The Vancouver Sun from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada • 29

BRITISH COLUMBIA B9 The Vancouver Sun, Wednesday, July 8, 1992 CJVB SALE BLOWING IN THE WIND WHO IS GOING 3 ll 1 1 II Bl Cultural groups upset i at lack of I rmhlic talks I TO TAKi YOUR PHOfJi CALL (Between 7:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. Monday to Friday) HHP YOU WRIT! A SNAPPY CLASSIC (ID AD AND THIN knit The fate of a popular local multi- cultural radio station is in the hands oftheCRTC. But some members of the Lower Mainland's ethnjc community are already upset that the Canadian Ra- dio-television and Telecommunica- tions Commission has decided not to hold a public hearing over the sale of CJVB. Owned and operated by the Jan van Bruchem family since it began in 1972, CJVB is being sold to a Vancouver-based partnership that -includes a subsidiary of the Hong- -kong Bank of Canada, for $5.1 mil- -lion.

CJVB is a 24-hour station that broadcasts in 23 languages. The majority of broadcasting time goes -to Overseas Chinese Voice, a. Chi-; nese-language program on the air from 9 p.m. to 9 a.m. seven days a week.

The Chinese Canadian National Council, one of two national Chinese Canadian umbrella groups, has intervened against the sale. The I council is worried the station's current multicultural programming won't be protected under the new ownership. The new owners have promised the station's staff and ethnic pro-. ducers will remain the same, ensur- ing continuity of CJVB's service to the language groups it currently serves. Victor Yukmun Wong said the sale has both supporters and opponents among Chinese Canadians.

That's why Wong, a well-known activist in the head tax redress movement, said he intervened against the sale as an individual and not as a representa-1 tive of any organization. "The major concern I have is over the programming and whether it will change in any way. Ifalotofthe producers are kicked out, that II UT IT WHIRI IT WILL DO JOB? (Hint it's not your mother!) BILL KEAY wouldn't be fair," Wong said. Wong also criticized the CRTC's 5 decision not to hold a hearing in I Vancouver, adding CJVB listeners now won't have an opportunity to speak out at a public forum on the proposed sale. WjTH WILD ROAR, natural gas spews out near Ter- Pipeline was severed during construction work Tues- minai ana Mam, unaer watcniui eyes or nreiignters.

day but flow was turned off without incident. 1 LIBERALS Folitics reels an ethnic impact J5j DOUG WARD A fT Vancouver Sun i The president of the federal Liberal Party association in Richmond can't help but laugh when he describes how his group's member ship mushroomed from a few hundred a Richmond is not a small community any more. Not a little sleeping fishing village or a clump of farmland. I would say in poetic terms that it is a garden of multicultural people. year ago to thousands today.

It looks like a manufacturing machine going on. Day and night. Sometimes I sit back and laugh at it, said Dr. Suresh Kurl. "I don't know exactly how many there are, but I think it's in the neighborhood of 4,500." A VANGOUViR SUN PROVING! The reason is an ethnic slugfest between DR.

SURESH KURL 99 a high-profile Chinese-Canadian, Raymond Chan, and a prominent East Indian businessman, Herb Dhaliwal. Both men' and their supporters have signed up thousands of new members at $10 each from their ethnic communities for the eventual nomination battle. Chan, a 40-year-old engineer at the Cheema feels it is unfair to characterize the Chan-Dhaliwal fight as an ethnic contest. "I'd be interested in knowing if there were two Caucasian candidates would there be as much focus on the campaign? If two Caucasian candidates went out and signed up a thousand people each?" Cheema, 33, said the candidates are turning to their ethnic communities because "you first go to your friends to gain support." Once nominated, these candidates would then seek support from all voters, he said. Cheema said the entry of new Canadians into politics is not restricted to Richmond.

"Non-Caucasian immigrants and new immigrants are now taking a higher profile and a higher role in politics in Canada. "The Chinese population and the East-Indian population has always been relatively high in the Lower Mainland. And we're finally seeing them join the political process in larger numbers." Dhaliwal, who admits he is considering running, also said the Richmond contest is not an ethnic one. "I don't see how they can say that. Chamkaur Cheema is from the same ethnic group as myself and he is Chan's campaign manager.

