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没有搞清来龙去脉的大陆居民组织反对在万锦市建老人廉价屋

Markham Chinese residents campaign against building affordable senior homes before giving a closer look at the proposal
来源: Bob Mok



2019年2月26日,万锦老人委员会(CFAFM)在Unionville老人活动中心向万锦居民提出了17项建议。约克区议员Jack Heath是该委员会的共同主席。这些建议于3月份转给万锦市市议会的的发展服务委员会。

On Feb 26, 2019 The Committee for an Age-Friendly Markham (CFAFM) - a committee co-chaired by Regional Councillor Jack Heath presented their 17 recommendations to Markham residents at the Unionville Senior Citizens Centre. These recommendations were subsequently released to Markham council’s development services committee in March.

万锦老人委员会的第7个建议是解决为老人建造廉价屋的土地问题。给老人们建廉价屋的最大障碍是土地的成本和来源。该建议提出,万锦市要把那些目前是地面停车场的土地用于建造经济实惠的排屋,共管公寓和用于出租的公寓。为了不损失停车位,开发商在开发这些停车场时要提供相同数量的地下停车场或停车楼,且不收取任何费用。对于大家来说,这看起来确实是双赢的事。

CFAFM's recommendation number 7 suggests solutions to the Supply of land to build affordable housing for seniors. The cost and availability of land are the largest obstacles to increasing the supply of affordable housing for seniors. The recommendation proposes that the city obtain land, presently being used for surface parking at no cost for the purpose of building affordable townhouses, condo apartments and purpose-built rentals. In order to replace the lost parking, the new housing development would provide the former owner an equal number of underground and/or structured parking spaces within the new development at no cost. This certainly looks like a win-win situation for all parties.



2019年5月23日,Unionville Presbyterian教堂的管理员Marty Molengraaf在教堂里举行了“老人住房研讨会”。许多政客、居民和我出席了会议。 Unionville Presbyterian教堂准备提供教堂部分停车场来建造供老人居住的廉价屋。这次会议内容丰富,演讲嘉宾介绍了如何开发老人廉价屋以及类似项目的成功故事。会上还详细讨论了开发这类项目所需的各种许可和资金要求。

On May23, 2019 a “Seniors Housing Symposium” was held at the Unionville Presbyterian Church by their Minister Marty Molengraaf. I was in attendance along with many other politicians and residents. The Unionville Presbyterian Church was ready to offer up part of its parking lot to support the building of affordable housing for seniors. It was a very informative meeting as the speaking guests provided a road map to accomplishing these projects and their success stories to similar projects. Various approvals and funding requirements were discussed in detail.



在演讲中,一位发言者设想将有“智商障碍”的人也住进老人廉价屋。我非常认真地听取了他描述他儿子的“智商障碍”的故事。但是他的发言从未提出要将那些患有“精神疾病”或“精神障碍”的人与老年一起住进老人廉价屋。当天的会议上有一批中国大陆的移民,由于他们无法用官方语言来听懂会议的内容或表达自己的意见,会议专门为他们请了翻译。

During the speeches, one speaker envisioned dovetailing persons with “development disabilities” into the senior housing units. I was listening very carefully to it as he was describing his son's “development disabilities” conditions and at no time did he mentioned the integration of those with “mental illness” or “mental disabilities” with seniors housing. There were a number of local residents of mainland China origin present at that meeting along with an interpreter as many of them could not comprehend the complicated process described by the speakers using languages full of bureaucratic jargon.



会议结束后不久,有人成立了一个激进的微信群,群员大部分是来自中国大陆的当地居民。在群里,人们被告知老人廉价屋里将住有那些有“精神问题的家庭”。这个人用简体中文写的其他帖子不再提老人廉价屋,而只是关注“有心理问题的家庭”。帖子要求居民签名反对该项目,并呼吁群员拉更多的支持者加入该群。

Shortly after that meeting, an aggressive WeChat group was created comprising of mostly local residents immigrated from Mainland China. Within that group, participants were told that besides senior house, the units will also include “families with mental issues” . The rest of the simplified Chinese language messages did not mention seniors again but focused on the “families with mental issues”. It went on to ask residents to sign petitions against the project and to pass the message along to recruit more supporters to join the group.



