Backgrounder - Projects funded under the Community Historical Recognition Program

The Community Historical Recognition Program (CHRP) funds community-based commemorative and educational projects that recognize the experiences of ethno-cultural communities affected by historical wartime measures and/or immigration restrictions applied in Canada and emphasize the contributions of the community in building this country.

CHRP funding, totaling $243,625, has been announced for the following projects:

Peripheral Visions of Toronto will receive $197,950 in funding for their Komagata Maru Era Book Project. To be launched in 2011 in partnership with publisher Douglas & McIntyre, the book aims to recapture the Komagata Maru story, as told in Ali Kazimi’s acclaimed documentary Continuous Journey. This high-quality hard cover publication will use archival photographs, official documents, newspapers and pamphlets in creating a comprehensive account of the Komagata Maru incident. Copies of the book will be made available to universities, colleges and community centres.

Grayhound Information Services of Metcalfe, Ontario will receive $45,675 for the project Beyond the Garden Wall: The Asian Immigrant Workers of Tod Inlet. Recommended by the Indo-Canadian Advisory Committee and the Chinese-Canadian Advisory Committee, this 45-minute documentary film will tell the story of Sikh and Chinese immigrants who arrived in the early 20th century to work at a cement quarry in Tod Inlet, a now-vanished town near Victoria, British Columbia. It will reflect on the effects of two restrictive immigration policies of the day – The Continuous Journey provision of the Immigration Act of 1908 and the Chinese Head Tax. The film, due to be completed by July 2010, will be distributed, with accompanying curriculum materials and other educational tools, to secondary schools and universities and may be screened at one or more film festivals.