BRITISH COLUMBIA: Migrants get welcome party at
base
Monday, August 23, 1999
VICTORIA -- In a colourful show of
support, about 100 people decorated a chain-link fence with welcome signs
around the gymnasium at Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt, where Chinese
migrants are being detained. The "welcome party" went on Saturday night
outside the fence while RCMP and military personnel looked on.
"We are here to show these people that Victorians aren't all racists,"
said Shane Caulder. "It's ludicrous to think these people are a threat to
us."
Organizers were not allowed to give migrants gifts of food and
clothing. But they conveyed messages through a Mandarin interpreter using
a megaphone.
Amid cheers and applause, a steady stream of migrants dressed in white
jumpsuits paraded to outside port-a-potties. Several waved, one yelled and
another said "thank you" before being escorted back inside the gymnasium.
CP
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