No changes to Chinese-only signs in Richmond
Posted March 18, 2013 6:26 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
RICHMOND (NEWS1130) – The Chinese-only sign debate is over.
Richmond city council has decided not to force business owners to make any language changes to their signs.
A delegation presented council with a petition of about 1,000 signatures from people who feel excluded because they can’t read a lot of the signs around the city.
Anne Merdinyan spearheaded the push for language requirements on commercial signs.
“It was a request to bring the community together by having the signs in Richmond…English and French, to have one of the official languages included on the signage,” argues Merdinyan.
“It’s controversial. It’s a very serious issue, and it is very disappointing. We had lots of information and they just shut us out,” she says.
One resident, Randolph, disagrees and says enforcing a bylaw would go against our human rights. “What they’d be doing with this petition, is they’re asking for restrictions on the way private land owners, private business owners and private individuals are expressing themselves.”
Henry, a Chinese-Canadian Richmond resident says the city doesn’t need a bylaw but thinks there should be increased education to encourage Chinese business owners to include English.
“I just hate to see we create a big, conflict in the community. People want to have a sign in English and Chinese which is right, I agree. But if they have a sign in Chinese only that’s not really healthy for their business because they are losing customers…but also business owners have their own decision to decide what type of sign they want to have,” he tells us.
One councillor recommended having staff look into the controversial issue, but that was not supported by the rest of council.