帖子说:“我个人的感觉是,一旦这个项目实施,它将在很多方面严重影响Unionville,并带来难以想象的后果。如果学校和公园周围有精神问题的人,我不知道我是否会让孩子出去独自玩耍或上学。这种项目还会有许多其他的负面影响。”

Let us quote from the WeChat message: “My personal feeling is that once this project is implemented, it will seriously affect Unionville in many ways with unimaginable consequences. If there are persons with mental issues around schools and parks, I don't know if I will let my kids to go out and play alone or go to school. There will also be many other negative impacts.”

在脚注中,作者声称“mental illness or mental disability”在中文中没有简明的翻译,作者只能用“精神疾病或精神残疾”来表达。

On the foot note, the author claimed that “mental illness or mental disability” do not have concise translation in Chinese and those terms were expressed in Chinese to the best of their ability.



如果按照上下文来理解的话,这些帖子是在营造恐怖气氛,把老人廉价屋与所谓的“有心理问题的家庭”挂上勾。事实是,当天的会议提到的“智商障碍者”与“精神疾病或精神残疾家庭”完全不是一码事!

To put it into the proper perspective and context, this is fear mongering based on the project's inclusion of so called “families with mental issues”. In effect, I heard only “persons with developmental disabilities” mentioned in the meeting which is radically different from “families with mental illness or mental disabilities”!

随后,我们看到他们挨家挨户地发传单,要求Unionville Presbyterian教堂不要用停车场来建老人廉价屋。在传单中,他们两次使用了“维护住宅区的安全和健康”这句话。我要问,什么是“不安全”?显然,这些人只是有意回避“有精神问题的家庭”。

A petition was then sent door to door, demanding to keep the Unionville Presbyterian Church and associated parking lot use as is. Twice the term “Maintain Safe and Healthy Residential area” was used within the petition. What is there that will be “unsafe”? It is obviously a thinly veiled disguise to connect to the “mental families presence” theme in their earlier message.



7月3日,Unionville Presbyterian教堂举行第二次会议。由大陆人组成的许多人参加了会议。会上,他们像一群愤怒的暴徒。由于那天有事,我没有参加会议,但我看了那天会议的整个视频。那天会议被这群傲慢,自私,不包容的、自称是“Unionville居民们”劫持。在整个会议期间,该组织的成员阻止其他人发言,同时肆无忌惮地口头攻击教会和牧师。

Fast forward to July 3 and a second meeting that was held at the Unionville Presbyterian Church again. This time a large, organized angry mob comprised mostly of Mainland Chinese showed up. I was not there due to a prior commitment but I got hold of a video for the entire meeting and reviewed it. The meeting was hijacked by this group of “Unionville residents” that was arrogant, selfish, and non-inclusive, Throughout the meeting, Members of the group stopped others from speaking and verbally attacked the church and the minister in a most flagrant manner.



该组织只有两个目标:阻止教会对项目进行可行性研究和显耀他们的实力,只因为他们在十天内收集了1200个签名,因此,他们代表了Unionville居民的大多数。 他们不明白,这不可能阻止教会的可行性研究,并且在即将进行的可行性研究中,教堂附近的5000个家庭有待发表意见。

There were only two objectives for the group – Stop the proposed feasibility study by the church and impress everyone that they have collected 1200 signatures in ten days on a petition thus representing the majority view of the Unionville residents. They do not understand that is not possible to stop the church's feasibility study and that there are 5000 families in the neighbourhood who have yet to provide their voices during the upcoming feasibility study.

我将在下周介绍有关Unionville Presbyterian教堂的老人廉价屋争议的更多细节和分析。

I will provide more details and analysis on the issues of senior housing proposal from the Unionville Presbyterian Church next time.



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