
- never "discovered" the wheel
- never had a written language
- never discovered astronomy
- had no science or scientific discoveries
- had no mathematics
- made no medical discoveries
- never had written music
- only "figured out" a drum and a rattle for musical instruments
- had no metallurgy
- had no sails for boats (only had canoes)
- created virtually no mechanical devices
- possessed almost nothing that required hard manual labour over a period of time, ie. building with or carving out of stone
- made almost no inventions...See More

Most Canadians are completely fed up with Chinese and other ethnic demands for apologies.
Councillors Louie and Jang's brazen demand is intended to make White Canadians feel guilty about their past. Like all the other ridiculous demands for apologies, it fails to recognize the following important point : Most of what white Canadians did in the early years of British Columbia's history was designed to preserve their jobs and European roots and to defend themselves economically from being overwhelmed by low-wage Asian (mostly Chinese) labour. It was also intended to protect themselves from being culturally overwhelmed. Around 1900, China already had a population of 400 million and had grossly exceeded its environmental and economic carrying capacity. It was exporting labourers. (Dan Murray)

I’m proud to be Black said a Black man.
I’m proud to be Asian said an Asian man.
I’m proud to be White said a racist.
Anti-racist is a code word for anti-White. (Horatio HornblowerUniversity of Illinois at Chicago)

Zang is symbolic of everything that is wrong with Canada today. Instead of celebrating our history he chooses to root out every debatable past wrong from a Chinese ethnocentric view point and in an attempt to shame the ancestry of mainstream Canadians. This is not how to build a cohesive society but rather a tactic to break it apart. Unless Canadians start to stand up to these types of unpatriotic people he and his ilk will achieve their goal of seeing the country fall apart. (Jake Rivers)

Anti-racist is a code word for anti-White. (John Blackrupert)

True story! (Joe Markson)

ASIA FOR THE ASIANS, AFRICA FOR THE AFRICANS, WHITE COUNTRIES FOR EVERYBODY! Everybody says there is this RACE problem. Everybody says this RACE problem will be solved when the third world pours into EVERY white country and ONLY into white countries.
The Netherlands and Belgium are just as crowded as Japan or Taiwan, but nobody says Japan or Taiwan will solve this RACE problem by bringing in millions of third worlder's and "assimilating" with them.
Everybody says the final solution to this RACE problem is for
EVERY white country and ONLY white countries to “assimilate,” i.e., intermarry, with all those non-whites.
...See More

Diversity is a codeword for white genocide. (John Blackrupert)

The only way it's going to stop, is if we do something about it. Cause the government sure as hell doesn't care, especially when there's money involved. (Alex Cowan)

My parents owned a large rooming house in the West End on Haro Street. The city of Vancouver deemed the area to be future park land. The house still sits there along with the other houses never torn down for the park. My parents and everyone else on that block were white. the city gave them no options and told the owners they had to sell their property to the city. This was just before the real estate boom in the West End for apartments. racist? regardless l realize now it was wrong and l am going to reclaim land that belonged to my family. (Steve Tohill)

I really think it is time for all Canadians to be equal. Just all be Canadians... I don't want to be held accountable for something that is history. Yes it was wrong. Nuff said. We need to all be Canadian and not be "First Nations" or whatever ethnicity. Just Canadians. All equal! (Charlene Ratzinger)

My reading of provincial history does indicate a great prejudice against "orientals" in mid-nineteenth century B.C. — and we do not want a return to that. I am not a big fan of apologies for the sins of our long-dead forebears, though. We cannot take credit for their achievements, and we are not responsible for their sins.
The professor is entitled to express his views without penalty, but he needs to be told that among ethnic Chinese are some of the finest citizens of B.C. People living in Richmond and Vancouver, far from being forced out of their homes, are benefitting from the Chinese influx and the increased property values resulting from it. The ethnic Chinese community in Lower Mainland B.C. seems to be prospering as well, so it's a win-win situation for many. (Ted Hewlett)

When we bought a house in Vancouver in 1978 the deed had codicil & covenant attached that said it could never be inherited by, or, sold or resold to Orientals. We were told by our lawyer not to worry as the law had been revoked & the codicil & covenant could not be enforced. However when we sold it without problems to a couple of Chinese doctors 10 years later it was embarrassing for us & for our Province as the codicil & covenant was still attached. (John Christie)

I disagree with you Ted Hewlett. Here are some facts gathered from Census that reflects the true "benefits" of today's mass immigration policies in general. I must agree with you on one thing, Ted, it is a "win win". But on neither winning side lays the majority of Canadians.
- The median earnings of Canadians (in constant 2005 $) increased by 0.1% between 1980 and 2005 (i.e., ~nil).
- The earnings of the poorest quintile fell by 20.6%.
- The earnings of the richest quintile rose by 16.4%.
All recent mass immigration did is redistribute the wealth to the rich (who own the growth-promoting media).
- Less than 20% of immigrants are selected on the basis of skills. The remainder are nuclear family members or fall under the “family re-unification” category (e.g., parents) or other categories. (Mark Champ)

I don't agree with Ted Hewlett either, (Joe Markson)

I agree with 100% with Dr. Duchesne! (Michael Glatt)

