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Actually, it's not an illness.
It's not an autism issue.

2
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It's that society hasn't
been accepting of them.

3
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Didn't I pack you a lunch?

4
00:00:08,125 --> 00:00:10,035
She said other students took it all.

5
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She couldn't eat a single bite.

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If you don't understand sharing,

7
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then leave this school.

8
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Lao Chen,

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00:00:20,285 --> 00:00:21,859
thank you so much for coming

10
00:00:21,896 --> 00:00:23,507
to our studio today. I hear

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00:00:23,544 --> 00:00:26,452
you've founded a new
party. What's it called?

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00:00:26,526 --> 00:00:27,595
Our party is called

13
00:00:27,632 --> 00:00:30,257
the CanWest Party.

14
00:00:30,730 --> 00:00:33,220
Could you briefly introduce

15
00:00:33,257 --> 00:00:36,035
your party's platform to our viewers?

16
00:00:36,381 --> 00:00:38,503
As for when our party was founded,

17
00:00:38,540 --> 00:00:40,605
it was actually back in 2007.

18
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Yes. Back then, the name we started with

19
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wasn't this one. It was called

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00:00:48,105 --> 00:00:49,392
the Nation Alliance Party.

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00:00:49,845 --> 00:00:53,077
After that, we ran in several elections.

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00:00:53,531 --> 00:00:55,600
Provincially, we're what's called a

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00:00:55,637 --> 00:00:56,845
provincial party.

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One condition for approving
a provincial party

25
00:01:01,443 --> 00:01:03,540
is that in every
provincial election, you

26
00:01:03,577 --> 00:01:05,943
must put forward your representatives—

27
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a few candidates—to run.

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If you skip even one election,

29
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then your party

30
00:01:11,446 --> 00:01:12,169
gets closed.

31
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Right, closed. So a few years ago,

32
00:01:15,302 --> 00:01:17,902
after I stopped running, we were closed.

33
00:01:17,939 --> 00:01:19,394
Then this February,

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00:01:19,431 --> 00:01:21,720
we revived the party.

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00:01:21,757 --> 00:01:22,879
But when we revived it,

36
00:01:22,916 --> 00:01:24,368
we couldn't use the old name anymore.

37
00:01:24,405 --> 00:01:25,743
So we came up with

38
00:01:25,780 --> 00:01:28,631
a new name: the CanWest Party.

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00:01:28,706 --> 00:01:30,148
So what you want to tell viewers

40
00:01:30,185 --> 00:01:32,275
is that its political platform

41
00:01:32,312 --> 00:01:34,391
is basically the same.

42
00:01:34,465 --> 00:01:36,156
Right. We've never changed.

43
00:01:36,194 --> 00:01:38,501
Then and now, basically,

44
00:01:38,538 --> 00:01:40,724
one thing holds: we're a grassroots

45
00:01:40,761 --> 00:01:43,688
party. That is, our members

46
00:01:43,725 --> 00:01:46,891
and all our supporters
are ordinary citizens,

47
00:01:46,965 --> 00:01:49,798
ordinary people. And
the vast majority are

48
00:01:49,835 --> 00:01:52,645
first-generation immigrants.
That's our profile.

49
00:01:52,682 --> 00:01:54,968
Because we define ourselves
as a grassroots party,

50
00:01:55,005 --> 00:01:56,733
when we run for office,

51
00:01:56,770 --> 00:01:58,280
we, as candidates,

52
00:01:58,317 --> 00:02:00,560
are representatives
of the people, right?

53
00:02:00,597 --> 00:02:02,958
You represent the people of your riding.

54
00:02:02,995 --> 00:02:05,264
You listen to them, and then you take

55
00:02:05,301 --> 00:02:06,804
their voice to the
provincial government, or to

56
00:02:06,841 --> 00:02:09,633
city hall. So our platform

57
00:02:09,670 --> 00:02:13,081
is bottom-up, not top-down.

58
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Because this provincial election

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00:02:17,039 --> 00:02:20,266
is the first time our party is
showing itself to the public.

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00:02:20,303 --> 00:02:22,877
We're the CanWest Party,
a provincial party,

61
00:02:22,914 --> 00:02:25,256
and we hope that through this

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00:02:25,293 --> 00:02:27,273
provincial election, more
people will get to know us.

63
00:02:27,310 --> 00:02:28,693
Lately I've talked a lot

64
00:02:28,730 --> 00:02:30,830
about the party, and people had no idea.

65
00:02:30,867 --> 00:02:33,002
Nobody promotes us. People only knew

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00:02:33,039 --> 00:02:35,850
my old Nation Alliance Party.

