Tommy Chan still vividly remembers the injuries he treated at the climax of the protests in Hong Kong in 2019.
"One of the most serious cases I dealt with was a deep wound near the protester's eyes. Others said he was hit by a bullet, which was I didn't know what kind of bullet it was, "he recalls in Cantonese.
"When the protesters came to us for help, we saw a lot of blood flowing from the wound. We tried to stop the bleeding, but It didn't work. No matter how many pads and bands I scratched, it just kept bleeding. "
Chan was injured during a protest that began in June 2019. It was an emergency volunteer who helped people. He treated itchy eyes and skin, and police fired tear gas and a spray of pepper to turn red, but the injuries he saw soon became when violence enlivened Hong Kong for months. Severe scratches from baton beatings, bean bag rounds, and rubber bullets.
But now Chan is in Vancouver and can't forget the pop of the Tiagas Canister flying in the air with a smoke tail. He opposed the authorities to protect their rights and freedoms.
After news reports that other First Aid volunteers were arrested and charged with illegal rallies, aid and bets, Chan was in pain in a hurry to leave for Canada. I made a decision.
"Even at the airport, I was worried that I wouldn't be able to fly because the scenario was ready," he says. "It wasn't until the plane took off that I was finally relaxed." , Australia, Singapore and Canada are consistent with more than 100,000 people leaving the region.
Many who left said they were disillusioned with the guarantees made by China in 1984 when China signed the China-UK Joint Declaration. Promised Hong Kong to the UK. It is under the framework of "one country, two systems". Residents of the region, unlike cross-border communist China, were able to retain their rights and freedoms for at least 50 years, including free speech, free press, and rule of law.
This is an agreement when the regionwas officially handed over from the UK to China on July 1, 1997, marking the end of Hong Kong as a British colony. did.
But the contradiction of governing one of the world's freest economies into a prestigious government came to mind before 50 years had passed. I did.
Hong Kong has changed a lot as we reach the midpoint of delivery contracts this week. Beijing has strengthened its control over the city's political and legal system and eradicated civil society and media conditions. People like Chan and Arial Wong say they couldn't recognize what they called their hometown and sought a new life elsewhere.
Wong also actively participated in the 2019 protests. The protests stemmed from an expulsion bill proposed by Hong Kong Chief Executive Officer Carrielam in the spring of that year. City residents strongly opposed this. That's because everyone in Hong Kong empowers the government to arbitrarily expel China to face strict legal systems.
The protests began peacefully, with up to two million people on the streets, including elderly parents pushing strollers and walking with canes. They bravely confronted the hot and humid weather that required the government to withdraw the bill.
However, Ram was not moved and the movement immediately escalated to a young black-clad protester who clashed with the police. In the months that followed, authorities arrested more than 10,000 people in connection with the protest, of which more than 2,900 were chargedaccording to figures released by February 2022.
At that time, Wong stepped up to help the people behind the bar.
"I formed a group to help persecuted political prisoners sent to prison ... I just helped them with legal aid and living expenses," she says. ..
But in recent months, the Hong Kong government has accused groups like her of supporting and betting on protest-related groups. Wong fled to Vancouver in January to avoid her charges.
"Every time I read Hong Kong news about what's happening right now, it's very painful. Never stop them arresting people. Some of them are my friends and now Is not in Hong Kong. I couldn't go to jail to visit them, "she says.
She knows she's unlikely to return to Hong Kong to visit her mother, but it's better for her mother to be farther away than to visit her in her prison. She felt.
Meanwhile, she felt that Wong was safer here, and she said she was applying for asylum. When she settled down, she said she wanted to contribute to the Vancouver community.
By late January 2020, protests were abruptly stopped in two ways. -Distance measures, and six months later, Beijing passed Hong Kong's National Security Act, bypassing the city council.
This is a vague wording law, and if authorities consider someone to have clashed with a foreign army and committed sedation, secession, or terrorism, everyone in the world is a Chinese state. You may be charged with endangering your security.
Therefore, Chan and Wong agreed to speak only if CBC News kept their identities secret. Both have been renamed for the purposes of this story.
Jeff Nankivel was the Consul General of Hong Kong and Macau in Canada when the National Security Act came into force in 2020.
