The Chinese Head Tax

It seems almost unthinkable today – charge an exorbitant levy on a specific ethnic group to prevent them from entering your country.

Even in a nation where citizens know taxes are too high and there are too many of them, this kind of move seems beyond the pale.

But it happened in Canada, and it’s been a part of our not-so-secret shame ever since.

It was known as the Chinese Head Tax and was directed at Chinese immigrants in the mid 1800s.  

Chinese workers were cheap and plentiful when Canada was building its railway from coast to coast. But once that national link was established, things changed, and a distinctly racist tone took over popular sentiment.

That led the government to pass the odious Chinese Immigration Tax in 1885.

It charged all would-be immigrants from that country a then enormous sum of $50 to come to Canada. If that wasn’t enough, inflation and amendments increased the amount to $100 and $500 by 1900 and 1903.

Those with money were welcome. But for those without the funds, the borders were all but closed.

Just two decades later a new law was passed that added insult to the injury. The Chinese Immigration Act of 1923 banned all immigrants from the Eastern nation altogether.

No other ethnic group was targeted in this way.

Things changed over the years, of course, and the Head Tax disappeared into the dark corners of hatred and fear that spawned it in the first place.

Some 82,000 Chinese immigrants paid the price to come to Canada.  The federal government earned an estimated $23 million from the levy, and used some of the money to help Canada fight World War I.

The rest was invested and over time and with interest that amount is now worth well over $1 billion. 

The relatives of those forced to fork over the funds fought to be compensated.

For years, the Canadian government resisted both those demands, fearing how the legal liabilities might impact this country’s coffers.

The case went to the halls of justice and in 2003, an Ontario provincial court ruled the relatively recent Charter of Rights and Freedoms can’t be made retroactive, taking the government off the hook.

But public pressure and the basic Canadian sense of fair play eventually won over politicians  – sort of.

In November 2005, the National Congress of Chinese Canadians reached a deal with the Liberals, when the Grits agreed to put millions into a non-profit agency to teach Canadians about our sordid past.

But there was no apology and no money was going to be given to survivors’ families. 

Chinese Canadians who fought so long and so hard to right the historical wrong were outraged and charged they  – and key members of the government – were both misled about the deal they’d agreed to.

Finally came the last federal election and a promise from the N.D.P. and the Conservatives to finally make it right.

Paul Martin felt the heat, apologizing on the campaign trail, only to be told he should have done it officially in Parliament.

More than a century after it was first imposed, the story re-emerged as perhaps the most improbable election issue.

But in such a tight race, it couldn’t be ignored.

And with Stephen Harper’s eventual win, the apology so many have waited so long to hear became a fact in June 2006.

“Chinese Canadians … made a significant historical contribution despite many obstacles,” Harper intoned just days after the vote that put him in power. “That’s why, as I said during the election campaign, the Chinese Canadian community deserves an apology for the head tax and appropriate acknowledgement and redress.”