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00:02:35,887 --> 00:02:37,358
The CanWest Party, they'd never heard of.

68
00:02:37,432 --> 00:02:39,281
As I recall, you were
only founded recently, right?

69
00:02:39,319 --> 00:02:41,136
In the Richmond civic election too,

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00:02:41,210 --> 00:02:43,053
a lot of people didn't know

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00:02:43,090 --> 00:02:45,631
my name. They just knew me as Lao Chen.

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00:02:46,094 --> 00:02:47,274
Wei Ping Chen. But in elections,

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00:02:47,311 --> 00:02:48,539
I use Lawrence Chen.

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00:02:49,187 --> 00:02:51,255
Because in elections

75
00:02:51,292 --> 00:02:53,348
there are no Chinese characters, right?

76
00:02:53,385 --> 00:02:55,530
So Lawrence Chen is my campaign name.

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00:02:56,761 --> 00:02:58,372
My name is Wei Ping Chen.

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00:02:58,446 --> 00:02:59,792
And for school trustee this time,

79
00:02:59,829 --> 00:03:01,206
it's the same name. And
provincially, you're running in

80
00:03:01,244 --> 00:03:03,676
Richmond Centre. Yes.

81
00:03:03,750 --> 00:03:06,714
Because that area has
lots of Chinese residents—

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00:03:06,751 --> 00:03:08,863
a high proportion of Chinese,

83
00:03:08,900 --> 00:03:11,206
lots of middle-class condos in that area.

84
00:03:11,281 --> 00:03:14,047
Lao Chen, I'd like to know

85
00:03:14,084 --> 00:03:16,225
what year you came to Canada.

86
00:03:16,262 --> 00:03:18,185
Before that, did you study
abroad? In another country?

87
00:03:18,259 --> 00:03:20,370
Yes, I went abroad to study in 1998,

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00:03:20,407 --> 00:03:21,875
first to Australia. At the time

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00:03:21,912 --> 00:03:23,469
I did a master's degree,

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00:03:23,506 --> 00:03:25,630
an MBA, with two majors: one was

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00:03:25,667 --> 00:03:26,833
finance, the other

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00:03:26,870 --> 00:03:28,754
business management. My

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00:03:28,791 --> 00:03:30,630
undergrad was in China, at
Dalian Maritime College—

94
00:03:30,667 --> 00:03:32,546
as it was called then, now
Dalian Maritime University—

95
00:03:33,130 --> 00:03:33,991
for my bachelor's.

96
00:03:34,296 --> 00:03:35,704
Then in Australia,

97
00:03:35,741 --> 00:03:37,779
after finishing my master's,
I immigrated here.

98
00:03:37,816 --> 00:03:39,213
So I came as a skilled immigrant.

99
00:03:40,333 --> 00:03:41,657
So how do you think Australia

100
00:03:41,694 --> 00:03:43,767
compares with Canada?

101
00:03:43,804 --> 00:03:45,189
In healthcare, in education,

102
00:03:45,226 --> 00:03:46,694
are their systems any different?

103
00:03:46,813 --> 00:03:49,542
Early on, Canada was
similar to Australia.

104
00:03:50,403 --> 00:03:52,123
Later, after I came to Canada,

105
00:03:52,160 --> 00:03:53,952
I found that healthcare here—

106
00:03:53,989 --> 00:03:55,940
when we came, we had to buy
medical insurance. Right.

107
00:03:56,014 --> 00:03:57,069
Yes, medical premiums.

108
00:03:57,144 --> 00:03:59,330
Over $100, right? But in Australia

109
00:03:59,367 --> 00:04:00,949
there was none of that. Australia was—

110
00:04:01,551 --> 00:04:04,213
people there told me

111
00:04:04,250 --> 00:04:07,292
Australia is a truly socialist country.

112
00:04:07,329 --> 00:04:10,529
Free education, free healthcare.
Out of work?

113
00:04:10,566 --> 00:04:12,347
You go get money from the government,

114
00:04:12,384 --> 00:04:14,209
no strings attached, no proof needed.

115
00:04:14,246 --> 00:04:16,400
You just go collect it. Just
say you have no job,

116
00:04:16,437 --> 00:04:18,676
they believe you and
give you money to spend.

117
00:04:18,713 --> 00:04:20,403
As for Canada,

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when we came,

119
00:04:21,837 --> 00:04:23,042
education was free, of course,

120
00:04:23,458 --> 00:04:25,116
but healthcare cost money.

121
00:04:25,495 --> 00:04:29,356
No money, no job? You couldn't
just ask the government for money.

