Lost Canadians: Citizenship for Canada's fallen soldiers 'more important than ever'

Don Chapman, author of the book Lost Canadians, is campaigning to have citizenship granted to Canada's fallen soldiers.

'Lost Canadians' refers to those who believed themselves to be Canadian citizens or to be entitled to citizenship, but are not officially considered citizens due to interpretations of citizenship law.

According to Chapman, thousands of Canadian soldiers died in World War I and II without Canadian citizenship. He says many of these soldiers were of Asian heritage.

"There are two right here in Vancouver, Fred Ho and Quan Louie," Chapman told BC Almanac's Michelle Eliot.

"They went off to fight in a war, for a country that was telling them they didn't belong."

Louie was born in Vancouver in 1922, went to the University of British Columbia, and died in 1945 when his bomber was hit over Magdeburg, Germany.

Ho was also born in Vancouver, and was killed in action in Italy during World War II.

Both Ho and Louie's names are carved onto the veterans wall in Vancouver's Chinatown.

'Who boots out people that protected us?'

This Remembrance Day, Chapman is calling on the new federal government to recognize the citizenship of fallen soldiers.

"They are aware of it, but they haven't put it as a priority," he said.

Chapman believes recognizing their Canadian citizenship is more important now than ever.

"Who boots out the very people that protected us, that brought us our freedoms, and now disavows them?"

"It's an absolute no-brainer, of course they should be ours."