Surrey and Vancouver lay claims to proposed South Asian Museum

There have been increasing calls for transparency at Vancouver’s City Council . Before Councillor Adriane Carr left City Council she introduced a motion on maintaining “Public Confidence in the Good Rule of the City”, which motion was soundly defeated before she retired.

A motion passed by City Council to create a South Asian Cultural Excellence Centre in Vancouver, dated November 13, 2024, provides an object lesson on how democracy functions at City Council. No specific background material was provided for this motion when City Council committed itself to one-third of the costs of a politically charged project where $100 million would “get things started”.

This article is a part of Rungh News’ continuing coverage of a South Asian Museum proposed as a political promise by the NDP government in 2020. The provincial promise of a museum has been mired in controversy. The City of Vancouver has now entered the fray.

At the Vancouver City Council hearing on the motion, Pall Beesla spoke on behalf of the Khalsa Diwan Society of Vancouver and noted that “thousands” of votes were represented in the support letters provided to City Council. Artist Jag Nagra spoke by phone in support of the motion. Beesla and Nagra are also key members of the Punjabi Market Collective. The Punjabi Market group functions as both a cultural group and a type of  business improvement association (BIA) in South Vancouver’s Punjabi Market area. 

Councillor Zhou, who repeated the claim that “thousands” supported the motion, did not attend at an agreed upon interview time with Rungh News. Zoe Frankcom, Director of Communications at the Office of the Mayor offered to reschedule the interview. Despite follow up from Rungh News, the interview never took place. A request to Frankcom from Rungh News for copies of the letters of support referenced during the council debate, received no reply.

Beesla confirmed an interview for January 14, 2025 and then declined the interview texting that “I’ll have to get back to you another time”. He never got back to Rungh News.

Nagra preferred to provide written answers to Rungh News’ emailed questions. In her replies, Nagra noted that establishing a Centre of Excellence “in the area” of South Vancouver, would “further strengthen it’s [Punjabi Market’s] role as a cultural and economic hub” and that “support for a safe gathering space” and a “cultural space” had been a part of “multiple civic motions”. No previous civic motions referencing an Excellence Centre were specifically noted in the written answers.

Rungh News filed a Freedom of Information (FOI) request and received the letters of support which are viewable in this story. The FOI response makes clear that Pall Beesla collected the letters of support and provided them to Councillor Zhou and to David Grewal, a political appointee in the Mayor’s Office who has attracted media attention in the past.

The ten letters submitted by Beesla to City Council have elements which clearly demonstrate that a template was utilized and repeated. This raises doubts about Councillor Zhou and Beesla assertions that “thousands” want the proposed centre in Vancouver.

Rungh News interviewed Councillor Pete Fry on November 15. In the interview, he candidly noted that the approved motion was a “bit vague”, “not being too prescriptive or definitive”, but still a “nice motion”. He admitted that to his knowledge, there had been no specific consultations about an Excellence Centre but there had been work done by the City of Vancouver to support the Punjabi Market area.

On the topic of what is “South Asian”, Fry referenced his own familial origins, on his mother’s side, from Trinidad and Tobago. He noted the diverse, non-homogenous nature of the term which can capture Indo-Caribbean communities, and a “diversity of other pluralities” which have a resonance with Punjabi Market, “even if they weren’t Sikh or Punjabi or identified” as such.

Councillor Fry also noted that “it would be pretty obvious to most people that Surrey would be the more sort of natural front runner at this point, given the demographics.” In competition with Vancouver, on December 3, 2024, Surrey City Council passed its own motion that the a South Asian Heritages Museum or Cultural Centre be located in Surrey.

There are now two cities fighting over a centre that has not yet made it through a provincial consultation process, which has no funds attached to it, no agreement on what it will be, or, what “South Asian” means.