122
00:04:29,681 --> 00:04:32,081
You had to have worked before and get EI

123
00:04:32,118 --> 00:04:34,290
before you could get money.
That's different from

124
00:04:34,327 --> 00:04:36,412
Australia. Australia has no EI.

125
00:04:36,662 --> 00:04:38,064
EI means you've already worked

126
00:04:38,101 --> 00:04:40,781
and paid into something like
unemployment insurance, right?

127
00:04:40,818 --> 00:04:42,630
So in terms of the system, Canada

128
00:04:42,667 --> 00:04:45,255
wasn't as good as Australia
back then, in my view.

129
00:04:45,292 --> 00:04:47,031
But they were both part
of the same system,

130
00:04:47,068 --> 00:04:48,921
both under the Queen back then.

131
00:04:48,995 --> 00:04:52,014
So why did you end up choosing Canada?

132
00:04:52,088 --> 00:04:54,194
After I graduated, I
wanted to immigrate.

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00:04:54,231 --> 00:04:56,294
There were two countries: Australia

134
00:04:56,331 --> 00:04:57,636
and Canada. I applied to both.

135
00:04:57,886 --> 00:04:59,856
Canada approved faster;

136
00:04:59,893 --> 00:05:02,201
Australia was slower. So since
I got approved,

137
00:05:02,238 --> 00:05:05,182
I came. I also thought that Canada,

138
00:05:05,219 --> 00:05:07,348
being closer to the U.S.,

139
00:05:07,385 --> 00:05:09,358
might be more developed.

140
00:05:09,395 --> 00:05:11,067
It was kind of a random idea.

141
00:05:11,104 --> 00:05:12,794
I just sort of ended up here,
and I've been here since.

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00:05:13,182 --> 00:05:15,189
I'd originally meant to run just for

143
00:05:15,226 --> 00:05:17,532
school trustee, but it
all ended up overlapping.

144
00:05:17,569 --> 00:05:19,181
Lots of reporters were confused:

145
00:05:19,218 --> 00:05:20,802
why run for this and that?
It's not that I wanted to.

146
00:05:20,839 --> 00:05:22,629
So why did you stack them together?

147
00:05:22,666 --> 00:05:24,358
This came up so suddenly.

148
00:05:24,395 --> 00:05:25,884
Because we're a provincial party,

149
00:05:25,921 --> 00:05:27,662
we have to run in provincial elections.

150
00:05:27,699 --> 00:05:30,006
That's what the rules require, right?

151
00:05:30,044 --> 00:05:32,902
Before the provincial
election came up, I thought—

152
00:05:32,939 --> 00:05:35,458
my friends, many of my supporters, are

153
00:05:35,495 --> 00:05:37,617
parents. Parents told me

154
00:05:37,654 --> 00:05:39,925
a lot, like about kids
with autism issues

155
00:05:39,962 --> 00:05:42,605
and depression, hoping the
government would take notice.

156
00:05:42,642 --> 00:05:44,547
I thought it was a really good issue.

157
00:05:44,584 --> 00:05:46,103
That became our platform.

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00:05:46,140 --> 00:05:48,927
So I hoped that as a trustee,
I could tell the school board

159
00:05:48,964 --> 00:05:50,986
that they should care about these kids.

160
00:05:51,310 --> 00:05:54,764
But throughout my interviews,

161
00:05:54,801 --> 00:05:56,888
I found a problem.

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00:05:56,925 --> 00:05:59,745
In this country, they

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00:05:59,782 --> 00:06:02,830
label a child who doesn't
talk here as autistic,

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00:06:02,867 --> 00:06:04,745
and send them to a
doctor for medication.

165
00:06:04,782 --> 00:06:06,474
But I visited many Chinese

166
00:06:06,511 --> 00:06:08,269
parents, and they said their kids

167
00:06:08,306 --> 00:06:10,681
actually aren't autistic.
It's because they came to

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00:06:10,718 --> 00:06:13,134
a new environment, their
language isn't good,

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00:06:13,171 --> 00:06:15,801
they have no friends in class,
nobody talks to them.

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00:06:15,838 --> 00:06:17,736
So they go through a
period of adjustment.

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During that adjustment, they might

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00:06:19,482 --> 00:06:22,171
not want to talk, or
be kind of withdrawn.

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But the local education experts

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don't get it,

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00:06:25,746 --> 00:06:27,616
because they grew up here.
Kids here normally

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00:06:27,653 --> 00:06:30,127
have lots of friends
to talk and chat with.

177
00:06:30,164 --> 00:06:33,761
But a newcomer, a new
student from elsewhere—

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00:06:33,798 --> 00:06:36,190
including my daughter,
when she started school—

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00:06:36,227 --> 00:06:38,397
everyone bullied her.

