(NAME-MCE) Lt.-Gov. lauds Alberta's progress in ending racism

[Bill Howe]

*Lt.-Gov. lauds Alberta's progress in ending racism**By CP*

EDMONTON -- When the Queen's representative in Alberta was just six or
seven, he wanted to jump into a Calgary wading pool.

But Norman Kwong's sister told him they couldn't because they were Chinese.

"I didn't understand why at that time, but I know that hearing that from her
didn't make me feel very good," Alberta's lieutenant-governor said
yesterday.

Kwong, who was born in 1929, said while he thought Albertans were doing a
good job at eliminating racism and discrimination, there was work to be
done.

"Diversity isn't the strange thing it was when I was growing up," the
lieutenant-governor said at the 10th anniversary of The Canadian
Multicultural Education Foundation.

His parents came to Canada in the 1920s and they lived in a Calgary
neighbourhood where his was one of only two Chinese families.

"We were the only families that were of different colour than white. We were
kind of looked on as strange because we had different customs and things,"
Kwong said.

He decided to take the job as lieutenant-government partly because of his
parents.

"I thought about what my parents went through as immigrants to Alberta in
the 1920s because they were a very visible minority."

Kwong said he was reminded how far Alberta has progressed as he took part in
preparations for Saturday's opening of the Glenbow Museum's exhibit
Mavericks -- An Incorrigible History of Alberta.


-- 
Bill Howe
http://www.billhowe.org

Join me this summer in China - Multicultural Educators to China Summer 2007
Trip - http://billhowe.org/China2007.htm

Asian Pacific American Coalition - http://www.apaact.com/

Past-President
National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME)
http://www.nameorg.org