I think Ricardo is completely on the right track!! Please keep up the good work!! (Mark Champ)

I totally agree. If they didn't like our rules of the head tax back then, then they didn't have to come...they weren't forced to move here. If they don't like living here, there's the door! (Alisha McIsaac)

I don't want the government apologizing for me...I didn't do it. ...I didn't do anything to anyone.
My family members didn't do it either and there is no reason to apologize to anyone.
Who did it?
Politicians...that's who.
They can apologize for themselves, but not me.
And besides...they are only doing it because they think there might be a vote there somewhere if they do.
The past is the past...it is done and everyone needs to move on.
No more apologies for anyone. (Andy Hurrie)

October 26, 1908 edition of the Daily Colonist—a Victoria, BC newspaper that became the Times Colonist:
"We in British Columbia want this to be a white man's country. We want to have it a white man's country while we live. We want to leave it a white man's country to our children when we die. We want no Asiatics with their alien ideas, their alien habits, their competition with our children. We do not want to see them monopolizing our fruit lands, our garden lands, our poultry..."
That was the reason for the head tax. No one forced the Chinese to come to Canada. Our ancestors didn't even want them here.
What these politicians are doing is apologising on behalf of European Canadians. Yes, it's a white guilt, vote-collecting scheme. They have no right to pander to a group of people who put our ancestors out of work, and who to this day are pushing up our housing prices—Vancouver is the second most expensive city in the world after Hong Kong due to Chinese demand—and forcing our people out into the street, or displacing them by forcing them to move away from cities and towns built and established by our ancestors. These politicians are traitors. What they're doing is not in the benefit of Canada as a nation. (Canadians Against Mass Immigration)

He should be fired by NBU for sure, by the way , for those angry white trash, losers, go home and cry, because nobody will like your ideas any more. (Daniel Yu)

If anyone should be fired Mr. Yu, it's you. Fired for the suppression of free-speech. Yes, I said it, free-speech!! (Joe Markson)

Nobody can stop anyone going to Vancouver and buying property, you losers just dare to crying and screaming in internet, go get a life, make some good money, you might have a chance to buy a place for yourself, complaining online can never help you. (Daniel Yu)

Thank you, Professor tor having the guts to articulate this. I for one never have and never will be "bending over backwards" to anyone or anything. It's about time some semblance of "balance" was restored - and those who speak out about it should not be called that overused PC expletive of "racist". (Alexie Green)

I agree with Ricardo 110%!! (Joe Markson)

Richmond and now downtown Vancouver are all asian people and if you are white and go into the stores they won't even speak in english to you. They treat you as if you do not belong in a Country you were born in. (Donna Sangster)

I have owned more the 1 contracting company & have employed a wide variety of ethnic back grounded people. In the past when I have done a walk through, orientations, policies & procedure's, a specific section I would go over involved race relations & what is acceptable on job sites & while in my employ. More then once while speaking about racism, I have been told by many non-white back grounded people , that " racism is something White people do to others". Nothing more.
WE HAVE SAID WE ARE SORRY ENOUGH NOW. Im done saying sorry for things I have never done, & no one in my family has ever done. NO MORE. (Norris Laitinen)

What have you done to earn an apology Councillor Jang ? I know there are MANY things the Chinese have done through out history that based on Canadian values would be deemed appalling to the rest of the World. I was not born in 1922 , nor were my siblings, my friends, or even my parents. The vast amount of Canadians who were in power & determined this unfair & racist policy are dead. Those who were involved, or even of the age to be involved in this prehistoric insult to the Asian committee would have to be in there 90's or even over 100 years old now. You are hunting for an apology from ghosts long dead councilor, for wrongs done to family members you may have never even met. Im sure if we look back far enough in history, we can find something that a Chinese or Asian government has done to another group at some point. Will you then say you are sorry for that, & go to the extent of asking the government of China to say they are sorry for those actions? Or is it something that only a nation predominately of Caucasian citizens will to do? (Norris Laitinen)

I spent 5 years living and working in China - I speak Mandarin - Chinese people have no problem telling foreigners that the Chinese are the most superior race in the world. Black people are regarded, as severa; students told me as dogs, less then human in China. The worst thing a Chinese woman can do is marry or become involved with a Black man. Foreigners CANNOT own property in China, if they want to open a business of any kind they are required to have a Chinese partner and put everything into the partners name IF a marriage with a business breaks up ALL the property and the business must be turned over to the Chinese partner and the foreigner usually gets nothing. I am second generation Canadian, my ancestors are Norwegian and Swiss and I promise you they will get an aplogy from me when hell freeze over, when every Chinese immigrant can speak English, when the Chinese STOP their racist behavior here in Canada and when China changes their laws regarding foreigners in their country — Try renting an apartment in Richmond these days — if you arent Chinese it isnt going to happen — the Chinese owe Canada an apology for their behavior in our country - they came here to change Canada into China 2 NOT to become Canadian. (Denise Graf-Laitinen)

Oh yah, forgot to mention the Chinese Labourers came to Canada way back in history knowing FULL WELL what the laws were here - the Chinese Labourers did an admirable job and they had the same rights as Canadian women and children - they KNEW full well what they were coming to - it wasnt a surprise for them when they got here. (Denise Graf-Laitinen)