Edmontonians Join National Effort to Rebuild Chinatowns Across Canada

Edmonton’s Chinatown, unable to keep up with the city’s growth, was struggling long before the pandemic and the LRT construction that cuts right through it.

Now, Chinese community leaders representing Chinatowns in Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto are advocating for government help with a strategy to revitalize and rebuild Chinatowns across the country.

The call for action comes after an increase in anti-Asian hate. A report earlier this year from the Toronto chapter of the Chinese Canadian National Council found there were 1,150 incidents of anti-Asian racism in Canada since the start of the pandemic.

“The Chinese have had a difficult time,” said Hon Leong, chair of the Chinatown Transformation Collaborative Society of Edmonton.

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Chinese leaders had originally planned to request members of Parliament to endorse the national plan to rebuild Chinatown during the federal election campaign.

Those requests were not well received, Leong said. {snip}

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Leong hopes that increasing awareness about Chinatown will invite more communication with government officials.

“We’re hoping that these members of Parliament can endorse our national plan to build back Canada’s Chinatowns and to spread the survey that we have and help us collect some more information.”