VICTORIA NEWS - Wednesday, October 27, 2010 www.vicnews.com • A3

Roszan HolmenNews staff

Sickening to think of, fearful to witness, but indescribably awful to experience.

This description of leprosy from the Daily Colonist of 1883 warns of the so-called “Mongolian” disease in an age when Chinese migrants were arriving to Victoria in numbers, looking for work.

Victoria’s response to the much-dreaded public health crisis resulted in a shameful policy toward the foreigners. For more than 30 years, an unconfirmed number of men were outcast to D’Arcy Island off the Saanich Peninsula.

It’s the subject of a renewed search for information, passed down from grandparents, who might have known one of the lepers.

“We could not find any descendents of any of the people who had been on the island,” said Kit Wong, president of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association. Parks Canada, which manages the island, contacted the CCBA this summer to start the dialogue.

“We’ve been asking around and we haven’t got any feedback yet,” Wong said, adding he’s not giving up. “Don’t forget … a lot of people move to Vancouver or around the country.”

The story began in 1885 when

Victoria’s sanitary officer sounded the alarm over the second reported Chinese leper, arrested for vagrancy and allowed to mingle with other prisoners.

With pressure from Victoria’s mayor, Chinese merchants agreed to pay the leper’s passage back to China. It didn’t solve the problem, however, or the deep-seated fears in the white community.

The history has been recorded by historian David Lai, as part of his extensive research about Victoria’s Chinatown.

By 1891, five Chinese lepers shared a cabin on Fisgard and Government Streets. City aldermen objected to the men’s freedom to wander the neighbourhoods. On May 13, 1891, the province agreed to reserve D’Arcy Island off the Saanich Peninsula for “sanitary purposes.”

With no time wasted, a work crew built a six-unit row house with basic furnishings. By May 21, the five afflicted men were dumped along with three months of provisions. Meanwhile white lepers were generally sent to a government-run lazaretto in New Brunswick with nurses and medical treatment.

Lai called it pure discrimination, in an interview with the News.

On the other hand, exile also benefitted the Chinese lepers because their own community also refused to treat them, Lai said.

“In the village, whenever they find out he’s a leper, he’d be kicked out. People even burned them.”

Despite the stark conditions, the lepers were reportedly pleased with the facilities and began farming the land.

Over the next five years, lepers from other B.C. communities arrived and a jurisdictional battle brewed over maintenance costs. The men began to waste away, their disease progressing and their stubby hands likely no longer able to chop wood or do other chores. By 1898, Victoria’s medical health officer described their condition as pitiable

and urged for their proper care. Nothing changed except more frequent health reports.

In 1906, the Dominion government assumed responsibility. The next year, the six remaining men were sent to China at a cost of $6,000. The island became a holding area for foreign-born lepers waiting deportation. Eventually, the camp moved to Bentinck Island in 1924 and closed in 1957.

In June, 2010, Lai accompanied reporter Audrea Chan to D’Arcy Island as an advisor for a new documentary.

“There isn’t a lot of things left,” said Chan, with Richmond-based Fairchild TV. “We can still see some solid foundation .. and some bricks scattered around.”

She hopes someone will come forward with some tie to the island’s history to fill in the gaps. There are conflicting reports about the number of men sent to the island and the number deported, she said.

The newspaper clippings and city hall reports don’t make clear whether some people were exaggerating the happiness of the lepers, she added.

“If there is any chance that (anyone has information), we have to go find these stories because the Chinese community is aging … and the stories might be lost forever.”

rholmen@vicnews.com

Did you know?Fairchild TV is Canada’s largest Chinese TV channel. Audrea Chan’s documentary, called The Forgotten Horizon, is available in Cantonese and Mandarin. It aired for the first time Oct. 11, but will be posted to the website: www.fairchildtv.com.

“We have to go find these stories because the Chinese community is aging ... and the stories might be lost forever.”

– Audrea Chan

Search reborn for talesof Victoria’s outcast lepers

Image courtesy of Royal B.C. Museum, B.C. Archives

One of the Chinese men sent to D’Arcy Island.

Image courtesy of Royal B.C. Museum, B.C. Archives

A leper on D’Arcy Island in 1898.

‘People even burned (lepers).’

Community, documentarian seek stories of plight on D’Arcy Island