‘This cannot happen again:’ Edmonton city council urged to take action following two Chinatown killings


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Outrage over the killing of two men in separate Chinatown businesses last week led to a packed Edmonton council chambers Tuesday, with hundreds of citizens calling for action to prevent more senseless violence.

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City council took the unusual step of allowing speakers to address a pair of related items, the Community Safety and Wellbeing Strategy and the Edmonton Police Service Funding Formula Policy, in the wake of the killings of Hung Trang, 64, and Ban Phuc Hoang, 61 , who died in separate attacks by the same person, police allege.

Christina Trang speaks about her father Hung Trang, who was killed in Chinatown, as Chinatown's community filled city council chambers for a discussion about the Community Safety and Well-being Strategy in Edmonton, on Tuesday, May 24, 2022. Photo by Ian Kucerak
Christina Trang speaks about her father Hung Trang, who was killed in Chinatown, as Chinatown’s community filled city council chambers for a discussion about the Community Safety and Well-being Strategy in Edmonton, on Tuesday, May 24, 2022. Photo by Ian Kucerak Photo by Ian Kucerak /postmedia

“Our family will never be the same again,” said Christina Trang, Hung Trang’s daughter. “Maybe if things had been different in Chinatown my dad would still be with us today.”

Council approved an amendment to the larger community safety and well-being strategy Tuesday afternoon, allocating one-time funding of $300,000 to address the issues in Chinatown.

Speaking to reporters, Trang said she and her sister Angela wanted to honor the memory of their father, who worked at Albert’s Autobody for 33 years, and to make sure no one is in the same situation again.

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“Everybody wants to feel safe going through Chinatown,” she said. “And we used to be able to go through Chinatown and feel safe, not have to worry about things or hang onto our purses really tight and we no longer feel safe in our own community.”

Trang said the Asian community in Chinatown is closely knitted and she was not surprised by the huge turnout at city hall.

“I’m not surprised at all that everybody came out to support, especially with dad being in the community every day working for the last 33 years,” she said. “It was not surprising, but it was very, very touching.”

Hon Leong, chair of the Chinatown Transformation Collaborative Society, spoke on behalf of Hoang’s family. He told council Hoang’s wife blames herself for not being there with him the day he died.

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“It was too dangerous. We couldn’t find anyone to work in Chinatown,” Leong said. “Maybe if she (she) was there, he would still be alive.”

Leong told council Hoang owned and operated Universal Electronics and Video, and helped bring karaoke to western Canada.

Echoing Trang, Leong told reporters the Hoang family’s message is “this cannot happen again” and he cannot be forgotten.

“There has to be drastic changes that have to happen in Chinatown, that there is an urgency for this work to begin and to continue to happen.”

He said Hoang’s story is a familiar one.

“He had a very difficult time coming here, just to get to this land of promise,” he said. “The fact that he will not be able to witness his daughter walking down the aisle or to have his first grandchild. It’s painful. It’s not fair.”

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Hon Leong, with the Chinatown Transformation Collaboration Society, speaks with the media about his uncle Ban Hoang, who was killed in Chinatown, as members of Chinatown's community filled city council chambers during a discussion about the Community Safety and Well-being Strategy in Edmonton, on Tuesday, May 24, 2022. Photo by Ian Kucerak
Hon Leong, with the Chinatown Transformation Collaboration Society, speaks with the media about his uncle Ban Hoang, who was killed in Chinatown, as members of Chinatown’s community filled city council chambers during a discussion about the Community Safety and Well-being Strategy in Edmonton, on Tuesday, May 24, 2022. Photo by Ian Kucerak Photo by Ian Kucerak /postmedia

Leong said Chinatown is quiet, stoic and tolerant, but it is being taken advantage of.

“I think there’s decisions that are being made that have identified Chinatown as the logical place for certain things to happen and occur,” he said. “I don’t want to point exactly to what that is, but there is racism and it is prevalent and we don’t call it the glass ceiling, we call it a bamboo ceiling.”

Mayor Amarjeet Sohi said the deaths of the two men are a brutal act of violence inflicted on members of Edmonton’s community.

“I take my responsibility very seriously, things must change in Chinatown. Chinatown has been neglected for decades,” Sohi said.

“I am committed to working with the community to make sure that we are providing appropriate resources to change the situation as well as working with the other orders of government to fix the long-standing problems that the community is facing from homelessness, to mental health crisis, to addictions crisis.”

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He said there needs to be a comprehensive approach to dealing with the issue, including more enforcement to deal with crime.

“But we also need to make sure that we are having a compassionate, trauma-based approach to tackling the societal issues that are causing some of their pain and disorder,” he said.

Sohi added the deaths should never have happened.

“But it had happened and we need to act and need to take action and we are willing to do that, absolutely, work with community and police service and social agencies to get a better handle on the situation that people do feel safe in Chinatown, ” he said.

Justice Minister Tyler Shandro said Tuesday that recent acts of violence in Edmonton are “completely unacceptable.”

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“Every Edmontonian, every Albertan has the right to feel safe in their communities,” he said. “I would encourage all of our municipalities to make sure that our police services have the resources that they will need to be able to keep people in our community safe.”

Meanwhile, the Edmonton Police Service announced Tuesday they are launching a new strategy to address the recent violence, property and disorder-related incidents. There will be highly visible police resources focused on 113 Street to 97 Street along 118 Avenue, 100 Avenue encompassing the Downtown Core, Chinatown and Alberta Avenue, and Stadium LRT Station, Coliseum LRT Station, Central LRT Station, Churchill LRT Station and the adjacent pedway system.

With files from Lisa Johnson

[email protected]

Twitter.com/JunkerAnna

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