Barbequed meat is a Cantonese specialty found in Chinatowns worldwide. Tender and flavourful, customers would come to this Chinatown just to buy these meats. In 1975, a war erupted when city health officials insisted on new storage standards – standards merchants felt would undermine the quality of their product. Inspectors closed some shops and put others on probation. Remaining stores closed in solidarity. Merchants enlisted a lawyer, had the meats lab tested, staged marches, and ran a national campaign that brought a roast pig to Ottawa. Eventually, health inspectors ceded, and barbequed meat came back on the market.
燒臘是遠近馳名的廣東食品，足跡踏遍世界各地的唐人街。肉香鮮嫩、美味可口的燒臘食品吸引許多顧客專程到唐人街選購。溫哥華市政府的衞生官員在1975 年時堅持引入新的肉類貯存衞生標準，但經營燒臘店的商人認為新標準會影響其產品質素，雙方因此掀起一連串的風波。衞生督察把部份店鋪關閉，並要求另外一些店鋪在觀察期內達標。為表團結一心，其餘的商戶亦自發關門停止營業。其後商戶尋求律師協助、化驗肉食、上街抗議，甚至發起全國性抗爭運動，把原隻燒豬帶到首府渥太華向官員展示。最後，衞生督察作出讓步，而燒臘食品亦得以重返市面銷售。
