♪ 𝕊𝕠𝕡𝕙𝕚𝕒 𝕎𝕦 ♪

Dear readers, there are some crazy people out there who has shaped and changed our community. They are the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do. With our latest project “Cray, Cray, yay, yay”, we will define those who shaped our community as a whole.

For this project, we had to make a portrait of our chosen community impact maker. I chose Lucien Lessard, who is the last living survivor of the collapse of the second narrows bridge. Lucien has a big focus on continuing the remembrance of his friend he had lost during the collapse, and so I decided to make my portrait in the format of an I Survived Book, since like the disasters in the series of books, the collapse was also very much real, and was labeled as the worst engineering disaster in BC.

In the portrait i chose the paint a picture of Lucien holding his well deserved trophy for surviving the collapse.

This project made me realize how much people there is that really shaped our community it wasn’t just those who were famous that were stars that change the world after all not all heroes are in the light!

Anyways, I do hope everyone has a very nice summer stay hydrated! was also very much real, and was labeled as the worst engineering disaster in BC.

Welcome readers, you can use shore to the core to describe someone who is a very strong supporter of their home land, and this very project was to tell readers about the history of the land my classmates and I live on. The project Shore to the Core was influenced by the Museum of North Vancouver, also know as MoNoVa. The driving question for this project is: What significant developments occurred after WWII in Vancouver and across Canada? With that question in mind my class and I interview our client, Carol Ballard, the program coordinator of MaNoVa.

Before we get into the interview with Carol, I will briefly introduce choose my local topic of choice, The Ironworkers Memorial second Narrows Crossing. This bridge played a huge role in connect North Vancouver through the Burrad Inlet to Greater Vancouver, which eventually resulted in the population growth and rise of the suburbs (learn more about that in Quinn’s post). The Ironworkers Memorial second Narrows Crossing was renamed to honour the 18 workers who died in the collapse along with the 1 rescue diver and 4 other worker who also died during the construction process. I thought my topic was significant to the people of North Vancouver because around 121,778 (as of 2021) vehicles pass through this bridge every day, way more that there are on The Lion’s Gate Bridge, without this the connection between North Vancouver and Greater Vancouver would be weak, and it would be less convenient to travel between the two lands.

Moving onto the interviews with the project coordinator and our client, Carol Ballard, we learned that our multi-paragraph composition must have multiple sources, which can include interviews, audios, and writings. A strong theme, this will hook your audience in and make sure you stay on topic. Another one was having a clear audience and purpose in our multi-paragraph composition. Since everyone in my class are making a multi-paragraph composition, Carol suggested that we organize all of our multi-paragraph compositions into a zine format.

(link to zine)

To answer the driving question, during the project, I notice a lot of things shaped the North Van it is today. As for my topic, without this connection of a bridge, the bond between North Vancouver and Greater Vancouver would be weak, this bridge North Vancouver a chance to grow and thrive as a individual community.

Welcome readers, have you ever wondered how all those rich people became so successful? Perhaps it’s because of their parents, but even so, if you do all these habits just might also become successful one day. For this project, which is named Believe in Good, has the driving question of: How do you plan to move forward to be your most effective self? which the answer will be shown in my assignment choice board. Believe in Good was based on the book Sean Covey wrote called 7 Habits for Highly Effective People/ Teens. These habits were split in to 3 section, the private victory, public victory, and the renewal.

The first section of the 7 habits was the habits of self management, the private victory. With habit 1 being proactive, habit 2 begin with the end in mind, habits 3 first things first. Habit 1 is where you prepare everything before hand, ask for help in advance, plan ahead, and think before you act. Habit number 2 habit number 3 are very similar, with habit number 2 hope you you overcome problems in life and find your values and what matter to you the most. Habit number three comes after that having a schedule and order to things that get you control of your life, this can include finding balance of your social, personal, and school life. For this section of the project I used audio reflection for my assessment choice board, which included three songs. Song1: this song is about a person prioritizing sportsmanship and went to the Mountain to practice in isolation. Song2: about instead of being upset that you have no money work for the money. Song3: this song is about forgiving yourself and let yourself prioritize in what you believe is the most important to you.

The second section of the seven habits was the habits of leadership, and the public victory. With habit for being think win-win; habit 5, seek to understand then to be understood, habit 6, to synergize. Habit 4, thinking win-win can boost the relationship status between you and your friends and family for making smart decisions on the way. Habit 5 requires you to listen to people sincerely, listen and consider others opinion no matter who they are, and most importantly don’t just say “uh-huh” while daydreaming about what’s for lunch when you’re talking to someone (example from Covey’s book). Habit number 6 requires you to do both habit for and habit five, an example of synergizing is having asked to be with people either you don’t like or don’t know for a project, but in the end it’s bad grades with bad relations or good grades ok or new relationships if you syllogize with your group or your partner. For this section of the seven habits I decided to draw a comic about the tortoise and the rabbit race but in the end they both win because they synergized with each other.