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00:06:38,434 --> 00:06:40,097
People here pick on the meek, too.

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00:06:40,134 --> 00:06:42,413
For one, your language isn't good,
and you're a stranger.

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00:06:42,450 --> 00:06:45,227
So the more they get bullied,

183
00:06:45,264 --> 00:06:47,965
the less they talk, and the
more they sulk at home.

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00:06:48,002 --> 00:06:50,901
Actually, it's not an illness.
It's not an autism issue.

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00:06:50,938 --> 00:06:53,588
It's that society hasn't
been accepting of them.

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00:06:53,931 --> 00:06:55,236
So given this situation,

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00:06:55,273 --> 00:06:57,602
I want to bring the parents' voices

188
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to the government, to say:

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00:06:59,319 --> 00:07:01,823
Don't take a child who
doesn't like to talk

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00:07:01,860 --> 00:07:04,350
and push them to a doctor,
make them take medication.

191
00:07:04,387 --> 00:07:06,560
You'll make a healthy kid sick.

192
00:07:06,597 --> 00:07:08,504
They were perfectly fine to begin with.

193
00:07:08,541 --> 00:07:10,160
You should care about them more.

194
00:07:11,250 --> 00:07:12,090
When my daughter first
came to this country—

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00:07:12,127 --> 00:07:13,843
that was back in 2000—

196
00:07:14,185 --> 00:07:16,070
she started at a school.

197
00:07:16,107 --> 00:07:18,361
In the morning, I packed
her something really tasty.

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00:07:18,704 --> 00:07:21,583
At 2 p.m., she'd come home from
school and eat ravenously.

199
00:07:21,620 --> 00:07:23,385
I said, how are you this hungry?

200
00:07:23,422 --> 00:07:25,343
Didn't I pack you a lunch?

201
00:07:25,741 --> 00:07:29,065
She said other students took it all.
She couldn't eat a single bite.

202
00:07:29,519 --> 00:07:30,787
As soon as it was lunchtime,

203
00:07:31,185 --> 00:07:32,816
others would come, grab it and eat it.

204
00:07:32,853 --> 00:07:34,694
She didn't dare speak up. Several kids

205
00:07:34,944 --> 00:07:37,755
ate her food, so she was always hungry.

206
00:07:37,792 --> 00:07:39,800
Only then did I realize that

207
00:07:39,837 --> 00:07:42,167
my child came home unhappy

208
00:07:42,204 --> 00:07:44,466
because she was being bullied at school.

209
00:07:44,540 --> 00:07:46,058
Did you write to the
principal back then?

210
00:07:46,132 --> 00:07:49,845
I went to the principal. He
chewed me out, kept saying

211
00:07:50,503 --> 00:07:53,531
you new immigrants don't
understand what we call sharing.

212
00:07:54,086 --> 00:07:54,984
That was his word.

213
00:07:55,382 --> 00:07:56,975
We don't accept what you're saying.

214
00:07:57,012 --> 00:07:58,946
If you don't understand sharing,

215
00:07:58,983 --> 00:08:00,225
then leave this school.

216
00:08:00,697 --> 00:08:02,490
What's sharing? He said your

217
00:08:02,527 --> 00:08:05,068
child's lunch should be
shared with others. No—

218
00:08:05,142 --> 00:08:07,727
sharing only works if
the person is willing

219
00:08:07,764 --> 00:08:09,544
to do it. But back then, look,

220
00:08:09,581 --> 00:08:12,253
the child only had that one lunch.

221
00:08:12,327 --> 00:08:12,956
Just one lunch.

222
00:08:13,031 --> 00:08:15,438
She can't share it with everyone.

223
00:08:15,512 --> 00:08:16,741
Sharing half would be fine,

224
00:08:16,778 --> 00:08:18,447
but you left my child
without a single bite.

225
00:08:18,484 --> 00:08:20,456
And I didn't even know. The thing is,

226
00:08:20,494 --> 00:08:22,643
she wouldn't say anything at home.

227
00:08:22,680 --> 00:08:24,992
She'd just come home and eat
like crazy. After a while,

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00:08:25,029 --> 00:08:27,121
I wondered why she was this hungry.

229
00:08:27,158 --> 00:08:29,776
She had nothing to drink
either. The juice I packed,

230
00:08:29,813 --> 00:08:32,438
she never got to drink—it
was taken. In other words,

231
00:08:32,475 --> 00:08:35,545
a new kid gets bullied in class.

232
00:08:35,582 --> 00:08:38,301
This really hit home for me.

