Thursday, July 17, 2008

One More Memorial to Angus McInnes, Lest We Forget--Again

Tom Berger recalls a formative event from his childhood in the early 1940s in his memoir, One Man's Justice. His father remarked to him that Angus McInnes, who stood almost alone in British Columbia against the internment of the Japanese Canadians, was "a very brave man". I know that McInnes has a special collection in the UBC Library named after him, and that in 1994 a park was named for him and his wife Grace McInnes somewhere in East Vancouver. Nevertheless, given the importance of multiculturalism and human rights in British columbia, I suggest that a statue of McInnes be erected in a more central location, either on the grounds of the Legislative Assembly or in Stanley Park. A memorial placed in one of these settings would educate more members of the public, and would be more difficult for the opinion leaders of our community to ignore. The thought occurred to me last January when I visited the Japanese Canadian War Memorial in Stanley Park, right beside the Aquarium. A video of the occasion is included here:

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