Canada could be first Western country to set up Nanjing Massacre Commemorative Day

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The legislature in the Canadian province of Ontario is considering designating December 13 as Nanjing Massacre Commemorative Day. If the act passes the third reading, Ontario will become the first western government to set up the remembrance day.

The Nanjing Massacre Commemorative Day Act (Bill 79), proposed by lawmaker Soo Wong, has already passed the first and second reading and been submitted for the third.

Wong presented the bill on December 5 last year and two weeks later her team began to collect signatures on a petition across Ontario, with an aim of getting 100,000 signatures before February 15.

Soo Wong, a lawmaker of the Parliament of Ontario. /Xinhua Photo

“I hope to win the support from all sectors in Canada by collecting signatures on the petition, which can also help push the legislature process,” she said.

Wong spent two years preparing for the bill. She learned from other successful cases, sorted out historical materials and distributed them to other lawmakers, asking for advice.

Bill 79 still needs a big step forward to pass the third reading before coming into force. There are still a couple of hurdles to get past, Wong told China Daily at a gathering hosted by the Chinese Canadian Political Action Committee of Ontario last month.

"First it is a private member bill," said Wong. "Normally, a private member bill is harder to get passed; secondly, the Japanese community doesn't support my bill, they think it is dividing the community, which is not true. This bill is about the truth."

In Japan, there are pervasive comments on the Internet denying the Nanjing Massacre and claiming that “the act of Chinese people derogating Japan has spread overseas.” And in Canada, some Japanese Canadians have tried to block the bill. They also started a signature collection asking the parliament to withdraw it.

People visit a memorial exhibition of Nanjing Massacre in Toranto, Canada, on December 8, 2016. /Xinhua Photo

Meanwhile, the National Association of Japanese Canadians has written to the Premier of Ontario, Kathleen O'Day Wynne, calling for the rejection of Bill 79.

"If the bill is not passed (in the third reading), I will keep working on it," Wong said. "But I am hopeful … there are lots of people across Ontario behind the petition."

“Though the bill still faces some uncertainties, we need to keep confident,” said another Ontario lawmaker Han Dong.

It is important to designate December 13 as the Nanjing Massacre Commemorative Day in Ontario, Wong wrote in the Bill.

“It will provide an opportunity for all Ontarians, especially the Asian community, to gather, remember, and honor the victims and families affected by the Nanjing Massacre, an atrocity where over 200,000 Chinese civilians and soldiers alike were indiscriminately killed in the Japanese capture of the city.”

As one of the most diverse provinces in Canada, Ontario is recognized as an inclusive society. It is also the home of one of the largest Asian populations in Canada. Currently, some Ontarians have direct relationships with victims and survivors of the Nanjing Massacre, reads Bill 79.