233
00:08:38,338 --> 00:08:41,568
So I believe in cases like this,
if a kid doesn't talk

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00:08:41,605 --> 00:08:43,846
and seems down, it's not an illness.

235
00:08:43,883 --> 00:08:46,086
It's definitely caused by society.

236
00:08:46,123 --> 00:08:48,574
So we parents need to pay attention,

237
00:08:48,611 --> 00:08:51,869
teachers should too. Parents
don't know, and teachers say

238
00:08:51,906 --> 00:08:53,785
your child is sick,
go see a doctor, take

239
00:08:53,822 --> 00:08:56,286
some strange medication.
Isn't that just nonsense?

240
00:08:56,323 --> 00:08:59,124
That's why we want to use our party

241
00:08:59,161 --> 00:09:01,980
to voice these people's concerns.

242
00:09:02,017 --> 00:09:04,345
Because a party is a
platform to speak, right?

243
00:09:04,531 --> 00:09:05,896
It's not a community group.

244
00:09:05,933 --> 00:09:08,271
It's about taking certain

245
00:09:08,308 --> 00:09:10,513
policy issues

246
00:09:10,550 --> 00:09:12,022
to the people's representatives.

247
00:09:12,059 --> 00:09:13,932
We speak for the people
and tell the government

248
00:09:13,969 --> 00:09:15,982
you should adjust. Shouldn't you require

249
00:09:16,019 --> 00:09:18,709
our schools to look out for these

250
00:09:18,746 --> 00:09:20,941
new students? Because their language

251
00:09:20,978 --> 00:09:23,171
is weak and they have no
friends to begin with,

252
00:09:23,208 --> 00:09:25,808
they may not be sick at
all. Don't push them

253
00:09:25,845 --> 00:09:27,675
into hospitals. Many parents

254
00:09:27,712 --> 00:09:29,476
feel they want to speak through me.

255
00:09:29,513 --> 00:09:31,164
I see that as one reason I'm running.

256
00:09:31,238 --> 00:09:33,701
So are you still running,
or have you withdrawn?

257
00:09:33,775 --> 00:09:36,249
The provincial election came too late.

258
00:09:36,286 --> 00:09:38,519
We couldn't withdraw anymore.

259
00:09:38,556 --> 00:09:41,181
You have a few days after
registering to withdraw.

260
00:09:41,219 --> 00:09:44,623
Registration closed on the 19th.

261
00:09:44,660 --> 00:09:47,192
The provincial vote was called
the 22nd, three days later.

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By then we couldn't withdraw.

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Even if you wanted to, you couldn't.

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So in effect, you're running
for school trustee first,

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and then the provincial election.

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Of course, for me

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that's not a big problem.
As for running for trustee,

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my ultimate goal is to use

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this platform so that

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the school board can hear

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that we have these voices—

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voices representing
several thousand people.

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I'd already be satisfied.

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Whether I get elected

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isn't really that important.

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I'm not saying I'm desperate
to win at any cost.

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I say no. Actually, when
I ran for mayor before,

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it was the same. I ran for
mayor against Malcolm Brodie.

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Of course I knew I wouldn't win.

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But I could talk to him.

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I could tell him how he should improve.

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And during the election,
he listened to me.

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Great. Just be yourself,

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be the best of yourself.

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Right. The media interviewed me too:

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Why are you running? I
said because things here

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need improving. Only during a campaign

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will all the media take what I say

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and publish it: "Chen said

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this needs improving." I'm
already satisfied with that.

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In a democratic system, this is

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the best platform for a
grassroots representative

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to make their voice heard.

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I admire your courage.

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It's the best time.

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And during that time, when I

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spoke out on these issues,
nobody actually attacked me,

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because everything I
said was very practical.

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I wasn't hostile to anyone.
I just said,

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on behalf of our voters:
they have these views,

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please consider them.

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People felt my approach was acceptable,

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not unacceptable.

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Before, I wanted to run for
trustee to voice what we parents

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truly feel. Whether I win or not,

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I don't really mind. In past elections

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I had the same mindset. And this time,

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with the provincial election
here, I'm running for MLA

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also to raise the tax issue.

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This is what ordinary people want.
Whether you cut taxes

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is your call, but I have to say it, right?

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Your taxes are too heavy. They're heavy

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because you're carrying too much debt.

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I know you'll have to
raise taxes regardless.

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Also, can the healthcare problem

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be dealt with? This is the
best platform to speak up.

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If voters agree

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and give me their vote,
of course I'd welcome it.

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But if they don't,

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that's fine. At least what I'm saying

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represents not just my own voice,

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but truly the voices of many people.