Fixing the wrongs of the past
The ill-treatment of early Chinese immigrants
VINCENT LEE
As reported in the Toronto Sun, leaders of a faction in the Chinese community continue to pressure the government to receive a total redress for Chinese immigrants who had to pay a head tax to get into Canada. Before we get into the merits of that request, here’s the setup.
We have to go back to 1858 and the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Between 1881 and 1884, over 15,000 Chinese came to Canada where about 6,500 were directly employed by the CPR. As soon as the railway was completed, the federal government restricted the immigration of Chinese into Canada. The first federal anti-Chinese bill was passed in 1885, taking the form of a head tax of $50 levied on every person of Chinese origin entering the country. No other group was targeted this way. The head tax was then increased to $100 in 1900 and to $500 in 1903. Keep in mind that $500 was equivalent to two years’ wages of Chinese labour at the time. Meanwhile, the Chinese were also denied Canadian citizenship. In all, the federal government collected upwards of $23 million from the Chinese through the head tax.
Despite the head tax, many more Chinese immigrants continued to come to Canada. To finally prevent Chinese from immigrating to Canada, the Canadian Parliament in 1923 passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, effectively barring all Chinese from entering Canada. The Act was passed on July 1, 1923, Dominion Day, perceived by the Chinese community in this country as the ultimate form of humiliation. Many called this day “Humiliation Day,” refusing to celebrate Dominion Day for years to come.
The impact of the head tax and the Exclusion Act was tremendously painful for all Chinese involved. Men were displaced from their wives and families because they were not allowed to immigrate to this country; many Chinese families did not reunite until decades later and in some cases were never reunited. The CBC cites the example of Ralph Lung Kee Lee who died in March 2007 at the age of 107 as one of those affected.
Asking for an apology sounds simple and easy, but it took decades for the government to even formally acknowledge the injustice. The Mulroney government attempted to correct this, but failed. The Liberal governments of Chrétien and Martin ignored this issue.
During the last week of April 2006, cross-country hearings by the MPs Bev Oda and Jason Kenney were held in Halifax, Vancouver, Toronto, Edmonton, Winnipeg, and Montréal to meet with individuals and the broader Chinese community to discuss the issue of the head tax. The meetings followed earlier discussions with Chinese-Canadian national organizations and reflected Prime Minister Harper’s commitment made in the Speech from the Throne on April 4, 2006, that “the Government will act in Parliament to offer an apology for the Chinese head tax.
June 22, 2006 was a historic moment for all Chinese-Canadians as Prime Minister Harper apologized on behalf of the Canadian government while also announcing a symbolic $20,000 redress payment to those directly affected who are still living and their spouses.
So far, so good, right?
Well, in a sense. Since previous governments had either failed to address or ignored this issue, only a handful of Chinese head tax payers survived to qualify for this compensation. CTV News estimates that about 400 head tax survivors and their spouses are still alive. The good news is that some of them so far have received their compensation of $20,000, the CTV report states.
Going back to the report from the Toronto Sun, at a press conference on March 24, 2007, some Chinese community leaders said that they still want all family members compensated. “We reaffirm our commitment to inclusive redress and urge the Canadian government to begin negotiations to include all head tax families in the June 22, 2006 redress announcement,” Colleen Hau, national president of the Chinese-Canadian National Council, said.
“We call on Prime Minister Harper to restore dignity to all head tax families and extend direct redress to those families where the head-tax payer and spouse have both passed away.”
As a fifth-generation Chinese Canadian whose great-grandfathers paid the head tax, I don’t see any more that the government can reasonably do to address the issue. The fact is that the majority of the head tax victims have already passed away without receiving an apology and that will forever remain as a shameful scar in Canadian history. The government did the right thing by compensating the remaining survivors.
The remainder of the $23 million dollars that was originally collected (plus interest) can never go back to their original owners. But instead of paying the descendants, there are other ways of giving respect to the early immigrants and of recognizing the injustices that they faced. It would be better to see the remainder of the money put into the proposed new National Human Rights Museum here in Winnipeg. That way, the money would help educate Canadians about the head tax and be a lasting symbol of apology to those who will never get one.
Vincent Lee is a fourth-year microbiology student at the University of Manitoba.
