UPCOMING MEETING SEP 21, 2021
Don Chapman, Author & Retired Pilot The Lost Canadians: A Struggle for Citizenship Right, Equality, and Identity
Lost Canadians are people who think of themselves as Canadians, but either ceased to be citizens, or never were Canadian citizens in the first place, as a result of gaps in citizenship law, or arcane legal provisions. In many cases, Lost Canadians were unaware they were without Canadian citizenship, and potentially stateless, until they attempted to obtain government identification like a passport or birth certificate, or register for government services, such as Canadian Pension.
Don Chapman was born in British Columbia, but unknowingly lost his citizenship at the age of six when his father moved his family to the United States and took out American citizenship. Chapman was shocked to learn, many years later, that because his father had given up his Canadian citizenship (but his mother hadn't), under the rules of the time, Chapman's Canadian citizenship was automatically revoked. He became an advocate for Lost Canadians and embarked on a years-long crusade to have the federal government change the law and restore citizenship to hundreds of thousands of people.
UPCOMING MEETING, SEP 28, 2021
Ei Sun OH, Principal Adviser, Pacific Research Center, Malaysia Malaysia: Opportunities and Challenges Amidst a Pandemic
Ei Sun will provide an overview of the current socioeconomic situation in Malaysia and also the state of the pandemic, together with the challenges and opportunities presented.
Andrew Goh, Past Assistant Governor, RC Malaysia; Aleen Foo, President, RC Port Klang, Malaysia Rotary in Malaysia
Andrew and Aleen will talk about the Rotary Clubs in Malaysia including what projects they have been supporting.
UPCOMING MEETING, OCT 05, 2021
Lorne Calder, District 5040 Governor District News & Membership Celebrations
Lorne Calder will be visiting from his home in Prince George, bringing with him new of the District. What is currently happening and what his plans are for the year.
As of last Monday, September 13th, in accordance with government policy, the Terminal City Club, as a dining facility, instituted a requirement for anyone entering their premises to show proof of vaccination at the door. Accepted documentation is:
QR code, either electronic or paper, together with government issued ID
COVID-19 immunization record card, together with government issued ID
Until October 23rd, a single dose is accepted. October 24th onwards, double dose.
We continue to work with the Terminal City Club to ensure that all of our members can be comfortable meeting in as safe an environment as we can possibly provide. We will continue to have sanitary stations available, disposable gloves for handling the serving utensils, and an attempt to limit the number of people gathering at the buffet tables. Also the tables are spread out and the place settings at each have been reduced to six.
Nadja Gehriger, Secretary, hosted the meeting in-person & via ZOOM
Jill Pennefather, Sergeant At Arms, introduced the guests
Miya Otake played O Canada on the harp
President’s Announcements:
Welcome to our guests, new and returning, as well as our own members who have taken the time out of their busy lives to be with us today. Thank you for joining us.
Secretary's announcements:
reminders of upcoming events/meetings (see above)
birthdays, member club anniversaries, wedding anniversaries (see above)
Special presentations and Members' Moments:
Verona Edelstein - on behalf of the International Service Committee (ISC) provided a happy update on the Forage Menkao (GG1526287) project in DR Congo. The water is flowing, clean pure water!!
The water pump was lowered to 280 meters (920 feet) last week and is working wonderfully well. The 2,500 villagers of Menkao already are filling up their water containers. Just imagine how that has changed their lives and especially those of the women and girls. And it has eased their financial challenges. Instead of paying a high price for a bucket of water fetched from a shallow well or water source providing impure water 6 kms away, they pay a few cents to the Communaute du Chemin Neuf CCM site owners at their village Menkao, a sum which will ensure financing over time of the well’s upkeep.
Now, the CCM can build their planned agricultural training centre which will permit each, years 20 or more of Kinshasa’s older street children and some village children, to be trained in modern agricultural techniques. This in turn will permit the development of more diversified and profitable crops for the whole village – a radical change from the current sustenance farming.
Kudos to our CCM partners for persevering and their and our Kinshasa Kingabwa partners for supporting them over the course of six years. And bravo to the successive leaders of the RCoV, the successive Boards and the members of the International Service Committee who, from the 2015 original failed well to 2021, did not lose confidence in the ability of our CCN and Rotary partners to get it done.
It was financed in part through our support: US$27,000 for the first well drilling, US$8,000 for the second and US$25,000 for this successful drilling. And we engaged as well our sister club Tokyo Setagaya South, One Hundred Mile House, and Hunter Hill Rotary partners and their Districts in this endeavour. For this successful re-drilling, managed entirely by the CCN, we are providing US$25,000, Rotarians at Lille France and their District, US$6,000 and the CCN $US75,000. At the end of the day, the total cost of the project has been US$400,000 of which RCs, Districts and the Rotary Foundation provided about US$182,000.
Time to pop the corks – after breathing a sigh of relief. Kudos to all involved for having the tenacity and energy to see it through.
Rene Abi-Rached - on behalf of the Community Service Committee (CSC) reminded us of the upcoming Decoda Team Trivia Challenge fundraising event on Sept. 21, 2021, 7:00-8:30 p.m. in support of literacy in British Columbia. Contact Rene, Nadja, or Carolyn if you are interested in joining the RCoV team. This year's theme "Literacy Connects Us" at home, at work, and in the community.
Program:
Tom Crean introduced Darrell Evans, a very good friend of Tom’s, a Founder and the current Executive Director for the Canadian Institute for Information and Privacy Studies (CIIPS). He started the movement that got the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act passed in BC. Darrell has received awards for his work in the area of access to information, including the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal.
Darrell expressed delight to have the opportunity to connect with the Rotary Club of Vancouver about issues of freedom of information and privacy. He showed a documentary, Duty to Document, about freedom of information in BC. It is the citizens right to have direct access to governments’ records. As the underpinnings of our society this is imperative, including records of your own personal information that the government has. As is true of many human endeavours the fight to access written documentation has had unintended consequences – the government is doing more and more orally so they don’t have written records, and in some cases are destroying records. All to avoid scrutiny -- e.g., the Triple Delete Scandal. The film proposes a remedy to the situation. Would imposing a legislated requirement to keep records help? We believe so.
If there is no duty to document, then there is no duty to freedom of information.
Related links:
Canadian Institute for Information and Privacy Studies (CIIPS) website, CLICK HERE
View Duty to Document, a short documentary that uses the “Triple Delete” scandal as illustration, CLICK HERE
View the full Zoom session, which includes the premiere of the documentary 'Duty to Document' (17 min), followed by an expert panel and a public Q&A session, CLICK HERE
Duty to Document backgrounders on CIIPS website, CLICK HERE
Information Commission of Canada, Backgrounder: Duty to document, January 25, 2016, CLICK HERE
Meeting adjourned with a toast to our ISC, to the passion and tenacity of that group.
Lost Canadians are people who think of themselves as Canadians, but either ceased to be citizens, or never were Canadian citizens in the first place, as a result of gaps in citizenship law, or arcane legal provisions. In many cases, Lost Canadians were unaware they were without Canadian citizenship, and potentially stateless, until they attempted to obtain government identification like a passport or birth certificate, or register for government services, such as Canadian Pension. 
