擁抱多元，讓加國生活更豐富美好

可能很多同事還不知道，每年五月是加拿大「亞裔傳統文化月」。上月初在分店支援中心會議裡，Tina 向同事介紹了這個節日和它背後特殊的意義。

「亞裔傳統文化月」是加拿大第一位亞裔參議員利德蕙 (Vivienne Poy) 提案、在 2002 通過正式成立的節日，藉此讓加拿大人慶祝亞裔對這個社會的貢獻，並促進族裔間的融合。Tina 認為，在這個關鍵時刻，正是大家反思的一個好時機。

早在疫情初期，應該是二月的時候吧。兩個非華人走進 PR 分店叫囂地說：「離開這個國家，是你們把病毒帶到這裡！」五月初，溫哥華一個華人在等公交車，只因為他是華人，而被一個非華人一拳打在臉上。再來就是 5月 29 日剛剛發生在我們自家分店的事件 -- Chinatown Store 店外的一面大玻璃被砸破，是市中心一帶抗議群眾所為，這一連串因種族議題引發的暴力事件，讓我們大家都感到非常難受。

5/29 CT 分店玻璃被砸破

5/30 工程部即時封板

我們當初選擇來到加拿大的原因之一，就因為它是一個歡迎多元文化的移民國家。我們每一個人在這裡努力做出貢獻，都想讓這個社會變得更好。而從企業公民的角度去看，公司積極捐贈口罩、並為那些買不到口罩的商家設立一購買專線，就是要盡力確保所有加拿大人的安全，為什麼？因為我們現在必須分享更多、為社區做更多的事，我們的社區需要我們！而以上這些，都是足以讓我們為之驕傲、被肯定的。

再跟大家分享一張 Tina 很喜歡、出自於 CBC 新聞的照片。

拍攝於 5/11 之前

照片中這位男士，他可能原來不是大統華的顧客，但由於我們一系列的安全保護措施，讓他選擇在這段時間改到大統華來購物，這讓 Tina 感到非常自豪、非常酷。Tina 同時分享這張照片帶出的另一啟示是: 現在應該會有越來越多像他這樣的人會來我們的店，因為他們相信我們所做的，他們喜歡我們銷售的商品。Tina 期望大家學習去做一個真正的加拿大人，在生活或工作中，對所有文化保持開放，不論種族、膚色為何，我們都真誠歡迎，不要存有潛在的偏見或歧視，所謂「己所不欲、勿施於人」，中國人的這句老話就是最好的提醒。

從目前局勢看來，反亞裔等種族歧視行為一定會讓大家面臨越來越多的壓力，除了照顧好自己身體、環境的安全外，Tina 提醒大家不要看輕自己，也不要去理會那些紛擾，同時對那些出自於害怕、而不是歧視的人更要保持耐心。這場疫情讓每個人都抑鬱，但我們都需要冷靜、善待周遭。

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Embrace Diversity – Make the Canadians’ Lives Better

Maybe a lot of our colleagues have no idea that May is the Canada Asian Heritage Month. In the SC/ESC huddles of last month, Tina introduced the meaningful background of this festival.

Asian Heritage Month was established in 2002 by a previous Governor General – Vivienne Poy, to celebrate Asian Canadians’ contributions to the Canadian society. At this critical moment, Tina think this is a really good time to pause and reflect.

Early in the virus outbreak, around February, two people walking into PR store and said: “Get out of this country, you brought the virus here.” While in the early May, a random Chinese person, who was waiting for the bus, got punch in the face by a non-Chinese person simply because he was Chinese. Recently, one of the big glass windows in our Chinatown Store got smashed on May 29th. This was caused by the protest in Vancouver downtown and those violent incidents of racism upset us.

CT store window got smashed on 5/29

Engineering Dept installed a plywood on 5/30

One of the reasons why we came to Canada is because it is the immigrant country that welcomes cultural diversity. Each of us contribute to this society and we make it better. In the company standpoint, it’s the reason why T&T has been aggressively donating and making available facemasks to keep all Canadian safe. We probably sold over a million masks to vendors too. Why? Because we shall share more now, we are doing more for the community, because our community needs us. It is something that we should be proud about, we should be recognized for, we should not be ashamed about.

Here is a photo from the CBC news that Tina likes a lot.

Taken before 5/11

This man in the photo who probably is not a usual customer of T&T has chosen to shop at T&T during this time, mainly because T&T Supermarkets in Canada, are actually taking right approach. This is also what makes Tina feel proud and cool. Tina would also like to bring out the message behind this photo that, more and more people now are coming to our stores because they believe what we doing, they love what we selling, doesn’t matter what race, we should welcome them. Tina hopes all of us can learn to be the real Canadians, no matter in daily life or at work, we should open ourselves to all cultures, to all races and not to take our own biases, our own potentially discriminatory thoughts and apply to our customers in the store.

In the current situation, the anti-Asian acts will be coming more, which will be more pressure in a small raise on racism. Beside taking care of your physical environment and personal safety, Tina reminds everyone to be strong and not to look down on yourself. Please be patient with those who are scare, not discriminate. The pandemic might make us feel depressed, but we have to remain calm and be kind to others.