BACKGROUND
On May 5, 2021 the BC Government announced $2 million dollars in funding toward the health and wellness of Japanese Canadian survivors of the Internment Era.
This contribution to the community was an initial result of the ongoing BC Redress discussions, currently being held between the NAJC and the BC Government, to determine steps to redress the historical injustices which impacted nearly 22,000 Japanese Canadians uprooted, dispossessed, and permanently displaced from their homes in coastal BC.
Nikkei Seniors Health Care and Housing Society in Burnaby, BC stepped forward to take on the task of administering this fund, for the benefit of our senior survivors. A project office has been set up, and is being managed by Eiko Eby, assisted by Linda Reid.
The society took the further step to pledge to do outreach to find underserved seniors both inside and outside of BC. NAJC chapters across the country have been recruited to start to look for seniors in their various regions and talk to organizations who service survivors.
CURRENT STATUS OF FUND
The current mandate of the Fund to support the health and wellness of as many senior survivors as possible. With approximately 6,600 survivors alive today, $2 million is a limited sum of money and this round of funding will not be able to help all who need it. Nonetheless, this Fund is meant as the first step towards helping our seniors.
FUTURE FUNDS FOR ALL SURVIVORS
As noted, the Japanese Canadian Survivors Health and Wellness Fund is the result of an initial step by the BC Government, as part of the larger BC Redress process.
The BC Redress Project team has now presented the BC Government with a set of proposals on six themes: Monument; Education; Anti-Racism; Seniors Health & Wellness, Heritage; and Community & Culture. There are multiple initiatives in this package, and this work builds on the 2019 community consultations and Redressing Historical Wrongs report.
Please visit www.bcredress.ca for more details. We hope to have an agreement in principle signed with the BC Government by the end of 2021, and be able to start distributing health and wellness funding to survivors by mid-2022.
As part of these BC Redress discussions, the NAJC is pushing for a significant expansion of the Survivors Health and Wellness Fund that will be sufficient to support the health and wellness needs of all Japanese Canadian survivors.