Gim Wong — page 9

By Julie MacLellan,reporter

"We're doing it for our forebears. They would rest easier," he says.

"We witnessed their suffering, their despair, their homesickness."

Wong says it's important to get the issue addressed, before all the people it affected pass away. His parents' generation is gone; his own is already disappearing.

There are many for whom the wrongs will never be righted.

One of them he remembers clearly is Wing On Wong, a cousin.

He came to Canada at the age of 11 or 12, he served in the war all over the world and won a dozen medals for his efforts.

He, too, had to pay the head tax. He, too, faced years of not being considered a full citizen, despite his service to his country.

Wong remembers sitting with Wing when he was dying, and Wing making his request: "'You tell Mulroney I fight for this country, I pay the head tax, we low man on the totem pole. I die, I want military funeral. Make sure they play the bugle.'"

Wong stops, shakes his head, his eyes welling with tears.

"Wing didn't get any of that. He didn't get a damn thing." NEXT