“Pack a clean white shirt,” [National Association of Japanese Canadians] President Art Miki told me over the phone on August 23, 1988. The NAJC’s Strategy Committee had been summoned to a meeting with the latest multiculturalism minister, Gerry Weiner. “That’s what I was told by the government contact,” he said. We had often imagined—and even joked about—receiving this call from Weiner’s office, and here we were, at that moment. It was the first genuine sign that the government had finally come around to accepting a process of negotiation with the NAJC. Our flight to Montreal, Weiner’s hometown, had to be kept secret, so we were advised.
On the flight, Cassandra Kobayashi and I were thrilled that a settlement could be imminent, after so many years of strenuous work in the redress movement. To pass the time, we engaged in a mock interview in which we played out our mistrust in the scene that awaited us. With no information about the substance of the secret session...
Roy Miki is a poet, editor, writer and teacher. His books include Justice in Our Time, with Cassandra Kobayashi (Talonbooks, 1991), Broken Entries (Mercury Press, 1998) and Surrender (Mercury Press, 2001), which received the Governor General’s Award for Poetry.
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