Haunted by history, Chinese seek redress for historical ill treatment by Ottawa. Between 1885 and 1923, some 81,000 Chinese immigrants paid $23 million (about $1.2 billion in today's dollars) in head taxes to Canada. When the head tax didn't slow immigration to the desired level, the Canadian government passed the Chinese Exclusion Act on July 1, 1923, legislating a near-total ban on Chinese immigration. Families of labourers working in Canada were stopped from entering the country. Canada could do without their families. The Chinese Exclusion Act kept them out. Those here were denied citizenship. Repealed only in 1947, it closed the door on immigration for six decades. Many were not reunited with loved ones overseas; others spent a quarter of a century apart. .
Historically, Chinese migration to Canada was overwhelmingly male-dominated. Census data from 1931 shows that there were 1240 men to every 100 women in Chinese-Canadian communities. Lee Ying Poy, my paternal grandfather and his five brothers paid a fee, the head tax that allowed them to enter Canada. Initially, $50, then raised to $100 in 1901; $500 in 1904. Equivalent to roughly $8,000 today, few were able to afford the fee. Many borrowed from relatives and moneylenders. It would take years to repay this debt. Chinese men were tolerated in Canada in 1885 when their labour was in demand. The Chinese were the only ethnic group that had to pay such a tax. .
In 1947, Canada signed the UN Charter of Human Rights at the conclusion of the Second World War, the Canadian government had to repeal the Chinese Exclusion Act, which contravened the UN Charter. Chinese-Canadians were finally granted the right to vote in federal elections.
The Chinese Canadian National Council (CCNC) aims to educate Canadians about 62 years of government legislated discrimination. Their Last Spike Campaign serves as a reminder to Canada's government to take action to bring resolution to this matter while the handful of head tax payers and their spouses are still alive.
