Ottawa’s Hong Kongers ponder what they can do about protests
Some say they have moral obligation to stand up for ‘the free world’s values’
As they’ve watched weeks and weeks of mass protests met with increasing police aggression, many Ottawa-Hong Kong residents have been asking a similar question: “What can we do?”
Some have been in Canada for decades, others just a few years; some have barely returned since they emigrated and became Canadians, while others have even gone back to participate in the action.
In the latter group is a man asking to go just by the initials N.T. A Canadian-Hong Konger, he went there for most of July to visit family but also to see firsthand the furore unfolding in the city of his youth. The protests started as demonstrations against proposed legislation which would have allowed Hong Kong ’s government to extradite to China people wanted by the Chinese government.
He describes feeling a societal shift between this year’s events and similar demonstrations that took place in 2003. In July of that year, 500,000 Hong Kongers marched in protest of a national security bill which the government then withdrew indefinitely in response.
“Back then, they would respect people’s voices,” N.T. says. “Now, a million people, they don’t care.”
In the early days of his visit, he says, the demonstrations were huge but didn’t feel dangerous — families even participated with their young kids.
“I would say most of (the protesters) are very peaceful. A lot of people basically walk down the street and chant the five demands,” he says, referencing the protesters’ list of stated aims, including the withdrawal of the extradition bill, the release of arrested protesters, and the implementation of universal suffrage in Hong Kong.
He says he was never worried for his safety because in his mind, the right to peaceful assembly was taken for granted in Hong Kong. “I still believed that Hong Kong had the right of protest, and the freedom of speech that’s given in the basic law within the constitution.”
But even before he had arrived in Hong Kong, the local authorities had taken a strongly opposing stance on the protest activity, referring to an earlier event as a riot, which demonstrators did not like (one of the five demands is the revocation of that term in reference to the protests).
“I can tell you, it’s nothing like a riot. If you look at even the G20 protests in Toronto (in 2010), it was more violent than that,” he says, speaking specifically about June 12, when protesters marched on the Hong Kong Legislative Assembly and were dispersed by police with riot gear and tear gas.
N.T. says the protests would surge again every weekend while he was there, and participants would prepare to meet the police armed with riot gear. “It felt like almost a mini war zone or battle,” he says. He describes how he saw demonstrators with gear like hard hats and masks to prepare for the tear gas. “It looked like a little army, almost.
“I think, as a Canadian and as a Hong Konger, I feel like I have the moral obligation to stand up for the values of Hong Kong society, and on the wider spectrum, the free world’s values,” he explains.
“It was actually quite difficult to be back in Ottawa. It was actually more difficult than I expected. Because it felt like kind of when your backyard is on fire, and you’re stuck at your workplace so you can’t go back home to help,” he said.
So when he did return here, he reached out to the Hong Kong community in the Ottawa area to see what kind of activism was going on.
Like N.T., other Ottawa residents of Hong Kong origin have been watching the events unfold in that city, and channelling their sentiments into some limited activism.
One woman, who asked that her name not be published, was born in Hong Kong and immigrated here as a teenager. She still has many friends in her city of origin, some of whom are taking part in the protests.
She says the events in Hong Kong are never far from her mind: “I keep my cellphone with me just to see if they are OK.”
“I cannot sleep, to be honest,” says another woman asking to be known as Tricia. “I never imagined Hong Kong would be like that. It’s a tragedy.”
She still has family in Hong Kong, and says that her sister there has experienced tear gas leaking into her apartment.
“When my sister called me crying, I cannot stand it ... she called me around 1 o’clock at night (Ottawa time), and I was like, ‘I cannot do anything.’ It’s just so sad,” Tricia says.
In recent weeks, a sort of activist community has materialized among Canadian-Hong Kongers. Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal all have chat groups on encrypted messaging apps where residents can discuss starting their own demonstrations or putting up posters.
“We are really in a rush. It’s just go-go-go,” the first woman says.
The reason for all the anonymity and secrecy is because many in the Ottawa community say they fear some form of retribution or harassment, either within Ottawa’s Hong Kong community or more broadly from other Chinese-Canadians.
“Hong Kong people, they tend to be more silent,” the first woman said, because they’ve experienced “disturbance” from Chinese-Canadians who support the Chinese government.
Tricia says that she’ll post her point of view on Facebook but receive comments from Hong Kong police officers. “’You don’t know anything, you’re in Canada,’” she says, recounting the comments. “But I watch the live stream every day. I stay up so late, so you tell me I don’t know anything?”
Some Ottawa Hong Kongers have been travelling to Toronto or Montreal to take part in the bigger pro-protests there. A permit has also been obtained for Hong Kongers to demonstrate on Parliament Hill, and they say they’ve already started putting posters up around Ottawa.
“There is a large Canadian interest in Hong Kong,” N.T. says, referring to the 300,000 Canadians who live there and what he describes as “shared values.”
“I think the Canadian government can do more. What we can do in Canada is to urge the government to help Hong Kong ... to stand up against China.”
On Saturday, Canada made a joint statement with the European Union urging China to preserve the “fundamental freedoms, including the right of peaceful assembly, and Hong Kong ’s high degree of autonomy under the ‘one country, two systems’ principle.”
When my sister called me crying, I cannot stand it ... she called me around 1 o’clock at night (Ottawa time), and I was like, ‘I cannot do anything.’