Gabriel Yiu is a Hong Kong-born Canadian award-winning journalist, social activist and businessman.

Background

Yiu was born and educated in

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

. He worked in his father's trading business before becoming the administrator of an arts institution. He went on to become administrator of an independent organization specializing in the study and critique of Hong Kong's arts and cultural policies. Yiu was a fellow of the Asian Cultural Council and a respected figure in the arts community. Immigrating to Canada in 1991, Yiu and wife Angela started what is now a successful floral business in Vancouver. ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'' featured Gabriel as one of the six "People to Watch" in

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

. He received the Cultural Harmony Award from the City of Vancouver. Yiu has served on numerous boards: International Centre for Asian Contemporary Arts, The Dance Centre, JumpStart Performing Society, BC Newspaper Foundation, La Salle Old Boys’ Association, Vancouver Hong Kong Forum Society. He is an advisor to the

UBC Museum of Anthropology The Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia (UBC) campus in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada displays world arts and cultures, in particular works by First Nations of the Pacific Northwest. As well as being a major tourist ...

Media career

An award-winning journalist in the Chinese media, Yiu was assignment editor of Ming Pao Daily's weekend magazine, and later columnist for the Vancouver Sun, also serving on the newspaper's community editorial board. He has written columns for many newspapers and magazines, including ''

Vancouver Sun The ''Vancouver Sun'', also known as the ''Sun'', is a daily broadsheet newspaper based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The newspaper is currently published by the Pacific Newspaper Group, a division of Postmedia Network, and is the larg ...

'', ''

Business in Vancouver ''Business in Vancouver'' (''BIV'') is a weekly business news journal co-founded in 1989 by Peter Ladner in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Published on Tuesdays it receives about 62,000 readers per week with a print circulation of about 1,8 ...

'', ''

Ming Pao ''Ming Pao'' () is a Chinese-language newspaper published by Media Chinese International in Hong Kong. In the 1990s, ''Ming Pao'' established four overseas branches in North America; each provides independent reporting on local news and coll ...

'', ''

World Journal ''World Journal'' ( zh, c= 世界日報, p=Shìjiè Rìbào) is a Pan-Blue Taiwanese broadsheet newspaper published in North America. It is the largest Chinese language newspaper in the United States and one of the largest Chinese-language ne ...

'' and '' Global Chinese Press'', and hosted popular television and radio shows for local Chinese stations.

Political career

A community activist, Yiu fought for Chinese Head Tax redress and against the closure of Mount St. Joseph Hospital's emergency room. He successfully campaigned against the federal government's Bill C-51, which would regulate natural health product and traditional Chinese medicine as pharmaceutical drugs. Together with MLA

Jenny Kwan Jenny Wai Ching Kwan ( zh, t=關慧貞; born 1967) is a Canadian politician who is the Member of Parliament (Canada), member of Parliament (MP) for Vancouver East (federal electoral district), Vancouver East. A member of the New Democratic Pa ...

, he campaigned to have China's Kaiping Watchtower recognized as a world heritage site. Yiu was a prominent organizer in the anti-HST campaign, that successfully fought for the repeal of the Harmonized Sales Tax in British Columbia. In 2005, Yiu was the

BC NDP The New Democratic Party of British Columbia (BC NDP) is a social democratic political party in British Columbia, Canada. The party sits on the centre-left of the political spectrum and is one of the two major parties in British Columbia; since ...

candidate in

Burnaby-Willingdon Burnaby-Willingdon was a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia The Legislative Assembly of British Columbia () is the deliberative assembly of the Legislature of British Columbia, in the province of Bri ...

, where he was narrowly defeated by

John Nuraney John Nuraney (October 31, 1937 – November 21, 2016) was a Canadian politician who was the first Muslim elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. He represented the riding of Burnaby-Willingdon from 2001 to 2009 for ...

. In 2009, Yiu was the BC NDP candidate in

Vancouver-Fraserview Vancouver-Fraserview is a provinces and territories of Canada, provincial electoral district (Canada), electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Canada. Geography Following the redistricting in 2015 based on the pr ...

, where he was defeated by BC Liberal candidate and former Police Chief Kash Heed. Kash Heed was later fined $8,000 for an Elections Act violation for over-spending the campaign limit and two other individuals in the Liberal campaign were found guilty of violations of the Elections Act. In 2011, Yiu won the BC NDP nomination to represent

again in the 2013 provincial election, in which he was defeated by BC Liberal

Suzanne Anton Suzanne Anton, (born May 31, 1952) is a Canadian politician and the former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of British Columbia. Elected to the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia in the 2013 provincial election, Anton represent ...

by 470 votes.

References

External links

Campaign website for Gabriel Yiu

Recent articles by Gabriel Yiu at the Georgia Straight online

Recent articles by Gabriel Yiu at the Indo-Canadian Voice online
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yiu, Gabriel Businesspeople from Vancouver Canadian activists Canadian newspaper journalists Hong Kong emigrants to Canada Living people Naturalized citizens of Canada British Columbia New Democratic Party candidates in British Columbia provincial elections Year of birth missing (living people)

Background

Media career

Political career

See also

References

External links