The last part of this habits book is the renewal, which was all about allowing yourself to rest. This is the key to get control of your life, improve in relationships, make smart and sober decisions to overcome problems, be productive andddddd drumrolls… Be happy! This includes resting when you have to, not wearing yourself out, and being gentle with yourself. For example, let’s say you just came home after a long day of school, but you still got homework! No worries, take a 45 minute nap and power through your work maybe that would even work other than not resting and continuing on to your work for, let’s say, another 4 hours.

Over all, I use technology to construct knowledge by doing research and giving myself a stable understanding of the topic of research and contact peers who might know, connect to this topic and expanding my knowledge on this topic further more.

Hey lovely reader, now you might not know about this unjust incident that happened over a century ago when 376 Indians came to Canada or at least tried.

The incident

As creative the name of this incident could sound, spoilers, that was the ship the passengers were on during the incident.

“We have the power to exclude and to deport certain immigrants, and whom we deem to be unworthy of Canadian citizenship. We have the power to deport Hindus or anyone else”. In the early 1900s, nearly 5000 South-Asians had already arrived at BC the time that was said. Many (white) Canadians were concerned about the growing numbers of immigrants, so regulations were put in place to keep South Asians from entering the country. Legally Canada was not allowed to ban citizens of Idia as they too are British subjects, so the Canadian government created a loophole “the continuous journey regulation”, which meant that immigrants were only allowed to come to Canada in one continuous trip from their country of origin, or else they will be denied entry, at the time no ship could make a continuous journey from India to Canada, it was impossible. But in 1914, Baba Gurdit Singh, a Punjabi businessman, he hear fellow Sikhs had encountered trying to immigrate to Canada. He charter a Japanese steam ship SS Komagata Maru, sold tickets to his countryman, and on April 1914 and 150 passenger set sail from Hong Kong.

along its way stoping by China and Japan, picking up more hopeful immigrants and eventually reaching a total of 376 people heading to Vancouver on that ship, almost all were men except 2 women and 4 children, almost all were Punjabi.

After sailing for 2 long months the Komagata Maru finally reach the Vancouver port. Baba Gurdit Singh not only wanted to help his fellow passengers reach Canada but also wanted to challenge the racist Canadian immigrant laws. On May 23 1914, the Komagata Maru dropped anchor and was greeted by unwelcoming immigration officials. When they were denied entry since their ship hadn’t made an continuous journey to Canada, a 8 week stand off with the Canadian government began. The South Asian community ashore quickly organized, forming the Shore Committee, lead by Banh Singh and a few others , they raised funds to hire a lawyer, J. Edward Bird to negotiate on the passenger’s behalf. The legal battle eventually failed, Bird was subjected to so many threats from the white people that he was forced to fleet Vancouver for a several weeks. Passengers despite having imprisoned for several week fight back back against the ones that tried to board the ship. 2 days later the navy arrived driving the Komagata Maru back, and on July 23rd 1914, exactly 2 months after its arrival, Komagata Maru was forced to leave Canadian waters, for many it would not be a happy homecoming.

When the ship finally docked in Budge Budge, passengers were meet with force. When the passengers finally left the ship the first time in many months, the British police open fire, killing ~20 passengers injuring 9, arrested several others. Baba Gurdit Singh escaped the massacre and lived in hiding for a several months be fore turning himself in. It wasn’t until 1967 that anti-south Asian regulations were abolished entirely.

The Apology

On May 18, 2016, Justin Trudeau will issue a formal apology in the House of Commons for events that took place surrounding the Komagata Maru. The ship arrived in Vancouver in May 1914, carrying 376 passengers of mostly Sikh descent, who were refused entry into Canada due to discriminatory laws. (Source)
“An apology was very important for our community. What more there still areas where we feel that the non-whites are still under discrimination, course it’s not as much as it used to be, but I think it (the end to this unjust) takes time, it will happen.” – Ajay Rai, the manager of a Sikh Temple. (Source)
Because of the struggle of those who was on the Komagata Maru it encouraged the ones who are on land to try harder and fight for the unjustified to be justified, and that’s why us as minority have such successful lives, says Jaswinder Toor, the president of the Komagata Maru Society. (Source)

Conclusion

I really think the bravery of Baba Gurdit Singh and the other on board of the Komagata Maru should be memorialized as part of our collective public memory as they were brave enough to to challenge the racist Canadian immigrant laws, which encouraged the other minorities to fight for their own rights.