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Chinese Canadians want to know and deserve to be told the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and so do all Canadians
--- An open letter to all Canadians from Chinese Canadians
“You can fool some of the people all of the time,
and all of the people some of the time,
but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.”
--- Abraham Lincoln
Highlight
1. There has recently been a large-scale fundraising campaign to help a family in Ottawa, which suffered a regrettable loss while vacationing in Cuba (i.e., Mr. Yue Liu was drowned to death while playing with his kids in the ocean), first in the local Chinese community via the online website comefromchina.com (CFC hereafter).
2. The fundraising effort was then broadened nationally and internationally after the widow and family appeared on national TV (e.g., CBC/CTV) and appeals made in the national print media (e.g., The Globe and Mail).
3. Red flags were raised by a number of CFC posters at the get-go. Comments were made, and questions asked. CFC repeatedly banned users，discussions，and debates.
4. Is this fundraising campaign a scam?
5. Is Canadians' freedom of speech violated by CFC?
Background
1. Following the national campaign, donations poured in. As of March 26, more than 850 people have donated, according to the English-media spokesman, Andy Wang, “a member of the Liu family’s Centrepointe community and taught Connor kung-fu at age five” (“Local man drowns in Cuba”, Nepean-Barrhaven News, April 3, 2014, p. 1).
2. The original call for donations as posted on CFC asked for donations to help repatriate the body from Cuba back to Ottawa for burial. As stated in the original call for donations, the family did not purchase any travel/life/mortgage insurance. “The Canadian consular office indicates it will cost upwards of $10,000 to send Liu home to Canada to be buried. With the funeral costs, the Liu family is looking at an estimated $30,000 in expenses.” (Nepean-Barrhaven News, April 3, 2014, p. 1).
3. According to CFC updates, the national donation drive collected close to $90,000 before being stopped by the CFC fundraising committee, which posted a note on the site. That note was posted only on CFC and no other media were informed. Funds continued to flow in after the drive was announced to be stopped on CFC only.
4. According to some CFC posts, the couple are both employees of the federal government with life insurance death benefits worthy of two-year salaries, which are a lump-sum payment and upon which no income taxes are levied. Additionally, the Canadian Pension Plan (CPP) provides death benefits and survivor benefits. Moreover, the family owns a house in an upscale neighbourhood. As such, some CFC posters started to raise red flags about this nation-wide fundraising effort. Subsequently, a heated debate started on CFC. CFC decided to repeatedly delete posts that questioned the matter, ban posters, and ban discussions altogether in the name of protecting the family privacy.
5. According to CFC, the committee has proposed that 20% of the collected funds be spent on the repatriation of the body and funeral costs, 20% to support Liu’s aging parents in Beijing, 30% to establish educational funds for each of the two children. This proposed donation use was far away from what was called for in the original call for donations, which was strictly to help transport Liu’s body back to Ottawa from Cuba.
6. CFC also posted a note stating that those who want their donations back may do so within 7 days with a request being sent to the committee. Again, the note was posted only on CFC and no other media were informed.
7. Subsequently, the family posted an open letter on CFC. While thanking all donors and helping hands, the open letter also reveals that the body would be cremated in Cuba rather than being repatriated back to Ottawa. Furthermore, the family was told by the Canadian Consulate General to Cuba that the family’s request to even being at the sight of cremation was declined. This open letter caused a tremendous amount of confusions and anger among CFC posters. Heated debates started again and were once more shut down by the online website CFC.
8. Consequently, rumours are circulating widely and fast. At the root bottom of the heated debates and rumours lies a question that begs for an unambiguous answer, “Is this fundraising campaign a scam”?
What are the pressing issues?
1. “Is this fundraising campaign a scam”? This very question begs for an unambiguous and no-nonsense answer. Any attempts to dance around it will be proven fruitless.
2. The widely- and fast-circulating “scam” rumour has badly divided the local Chinese community and even worse, badly damaged the Chinese reputation in Ottawa, across the country, and internationally. Due to cultural differences and language barriers, among others, we Chinese are, more often than not, collectively referred to by others as “Chinese” rather than each individually.
3. Has CFC’s repeated banning discussions and debates violated freedom of speech?
4. Some of the people involved in the fundraising campaign are government employees. Did they use their private time to get involved or abuse workplace privileges/taxpayers' money?
