Conservatives, you are wrong about Chinese Canadians!

今天收到本选区保守党候选人的拉票传单。其中用了英文，中文，韩文三种文字。

奇怪的是，居然只有中文韩文部分有反对同性婚姻的言辞：“自由党通过同性婚姻法，致令我们的下一代无论在学校课堂或传媒上都沾染到有关课题”，而英语部分对此只字未提。

以下是我写给此候选人的电子邮件：

Dear Mr. Jovan Boseovski,

I am a Chinese Canadian living in your riding. I just received your campaign pamphlet for federal election and have some questions to ask.

I noticed in this tri-lingual (English, Chinese, and Korean) pamphlet you expressed your opposition to same-sex marriage ONLY in the Chinese and Korean portion. Why? Is it because that in your opinion there are fewer gays among Chinese people and/or most Chinese Canadians are homophobia?

If you really think so, you are wrong. The percentage of homosexuals among population has nothing to do with race or ethnic. I happen to know there is a big gay Chinese community in Toronto and they are from every neighbourhood of GTA, including our riding.

As to the opinions of Chinese Canadians toward gay marriage, maybe you have heard some complaints from a few religious people, but please don't forget the existence of the silent majority. The truth is, most Chinese people (and even their parents) are not religious and they don't have that homophobic gene in their blood. More importantly, Chinese culture has the great tradition of tolerance and compromise, which taught us how to live with people who are different from us in harmony. According to my experience, not a single Chinese friend to whom my partner and I came out has shied away from us. I have enough reason to believe that most Chinese immigrants, by the time they received Canadian citizenship, have already built their principle of human rights, made their own observance to the gay issue, and eventually accepted the validity of gay relationships.

Maybe those Chinese Canadians are not as aggressive or talkative as those complainers, but they do have their stands. By making a wrong assumption about them, you will only end up to scare them away. You know, Chinese culture is always against intolerance, against those rigid inhumane "principles", which are the core of fundamentalism.

Good luck!

J.