{"id":91185,"date":"2017-09-14T17:20:05","date_gmt":"2017-09-14T17:20:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/liberal-mp-arnold-chan-dies-after-battle-with-cancer.html"},"modified":"2017-09-14T17:20:05","modified_gmt":"2017-09-14T17:20:05","slug":"liberal-mp-arnold-chan-dies-after-battle-with-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/political\/liberal-mp-arnold-chan-dies-after-battle-with-cancer.html","title":{"rendered":"Liberal MP Arnold Chan dies after battle with cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Arnold Chan, the Liberal MP for Scarborough-Agincourt, has died at the age of 50. Chan had battled cancer over the last two years.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I am saddened by the untimely passing of my husband,&#8221; Chan&#8217;s wife, Jean Yip, said in a statement. &#8220;He was a loving father, wonderful husband and dedicated public servant.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He proudly served as a Member of Parliament for Scarborough-Agincourt\u00a0for the past three and a half years, and while he courageously fought his nasopharyngeal cancer he always continued to work hard for his constituents.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Liberal MPs in Ottawa for committee hearings confirmed Chan&#8217;s death to their colleagues on Thursday morning.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"embedlinks\">\n<li>Battling cancer, MP Arnold Chan makes emotional address to MPs<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul class=\"embedlinks\">\n<li>Scarborough Liberal MP Arnold Chan says his cancer has returned<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8220;Arnold never stopped,&#8221; said Bill Casey, chair of the health committee.\u00a0&#8220;He worked right to the last minute. He never slowed down, he was always present and he put up a good fight.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He loved this place, he lived this place,&#8221; Liberal MP David Graham told members of the transport committee before a moment of silence. &#8220;On behalf of all of us here, I want to send my best to Jean and their three sons.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"figure-caption\"><strong class=\"spaced\">MP remembers Arnold Chan<\/strong>1:32<\/p>\n<p>Chan was first elected federally in a by-election in 2014, then re-elected in 2015. Previous to that he was an aide in the Ontario Liberal government. At Queen&#8217;s Park, Ontario MPPs held a moment of silence in Chan&#8217;s honour.<\/p>\n<p>Colleagues from all parties paid tribute to Chan as the news circulated.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Arnold Chan made us all better as Parliamentarians. I will miss my friend  seatmate, who was taken far too soon,&#8221; <a href=\"javascript:void(0)\">tweeted<\/a> Liberal MP Chris Bittle.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Saddened at passing of MP Arnold Chan, champion of civility and reason,&#8221; <a href=\"javascript:void(0)\">tweeted<\/a> Conservative MP Peter Kent.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our caucus, Parliament, and country will all miss Arnold Chan,&#8221; <a href=\"javascript:void(0)\">added<\/a> Liberal MP Nate Erskine-Smith.<\/p>\n<p>And Prime Minister Justin Trudeau <a href=\"javascript:void(0)\">tweeted<\/a> &#8220;Today, our Parliamentary family mourns the loss of one of our own. Arnold, you were an inspiration to us all. Rest in peace my friend.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.cbc.ca\/1.2927920.1421945095!\/cpImage\/httpImage\/image.jpg_gen\/derivatives\/original_620\/arnold-chan-20140915.jpg\" alt=\"Arnold Chan 20140915\" width=\"100%\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"figure-caption\">Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau and MP Dominic LeBlanc, right, escort Arnold Chan into the House of Commons in September, 2014, following his byelection victory. Chan was re-elected in the 2015 election. (Sean Kilpatrick\/Canadian Press)<\/p>\n<h2>Chan&#8217;s poignant last speech<\/h2>\n<p>In June, with his wife and parents in attendance, Chan rose in the House of Commons to <a href=\"javascript:void(0)\">deliver an emotional and personal address<\/a>, thanking his family for their support and encouraging his fellow MPs to honour the institution of Parliament.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I am not sure how many more times I will have the strength to get up and do a 20-minute speech in this place, but the point I want to impart to all of us is that I know we are all honourable members, I know members revere this place, and I would beg us to not only act as honourable members but to treat this institution honourably,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I would ask all of us to elevate our debate, to elevate our practice.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"figure-caption\"><strong class=\"spaced\">Arnold Chan&#8217;s heartfelt speech to the Commons<\/strong>2:22<\/p>\n<p>Chan encouraged his colleagues to drop their &#8220;talking points&#8221; and listen to each other.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That is the challenge that is going on around the world right now,&#8221; he said. &#8220;No one is listening. Everyone is just talking at once. We have to listen to each other.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He also asked Canadians to value their democracy.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I would ask Canadians to give heart to their democracy; that they treasure it, revere it,&#8221; Chan said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Of course, I would ask them in the most basic of things, to cast their ballot, but for me it is much more than that. I ask them for their civic engagement, regardless of what it actually may mean, whether it is going out and coaching a soccer team, whether it is helping someone at a food bank,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;And for me it can be even something simpler than that &#8230; It is thanking our Tim Hortons server. It is giving way to someone on the road. It is saying thanks.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is the small things that we collectively do, from my perspective, that make a great society, and fundamentally to me that is ultimately what it means to be a Canadian.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Article source: http:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/politics\/arnold-chan-death-1.4289409?cmp=rss<\/a>\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Arnold Chan, the Liberal MP for Scarborough-Agincourt, has died at the age of 50. Chan had battled cancer over the last two years. &#8220;I am saddened by the untimely passing of my husband,&#8221; Chan&#8217;s wife, Jean Yip, said in a statement. &#8220;He was a loving father, wonderful husband and dedicated public servant. &#8220;He proudly served [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[84],"class_list":["post-91185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-political","tag-political"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91185\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}