Gov’t. Apology A Century In The Making For Chinese Canadians
Posted June 21, 2006 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Members of Canada’s Chinese community arrived in Toronto Wednesday, nearing the final leg of a trip that started last Friday in Vancouver but has been a century in the making.
Their final destination: Ottawa and a chance to accept a promised apology from Prime Minister Stephen Harper for Canada’s role in imposing a head tax on their ancestors in the 1800s and part of last century.
The heavy levy was designed to make it almost impossible for Asian immigrants to settle in Canada, an expensive and discriminatory practice that cost families their savings and chances at a new life.
It started in 1885 and wasn’t repealed until 1947.
On board the train – family members, descendants and the oldest person still living who was forced to hand over his money, a 106-year-old man who insisted on making the trip.
Frank Lim is another who wants to hear the Canadian mea culpas for himself. He was just a child when the tax was imposed on him, but he’s never forgotten the burden of shame it left on his family.
“When I was older, I realized that that was kind of a bad thing for a government to do,” he recalls. “It made you feel like you’re not worthy, like you’re nothing, you’re nobody.”
It’s estimated 81,000 Chinese immigrants to Canada paid an astounding $23 million in head taxes before the restrictive law was repealed.
Chinese residents have been trying to get reparation and an apology ever since.
Where and why did the head tax start?