He gives police the power to arrest and prosecute someone under ambiguous law, replacing the general legal system in Hong Kong, as the law goes beyond the understanding of the Sino-British Joint Declaration. It states that it is giving.
"Can you imagine in a place like Canada ... we will publish a wide range of laws without public consultation or notice," said Nankibel, now Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Asia Pacific Foundation. I am saying. -A profit thinking tank looking at the relationship between Canada and Asia.
"It (National Security Act) came into effect within minutes of its promulgation, and the next day, 10 people had already been arrested," said no one in Hong Kong for details. He added that he didn't even know Ram, the city leader.
It had an immediate cooling effect on the city. Many civil society groups, unions and non-governmental organizations have disbanded, and some politicians and activists who support democracy have announced that they will move away from public life.
This depression is due to Jimmy Lai, the founder of the democratization promotion newspaper Apple Daily, and the National Security Law. This has led to the closure of several other independent media outlets, such as StandNews and CitizenNews, for fear of facing arrest. The Hong Kong Journalists Association has been able to fend off attacks from authorities for months, but is now aiming to disband.
Emily Chiu was a reporter for Apple Daily until her paper was closed last June. In 2019, she and her colleagues covered months of protests and interviewed protesters. She was only a teenager who told her she was afraid to be arrested, but if they didn't stand up to it, she was afraid of Hong Kong's future.
Chiu is not her real name. CBC News said she was worried that she would be arrested and charged like her boss Lai, so she agreed to keep her identity secret.
She recalls seeing the arrest of Lai and her other executives who were ready to go to jail.
She said, "As employees, we were the ones we most admire, so we were heartbroken," says Chiu, who moved to Vancouver six months ago. ..
"Without the freedom of the press and the freedom of speech, she doesn't make sense to be a reporter in Hong Kong," she says.
Chiu is one of about 6,000 people who have arrived in Canada for a new life in the last three years.
A few months after the National Security Act was enacted, Canada announced special immigration measures. This allowed graduates of globally recognized post-secondary institutions in the last five years to apply for work permits such as: It leads to permanent residence.
Many who arrive despite the new trends are young families who are concerned about the government's more patriotic review of Hong Kong's education system towards China. There, students must sing the national anthem of China and hold a weekly flag-raising ceremony. Meanwhile, the textbook to be published teaches the next generation that Hong Kong was never a British colony. It is also not mentioned that locals have been on the alert for candles for 30 consecutive years until the ban was banned three years ago to commemorate the June 4th slaughter of Tiannanmen Square.
There are teachers as well as students leaving Hong Kong — According to a survey released by the Hong Kong Summit, 4,460 students and 987 teachers left the education system in 2020-21. junior high school.
This is almost double the number of teachers who have left in the last few years, and the study says that immigrants have "seven times increased."
In Vancouver, several church groups are helping asylum seekers settle in new homes. Thanks to one of them, Chan learned English and got to know Vancouver.
"I saw a documentary about protestsRevolution of OurTimesbecause it was recently banned in Hong Kong.I saw it twice, but I had to keep crying while I was watching it, "he said, worried about what was left.
"I feel desperate and guilty, and I feel like I've abandoned my companion in Hong Kong," he says. "I feel that I need to speak more often because I am free to express my opinion here.
" The people of Hong Kong are basically silent, so I Feels that they should participate in the protest here and speak out for them. "
National Security Act enacted Hours before, Nathan Law, the youngest legislator elected to the Hong Kong Parliament in 2016, went into exile. States that it is his mission to continue to defend democracy in Hong Kong.
"The challenges faced as a political activist in Hong Kong are different from the challenges faced as an asylum activist," he said from London. "I need to talk to policy makers, talk to the media to explain things in a way they can understand, and connect what I want them to do in their own interests."
Despite these changes, Law says he is trying to adapt, both where he lives and in the work he does.
"I think it's a very rewarding journey for me," he says.
However, according to a borderless reporter, it's easier to get media attention in London than in Hong Kong in other ways, as press freedom has plummeted with China's growing influence. ..
In 2002, when thePress Freedom Indexwas first published, Hong Kong was ranked 18th out of 180 countries. It plummeted to 80 last year and 148 this year.
On the other hand, China is ranked 176.