Victor Lee was one of the original protest leaders, along with Andy Joe (lawyer) and Art Lee (Liberal MP). Over his decade-long involvement with the protests, Lee collected a series of documents that tracked the public reception of this activist moment: newspaper articles, court proceedings, petition signatures, and more. Significantly, he also included internal documents that cannot be found on most public records, such as private correspondence, microbial food studies, and rally speeches. Not only have these documents never been studied, they have also never been recorded or disseminated. The chance to analyze these documents would not have been possible without the work of Fred Mah, who contacted Lee on my behalf to request these files once he heard about my research interests.
Danika Medak-Saltzman emphasizes the importance of “decentering archives,” which highlights the need to consider how the internal logics of this archive reflect certain positionalities or claims made by Chinese Canadian activists as settlers of colour. They also illustrate the ways in which the ground work behind organizing differs from what is reported in newspapers and who gets represented in the public spheres.
Archival Documents
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