Our Demands
We Chinese Canadians want to know and deserve to be told the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, nothing more, nothing less, and so do all Canadians, such that our good reputation is not collectively tainted by and associated with even the very remote suspicion and/or possibility of a scam. As such, we humbly yet openly and resolvedly demand the following:
1. We feel deeply sorry for the family’s loss and continue to openly express our condolences.
2. Is what the widow said in her open letter (i.e., they were told by the Canadian Consulate General that the family's request to be at the sight of cremation was declined) true? If that is indeed the case, that amounts, in our humble opinion, to a Canadian diplomacy failure and the ultimate insult on humanity. As such, we Chinese Canadians demand our government to provide an explanation to all Canadians as we frequently vacate in Cuba.
3. The national media, especially CBC, CTV and the Globe and Mail, which, after all, misleadingly launched the national donation drive in the first place, launch a thorough investigation into and report on this matter so that all Canadians are told the truth and henceforth the good Chinese name is unambiguously, rightfully, and respectfully cleared and restored.
4. Police authorities launch a thorough investigation into this matter to ensure that there has been no scam involved, with which the good Chinese reputation has inevitably been rumoured to be associated.
5. Police authorities and the Canadian Radio and Television Commission (CRTC) launch a thorough investigation into CFC’s repeated practices of banning users and discussions and debates to ensure that Canadians’ freedom of speech is not violated in any public online forum or otherwise.
6. Relevant government departments investigate their employees' involvement in the fundraising activities to ensure that workplace privileges/taxpayers' money have not be misused/abused.
Conclusion
This incident and subsequent widely- and fast circulating “scam” rumours have badly divided the local Chinese community and even worse, badly damaged the good Chinese reputation locally, nationally, and internationally. We Chinese Canadians want to know and deserve to be told the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, nothing more, nothing less, and so do all Canadians. We demand that relevant authorities get this seriously dividing and damaging matter resolved at your earliest possible convenience. We thank each and everyone for helping with this matter. We attach some donation-related contacts that appeared in the call for donations to facilitate contacting.
Selected donation-related contacts
Wenjuan Song and Lei Zhang, phone: 613-983-8366, Liu’s neighbours and family friends, the donation call originators
Riven Zhang, phone: 613-225-4526, a CFC fundraising committee member and Spokesman for the Chinese media
Andy Wang, phone: 613-986-9264, the liaison with Foreign Affairs and the Canadian Consulate General to Cuba, the writer/translator of the English call for donations, and Spokesman for the English media
募捐委员会名单：
Wenjuan Song，Lei Zhang夫妇：遇难家庭的长期邻居及好友， 本次募捐发起人，负责汇集整理所有款项， 然后统一交给遇难家庭。并且不定期公布捐款明细及总额。联系电话：613-983-8366
Riven Zhang： 负责中文媒体宣传， 募捐活动统筹。联系电话：613-225-4526
Andy Wang：负责联系外交部及加拿大驻古巴领事部，确保遗体运输及善后工作的顺利进行。负责撰写英文倡议书，联系本地英文媒体采访报道。联系电话：613-986-9264
社区团体和工作单位的现金及支票收集人：
CRA Train Yards building ITB, TSDMB, etc Haiyan Yuan, 613-276-6851
CRA Headquarter office Bo Jiang, 613-304-0268
CRA Fitzgerald Rd Linda qing lin, Su Mintz 613-948-0892
Donation-related documents are found here:
http://ottawachinesenet.com/foru ... amp;_dsign=83dc39dd
More questions and selected media reports are found here:
http://ottawachinesenet.com/foru ... tra=page%3D1&page=2
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ComeFromChina website:
http://bbs.comefromchina.com/threads/1345797/
I can not save you any more
本帖由 coala 于 2014-03-22 发布。版块名称：刘越捐款专版
CBC.CA
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ot ... n-in-cuba-1.2585189
An Ottawa woman is trying to put together the pieces after her husband drowned while trying to save their seven-year-old son during a family vacation to Cuba.
Yue Liu, top, drowned while trying to save his son Connor in Cuba March 19, 2014. (Provided by the Liu family)
The family lives in the southwest Ottawa community of Barrhaven after moving from Halifax, where Fanyan Bu and her partner Yue Liu each earned degrees from Dalhousie.
The couple and their son, as well as a nine-year-old daughter, were enjoying the last day of their stay at a Varadero resort when tragedy struck last Wednesday.
