Vancouver street to be named for South Asian pioneer
Jack Uppal fought racism as he became mill owner, aiding and employing many fellow immigrants
For all of his life, Jack Uppal either endured racism or fought to overcome it.
A self-made man and mill owner, he was one of B.C.’s pioneering South Asians who sought to put down deep roots.
Known as one of the patriarchs of the Sikh community, he wielded enormous influence.
Uppal employed many immigrants in his sawmill on the Fraser River, and acted as a one-man social agency for many newcomers.
Now, nearly two years after his death at 89, Uppal is still breaking some of Vancouver’s old barriers; he’s having a street named after him in the River District, just upstream from where his Goldwood Industries mill operated. It is the first time that Vancouver, a city with a checkered history around racist immigration policies and acceptance of minorities, has named a street after a South Asian.
On Wednesday, city council is expected to approve a request to rename Road 8 — a longish north-south road in the new River District — Jack Uppal Street. The decision ends a long pattern of naming streets, lanes, buildings and other civic assets predominantly after white men. It also reflects a new effort by the city’s public asset naming committee to be more inclusive and respectful of members of the city’s diverse communities, whether they be immigrants, women, minorities, First Nations or members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities.
The renaming of the road comes after River District developers filed a development permit application for part of the massive 130-acre redevelopment, which will eventually house more than 15,000 people.
Former B.C. Supreme Court justice Wally Oppal, who knew Uppal over most of his life, said Wednesday his friend would be both pleased and honoured to know that his is the first South Asian name to grace a city street.
“I think he’d be proud. Jack was well aware of the contributions he made. He was quite proud of his accomplishments and he should have been. He helped so many people,” said Oppal, a former provincial attorney general and minister of multiculturalism.
Uppal, who was born in Punjab, India but came to Canada in 1926 as a baby, achieved many firsts. He was among the first Sikhs to go to school. He was also the first Sikh to be employed as a bus driver by B.C. Electric.
He quit soon after in the face of passengers’ discrimination and lack of shifts, and held on to a thinly veiled company letter that suggested they had wasted resources training him. It proved to be an important point in his life, after which he sought to help establish a stronger South Asian community.
Uppal had learned at the knee of his father Dalip Singh the destructive power of racism; his father had arrived in Canada years earlier and had been a member of the local Shore Committee, which smuggled food onto the Komagata Maru when it was stranded in Vancouver Harbour in 1914 with 376 passengers, most of whom were from Punjab, India.
Oppal said Uppal, like many early South Asians, felt it was important to integrate into Canadian society. Despite those efforts, he said, racism hasn’t entirely subsided.
“I think there is still a significant amount of racism because I don’t think we’ve really come to grips with multiculturalism. We’ve done a far better job than Europe,” Oppal said.
“We’re more inclusive of people here than in Europe. They’ve left these people to languish in their ghettos. Our policy of multiculturalism, for all of its faults, has really been productive in that area because we’ve been more inclusive. Having said that, you go out to Surrey and there is still a lot of racism.
“I think this (street-naming) sends a positive message that a self-made icon like Jack Uppal would forever be remembered by having a street named after him.”
Nisibe Puri, who grew up with Uppal, said this may be the first Vancouver street named for a South Asian, but in New Westminster at least two streets — Rama and Basran in the Queensborough district — were named after Sikh pioneers a decade ago. She said Vancouver’s decision will carry on Uppal’s desire to help newcomers integrate into Canadian society.
“It will be a really good memory for the Indian community because there are a lot of new younger people who have arrived here now and they don’t know the history of the Indo-Canadian community who were the people that gave it a lot of roots,” she said.
Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson said it was fitting to name a street after Uppal, especially in the East Fraser Lands, where he and his family had lived and “had a positive impact on Vancouver.”
“I think it’s a great idea given Jack’s extraordinary contribution to Vancouver, creating countless jobs and being a pioneer in the South Asia community.”
“I think this( street-naming) sends a positive message that a self-made icon like Jack Up pal would forever be remembered by having a street named after him.
WALLY OPPAL
FORMER B.C. SUPREME COURT JUSTICE