Systemic Racism and the Vote; For Japanese Canadians, It's No Joke.

TORONTO, April 5, 2021 /CNW/ - On Thursday, April 1^st, Japanese Canadians from age 20 to 94 gathered for an online celebration to remember April 1^st, 1949 the day that Canadians of Japanese descent gained the right to vote. The event began with an announcement by Mayor John Tory formally recognizing the importance of this day by proclaiming April 1^st, Japanese Canadian Freedom Day in Toronto. 

Tomekichi Homma challenged voting right laws in 1902 and lost. Died in 1945 while incarcerated in BC. (CNW Group/Greater Toronto Chapter of the National Association of Japanese Canadians)

Mayor Tory remarked that, "Students of history, as I once was, might pause and wonder why there is a Japanese Canadian Freedom Day celebrated in Canada on April 1^st. And they might conclude that it was a special historical day in Japan itself.  But a careful reading of Canadian history will tell you that April 1^st, 1949 was the day when Canadian citizens of Japanese ancestry were allowed under the law, the freedom to live in a place of their own choosing."

Election data has shown that Japanese Canadians have the highest voter turnout of any visible minority group born in Canada. The influence of this history is evident in the voices of young Canadians of Japanese descent. One said: "The importance of voting was instilled in me by my dad. We come from a family of Japanese Canadians who have not always had the right to vote and so the value of that right was passed down to me."

Lynn Deutscher Kobayashi, President of the Toronto NAJC recalled that "many of my aunts and uncles, born in Canada before the 1920s were not able to vote until they were nearly 40 years old."

A Freedom Day celebration at Toronto City Hall in 1986, included the Honourable Tom Berger and Justice Maryka Omatsu. This year's event was hosted by The Greater Toronto Chapter of the National Association of Japanese Canadians (NAJC). The NAJC was founded in Toronto in 1947. In 1988 the NAJC won the historic Japanese Canadian Redress Agreement and Apology from the Federal Government. This was the largest Canadian human rights settlement of the time.

Video of the City of Toronto Proclamation: 
http://www.torontonajc.ca/2021/04/02/mayor-tory-proclaims-april-1st-as-japanese-canadian-freedom-day-learn-why/

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SOURCE Greater Toronto Chapter of the National Association of Japanese Canadians

and to arrange an interview: Lynn Deutscher Kobayashi, President, Mobile: [phone], E: [email protected], W: www.torontonajc.ca

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