Bu said her 40-year-old husband was playing in shallow waters with their son Connor when an undertow swept them into deeper water.
"(Connor) couldn't swim back so my husband pushed him to shore, tried to push him and the last thing my husband said to him (was) ‘I cannot save you anymore,’” Bu said on Monday.
She said another Canadian identified only as “Woody” managed to take Connor from Yue and get him to shore, but Yue didn’t make it back.
“I think another wave dragged him back to the ocean again,” she said.
“I asked him to come back, I said ‘You have two kids, come home with me, please please please,’ then I passed out. People brought me back to the hotel.”
No insurance
Family friend Andy Wang said Bu now has to care for her two children and two elderly parents.
Ottawa’s Chinese community and other supporters have already raised $20,000 for the family as of Monday afternoon, he said.
"If that were to happen to anyone you wouldn't want to be alone taking that burden,” he said.
“You would want other people behind you, to be there for you."
Wang said the Canadian consulate has told the family it will cost around $10,000 to bring his body back, plus about another $20,000 for a funeral.
He said they didn’t have any travel or life insurance.
A website has been set up with details on how to donate to help the family at http://comefromchina.com/liuyue/.
Bu said they just got in contact with "Woody" Monday night via email, saying he lives in B.C.
CTVNews:
Ottawa father drowns during vacation in Cuba
http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/ott ... ch-resort-1.1744663
CTVNews.ca Staff Published Tuesday, March 25, 2014 8:36AM EDT Last Updated Tuesday, March 25, 2014 11:00PM
OttawaSun:
http://www.ottawasun.com/2014/03 ... -dad-drowns-in-cuba
The Globe and Mail:
After Ottawa man drowns swimming with son in Cuba, family rallies for help
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/n ... lp/article17675612/
Canoe.ca
Canadian man drowns in Cuba while saving son
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2014/03/24/21554906.html
TheStar.com
Ottawa man dies rescuing drowning son in Cuba
http://www.thestar.com/news/cana ... ng_son_in_cuba.html
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Andy Wang 作为捐款委员会代表也接受了CTV的采访
文字新闻链接：http://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/ottawa- ... n-in-cuba-1.1743827
视频链接：http://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=312649
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附件3
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http://bbs.comefromchina.com/threads/1346624/
刘越募捐委员会3月25日声明
本帖由 Riven 于 2014-03-25 发布。版块名称：刘越捐款专版
在大家爱心支持下， 募捐活动取得了巨大的成就。鉴于捐款已经大大超过预期， 组委会决定不再进行主动募捐活动， 包括计划中的中文学校和大统华募捐活动。 不再进行主动媒体宣传。但是保留捐款账号和捐款页面， 如果有朋友在生活上想继续支持刘越的家属，仍然可以通过这些途径捐款。募捐组委会志愿者将继续帮助家属收集整理捐款，直到葬礼结束，组委会之后将解散。 所有款项将交于刘越的家属。
如果对捐款有任何意见和建议可以联系我们： 613-762-0420。
再一次深深的感谢每一位捐款的朋友， 渥太华，多伦多，哈利法克斯，温哥华，卡尔加里，美国，中国，全世界各地的朋友， 你们确实让这个悲伤的家庭有了温暖。
刘越募捐委员会
2014年3月25日
声明英文版
[Update - March 25, 2014]
With the generous support from kind-hearted individuals from across Canada, we have far surpassed our original fundraising goals and expectations. Not only will these donations help pay for funeral expenses of Mr. Yue Liu, they will help support the Liu family in the long run. These donations exemplify the strength and resolve of the community that surrounds the Liu family as they mourn the loss of a loving father, caring husband, and proud son.
At this time, we have decided to not hold further fundraising events and focus our efforts on organizing the funeral arrangements. We will keep the website running and accept donations until the funeral and ensure all collected donations are given directly to the Liu family.
If you have any concerns or comments in regards to the donations, please call 613-762-0420.
Again, with our deepest gratitude, we thank you for the support you have provided the Liu family when they needed it the most.
Fundraising Committee for Fanyan Bu and the Liu Family
March 25, 2014
http://www.comefromchina.com/liuyue/
Riven, 2014-03-25
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http://www.ottawacommunitynews.c ... life-for-his-son-s/
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楼主: DIYON2003
狗仔卡
发表于 2014-4-16 10:03:06
显身卡
