Raising money to revitalize a historic Vancouver neighbourhood, and feting the written word at the Gillers

Vancouver Chinatown Foundation Autumn Gala, Nov. 1, Vancouver

On the evening of Nov. 1, the ballroom inside the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver was the spot for the Vancouver Chinatown Foundation’s first gala since 2019. The foundation, whose goals are focused on cultural and economic revitalization in the historic Vancouver neighbourhood, raised an impressive $6.3-million at the event. The funds will support the foundation’s most ambitious project to date: 58 West Hastings St., a 10-storey building set to include some 230 housing units and a public-health clinic.

The affordable housing project broke ground in 2021 and has already raised $30-million, 90 per cent of the fundraising goal. “The Downtown East Side has seen its share of challenges, especially with the pandemic, so this community support has been very welcome” said Vancouver Chinatown Foundation board chair Carol Lee by telephone following the event. Lee has been a champion of the cause since its start, and her mother, philanthropist Lily Lee, wife of the late Bob Lee and a former public-health nurse on Vancouver’s East Side during the 1950s, recently announced a $3.8-million gift to help build the medical facility at 58 West Hastings. “Community building for Chinatown is important, this project is for our next-door neighbours,” Lee said.

On co-chairing duties at this latest was talent agent Sam Feldman and philanthropist Darlene Poole and others out supporting included, among others: Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim; Martin Thibodeau, BC regional president of presenting sponsor RBC; Rogers CEO Tony Staffieri; and some of Vancouver’s top developers including Terry Hui, CEO of Concord; Neil Chrystal, CEO of Polygon Homes; and Ward McAllister CEO of Ledingham McAllister Communities.

Lily Lee and Ken Sim.Yaletown Photography + Film/Yaletown Photography

Fred Lee, Carol Lee and Sophie Lui.Yaletown Photography + Film/Yaletown Photography

Wade Davis and Michael Audain.Yaletown Photography + Film/Yaletown Photography

Angela Grossmann and Martha Sturdy.Yaletown Photography + Film/Yaletown Photography

Ward Mcallister and Terry Hui.Yaletown Photography + Film/Yaletown Photography

The Scotiabank Giller Prize, Nov. 7, Toronto

The following week in Toronto the 29th edition of the Scotiabank Giller Prize was in full swing at the Four Seasons Hotel. Canada’s literary set and supporters of the written word squished into the hotel for the annual do, where cocktails and dinner preceded the splashy CBC televised awards ceremony. Taking home the top prize consists of a $100,000 cheque (a sum Margaret Atwood joked for the winning author is “a temporary but joyful elevation of financial anxiety”), and maybe more importantly, ample exposure, which, in turn leads to something of an instant bestseller. Calgary-based author Suzette Mayr was this year’s winner for her novel The Sleeping Car Porter. Dotting the room were her fellow shortlisted authors (who each took home $10,000) Kim Fu, Tsering Yangzom Lama, Rawi Hage and Noor Naga, who was seated across from me at dinner, with her parents and publisher also close by for support.

Can-lit big-givers also abounded, Gerald Sheff and Shanitha Kachan, Scott and Krystyne Griffin and Charles and Marilyn Baillie, among them. Also there, was Toronto Mayor John Tory and the Honourable Elizabeth Dowdeswell, Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario; Minister of Labour Seamus O’Regan; the daughters of Giller founder Jack Robinovitch: Daphna, Noni and Elana, who serves as executive director of the prize; last year’s winner, author Omar El Akkad; and Scotiabank chief marketing officer Laura Curtis Ferrera.