TORONTO, Oct. 23 (Xinhua) -- Canada's Ontario provincial parliament will discuss the designation of Nanjing Massacre Commemorative Day this week to commemorate the mass killing of 300,000 Chinese by Japanese aggressor troops in Nanjing in World War II, a lawmaker said Monday.
"This Thursday afternoon approximately 3 p.m., I will be leading a debate on my motion No. 66 on the Nanjing Massacre Commemorative Day," Soo Wong, a member of the parliament of Ontario province, told a press conference here Monday.
Wong is the first female Chinese-Canadian to be elected to the Ontario legislature. She serves as deputy speaker and parliamentary assistant to the Ontario minister of community safety and correctional services.
Wong has devoted her efforts to introducing a private member's Bill No. 79 to designate every December 13 as Nanjing Massacre Commemoration Day in Ontario province in southeast Canada.
She said the designation of Nanjing Massacre Commemorative Day will provide an opportunity for all Ontarians, especially the Asian community, to remember and honor the victims and families affected by the Nanjing Massacre.
Ontario is home to Canada's largest Asian community. It is reported that there are nearly 3 million Asian Canadians, about one third of them of Chinese origin.
The Nanjing Massacre is also known as the Rape of Nanking in the Western world. In December 1937, Japanese troops captured the city of Nanjing, then capital of China, and committed mass murder and raping with more than 300,000 local Chinese being killed.
The bill passed the second hearing last December, and will go through a third hearing in December this year. If passed, December 13 will become an official commemorative day in the province. Up to date, more than 90,000 signatures have been collected across the province in support of the bill.
However, the bill has encountered strong opposition from Japan. Some Japanese lawmakers reportedly have sent a letter to the Ontario government against the bill and will lobby against the third hearing.
"My motion is very similar to what I introduced last year Bill 79. It's no difference. If passed, the motion will recognize every December 13 Nanjing Massacre Commemorative Day in Ontario," she said.
Dr. Joseph Wong, founder of Toronto Alpha (Association for Learning and Preserving the History of the Second World War in Asia) said Bill 79 is still at the committee level. "The motion does not replace Bill 79. This motion not only is important locally and in Canada as well, it is very important internationally."
"A large number of our students, particularly in schools, come from Asia. It's so important for these students to know what happened in the past. To pass this motion of Nanjing Massacre Commemorative Day is really a significant step in education. That encourages and supports educators to learn and teach this part history," said Gerry Connelly, who is ALPHA education board member and former director of education at the Toronto district school board.
Peter Lin, president of the Confederation of Toronto Chinese-Canadian Organizations told Xinhua, "Our Canadian Chinese community fully support the motion. On May 29, we have organized over 1,000 people to Queen Park for a peace rally to support Bill 79. As well as gathered over 100,000 signatures to support MP Soo Wong. This is the most petition signatures received in the Ontario legislature history."
After Bill No. 79 passed the second hearing last December, Wong met with Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown and New Democratic Leader Andrea Horwath in the Ontario parliament. Both leaders, he said, have promised their support for the bill without reservation.
But, Wong said a meeting with Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne made him feel that she was reluctant to let it pass.
Wong said that the premier was concerned the bill adoption would be "divisive" for Ontario's Japanese and Chinese communities.
Joy Kogawa, who is Japanese Canadian and an author in Toronto, said that she fully supported the bill.
"The facts are the facts, and it is wrong to deny them," said Kogawa, who's been awarded the Order of Canada and Japan's Order of the Rising Sun.
It's time for atrocities in Asia to be as well-known as those in Europe or Canada, Kogawa said, adding she has met and argued with many Japanese people who think the Rape of Nanking did not exist.
