OUR VIEW: Sensitive? Yes. But sacrosanct? No

Oh, no. Please tell us this isn’t happening again.

Bill Chu (see front page story) has raised concerns – again, that the new high school will be built on a graveyard containing the bodies of Chinese citizens.

The cemetery on the school site was built in 1860 when New Westminster was a small village. Chinese and Sikh immigrants, First Nations people, prisoners, asylum residents and the poor were buried at the site, which operated as a graveyard until the city closed it in 1914. 

Apparently in the 1940s, when the city was clearing the site to build the current high school, some of the bodies were exhumed and moved. But historical records have not been found yet that say how many were moved or where they were taken.

If there are remains still on the site – and there likely are – the school district would have to follow the Heritage Conservation Act requirements, which include getting a permit.

The last time this whole issue was brought up was in 2008, when then-education minister Shirley Bond told the Record, “I think people can understand that we need to be really sensitive, and there are requirements to take care of ...”

The district back then had hired Doug Hibbins to get the school project back on track, and Hibbins said, “If it was one of your ancestors, you would want it dealt with in a very sensitive way ...”

Now, we sure don’t want to seem insensitive, but it’s time that this whole cemetery thing is laid to rest, so to speak.

To be very clear, New Westminster has not always treated its Chinese population and history with the respect it deserves.

This city was home to the second largest Chinatown in Canada in the 1800s. Those immigrants built the railway, roads and telegraph lines that provided a base for what was to come. And those same immigrants were denied basic human rights, and many died while working under terrible conditions.

In New Westminster the city demolished its Chinatown, and the fire chief of the day claimed: “In one day we tore down every building in Chinatown.” This included homes that were inhabited.

It’s not a history to be proud of. And the city has apologized for those historical atrocities. But we desperately need a new high school, and the site cannot be turned into a massive memorial to avoid tackling the issue of buried bodies.