So I'm sure he is working very hard signing up his friends and family who come from the same ethnic group as I do. "Sure we try to go to some of the people in our community, but I have friends in all different ethnic communities." Kurl agreed the nomination row "could give you the idea that a group is taking over the party." However, he added, the party is finally coming alive after years of no-growth. "The situation in Richmond has for years been 20 to 25 active members getting together. They've never succeeded in raising funds. So we went out and recruited people." Kurl also said the rise of the Reform party, with its anti-multiculturalism policies, has spurred political activism among non-white immigrants.

The ethnic phenomenon has angered some Liberal veterans who characterize the new party members as "instant 5 Liberals" who've hijacked the party. Richmond members Len Plater and Lucy Kadian had previously served on their association executive, but lost at the last general meeting when a slate of Dhaliwal- supporters was elected. i Plater, a retired school supervisor, said: "I don't think that is good democracy 'i because it says people of little interest can for $10 buy the right to make the decision for people who normally constitute the Liberal Party." Kadian, a 31-year-old legal administra- tor, said it is not easy to sell memberships these days unless you can appeal to an eth--nic group. "It seems only special-interest groups are able to sell memberships these days." About the Indo-Canadians who voted 7 against her during the executive election, -Kadian said: "They were all bused in. There were buses that brought the people in to come and vote.

They weren't i interested in sitting for the whole meeting. They wanted to get their ballots and leave." She added: "I have great difficulty see- f'r ing immigrants choosing a candidate who will run in a general election when they can't go and vote for him at election time because they aren't yet Canadian citizens. But you don't have to be a Canadian citi- zen to join the Liberal party." Kadian said she might switch parties. "I'm so disillusioned, I don't know what to do. I sometimes think I want to go vote for -the Reform party but I don't believe in everything they have as well, so I don't know." Kurl defended the leadership change, i About the new members, he said: "They followed the rules and they expressed their opinion and supported one candidate over the other.

So I don't see them as political terrorists hijacking the party." TRIUMF physics facility who spearheaded support in Vancouver for the pro-democracy movement in China, is a declared can didate. However, Dhaliwal, a 39-year-old Indo-Canadian businessman and newly ap pointed vice-chairman of B.C. Hydro, has still not formally entered the fray. The same phenomenon is also at play in The nomination fights show how the Lower Mainland's changing ethnic makeup is having an increasing impact on the area's politics. Kurl, who left India in 1970, said the fight in Richmond is a sign of how immigration has altered that municipality's ethnic mix.

"Richmond is not a small community any more. Not a little sleeping fishing village or a clump of farmland. I would say in poetic terms that it is a garden of multicultural people." Richmond candidate Chan said it is high time that non-Caucasian immigrants started seeking political office. "There are 800,000 Chinese-Canadians in Canada and no MP," said Chan, adding that Chinese-Canadians now make up between 20 to 30 per cent of the Richmond population. Chan said he signed up 1,500 new members alone, mostly Chinese-Canadians, from a booth in the Aberdeen Centre mall.

The ethnic split isn't without its contradictions. For instance, Chan's campaign manager is Chamkaur Cheema, an Indo-Canadian business consultant. CLASSIFIID ABTAKiR 'ShikcouTErSun Province CLASSIFIED 736-2211 the federal riding of Surrey North, where a candidate nominated two years ago, Virginia Barteluk, could be dumped by thousands of new party members, mostly Indo-Canadians, at a membership meeting later this month. Barteluk said 3,000 new memberships were recently signed by supporters of her rival, Indo-Canadian Prem Vining. She said the association had only 1,000 members a year ago.

Barteluk said she is especially upset that the eleventh-hour challenge is coming from Vining, whom she previously regarded as a "good friend and good rmeanl helping flhe Children off (British Columbia The Vancouver Sun's Children Fund Society raises and disburses money to aid non-profit organizations that work to help B.C. children and youth. Grants are made in the spring and fall, with guidance from an advisory committee whose members have knowledge and experience in the fields of child welfare, education, recreation and physical, mental and emotional health. Disbursements usually range from $500 to $10,000. The society's board of directors is responsible for final selection of successful HOW TO APPLY FOR FUNDING Any registered, non-profit society that works with children and youth can request an application form and further information.

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