A former senior federal bureaucrat who compared racism in Canada to high blood pressure has been appointed to lead the board of the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21.Canadian Identity and Culture Minister Marc Miller announced Friday that Daniel Quan-Watson will become chair of the museum’s board of trustees. Blacklock's Reporter said Quan-Watson, who retired from the federal public service in 2023, previously served as deputy minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations and held senior positions at several federal organizations.The government said Quan-Watson was the first federal deputy minister of Chinese-Canadian ancestry and has continued working as a speaker on leadership, ethics, anti-racism and reconciliation since leaving the public service.Quan-Watson attracted public attention in 2021 after writing a commentary about his experiences with racism in Canada in response to columnist Rex Murphy.Murphy had argued in a National Post column that Canada was not a racist country and that most Canadians were opposed to racism.Quan-Watson responded by describing thousands of incidents he said he had experienced because of his race, ranging from insults as a child to comments from strangers and a university professor.He estimated that by his mid-50s he had encountered roughly 10,000 “slights, insults, decisions or actions” based on race over his lifetime.Quan-Watson compared his experience of racism to living with high blood pressure.“To Rex Murphy’s question about how much racism and discrimination is part of the Canadian reality, I will speak to my own Canadian reality and say it’s like high blood pressure,” he wrote.Quan-Watson said racism could remain present even when it was not immediately visible and argued that people who had not personally experienced it should not conclude that it did not exist. His commentary was subsequently cited in federal reports examining racism and discrimination.Murphy took a different position, arguing Canada had made substantial progress combating racism and discrimination and that those advances were often overlooked.Quan-Watson's appointment puts him at the head of the board overseeing Canada's national museum dedicated exclusively to immigration.The Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 is located in Halifax at the site where nearly one million immigrants entered Canada between 1928 and 1971. Its federal mandate includes explaining the experiences of immigrants, immigration's role in building Canada and newcomers' contributions to Canadian society..The appointment comes as the museum has raised concerns about changing Canadian attitudes toward immigration.In its 2025 corporate plan, museum management said economic concerns and the housing crisis had contributed to an increase in the number of Canadians who believed immigration levels were too high.“Social cohesion in our country is threatened by growing ideological divides often manifesting as anti-immigrant rhetoric,” the museum said in the document.The museum argued that learning about newcomers' experiences could build empathy and said museums have a role in maintaining social cohesion at a time when public trust in institutions is under pressure.Miller said the museum plays an important role in preserving the experiences of generations of people who have made Canada their home.“I am pleased to welcome Mr. Quan-Watson as Chair as the Museum continues to preserve and share the experiences that have helped shape Canada,” Miller said.
