Activists in Canada to carry torch for Hong Kong’s silenced Tiananmen vigil
Some members of Canada’s Chinese diaspora are feeling the pressure to carry the torch as Hong Kong’s vigil commemorating the June 4, 1989, massacre in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square falls silent.
Today marks the 34th anniversary of China’s crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, in which tanks rolled into the heart of Beijing and hundreds, and possibly thousands, of people were killed.
Hong Kong’s Victoria Park had for decades been the only place on Chinese soil where large numbers gathered annually to commemorate those killed. But today, Victoria Park will instead be occupied by a carnival organized by pro-Beijing groups to celebrate Hong Kong’s handover to Chinese rule in 1997.
The Hong Kong vigil organizers’ vote to disband in 2021 — spurred by enforcement of the Chinese government’s law that suppresses public displays of opposition — has driven many overseas Chinese communities to step up their own efforts, including here in Canada.
Mabel Tung, chairwoman of the society hosting the Vancouver vigil today at David Lam Park, said organizers put together the event because activists feel the added responsibility of carrying on the work of the Hong Kong vigil.
“This year we started in March to plan ahead and work with other organizations across Canada in Toronto and also Calgary … so those who went to Victoria Park every year have a sense that we still remember the massacre and the people of Hong Kong,” Tung said.
The location of David Lam Park, an urban, waterfront park similar to Victoria Park, was chosen in part to echo the spirit of the Hong Kong protests.
For some members of the diaspora, the June 4 vigil has taken on new significance due to China’s national security law crackdown in Hong Kong since 2020, where Tiananmen-related statues have been removed from universities and books about the event have been pulled off public library shelves.
Winnie Ng, co-chair of the Toronto Association for Democracy in China, said the vigil and its message may be more relevant than ever, given Hong Kong’s slide into authoritarianism, as well as recent controversies about possible Chinese interference in Canadian politics and intimidation of overseas dissidents.
“In a way, Hong Kong has now become a police state right before our eyes,” Ng said. “The very fabric of a civil society, a proud tradition of a rule-oflaw system has now been decimated,” Ng said.
The Toronto vigil will be held today in Mel Lastman Square.
Vancouver activist Thekla Lit, president of the British Columbia Association for Learning and Preserving the History of WWII in Asia, recently visited Taiwan and said the responsibility to increase awareness of the June 4 event felt by the diaspora in Canada is echoed in other major cities with large overseas Chinese communities.
“I would say that what happened on June 4, 1989, even though it happened 34 years ago, it’s actually living history,” Lit said. “So, we have to learn from this history that we have to be very vigilant and defend ourselves, our own democratic freedoms from these regimes.”