History of the Burnaby Shotokan Dojo

1976 - Norman Welch, President of Canada Shotokan, opened a dojo at the Burnaby YMCA. In January 1977 the Burnaby dojo arranged with the YMCA to hold special training at the YMCA's Camp Elphinstone. This led to over 25 years of special trainings at the Camp.


1978 - Mr. Welch's employer transferred him to Kamloops, B.C. Unfortunately, there was no one to take over the dojo and it closed down. When Mr. Welch returned to Burnaby in 1988 he reopened the dojo at the same location.


1991 - Gurmail Gill was promoted to sandan. He took over the leadership of the Burnaby dojo for two years.


1993 - Curt Wvong, nidan, took over the leadership and in 1995 he started the first kids class at the dojo. The kids' class was eventually led by shodans Michelle Cho, Liny Chan and Katherine Lynch.


1996 - Curt moved to Singapore and Katherine moved to Sweden, so Michelle and Liny assumed leadership of the dojo.


June 1997 - Burnaby YMCA decided to turn the facility into a youth drop-in centre and the dojo had to find a new home.


September 1997 - Burnaby dojo moved to the Canada Way Education Centre. Eric Crosby, nidan, took over leadership of the adults' class while Michelle and Liny continued to lead the kids' class. In 1994 Eric spent 4.5 months in Japan and had the rare opportunity of practicing karate at Waseda University with Mr. Watanabe, one of Mr. Ohshima's seniors.


1999 - Michelle moved to Los Angeles and Isabelle Cote, shodan, started to help Liny with leading the kids' class.


2001 - the school was scheduled to undergo renovations. The Burnaby dojo relocated to the Willingdon Heights Community Centre.


2003 - an opportunity arose to move the dojo to its current location, the Alan Emmott Centre in Burnaby, a newly renovated, spacious and bright facility. Eric and Liny continue to lead the adult and kids practices at the dojo.