[2] In the early 1880s, during the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), as many as 17,000 Chinese immigrants came to Canada to work as labourers.

[3] Many individuals arrived from China, but others came from American states that included Washington, Oregon, and California, following their work on railroads and in mining camps.

Furthermore, the CPR was formed to physically unite Canada, and industrialists desired cheap labour to complete its construction.

"[7] As a result of the public's distrust of Chinese immigrants, the province of British Columbia reconsidered their legal status between the years 1872 and 1885.

[7] In 1884, for example, British Columbia's Legislature attempted to "prevent their immigration, to impose an annual poll tax of $10, and to forbid their acquisition of Crown Lands.

Prime Minister John A. Macdonald originally refused to introduce prohibitive measures, but eventually yielded and appointed the commission.

The act imposed a $50 head tax on Chinese immigrants, with the exceptions of diplomats, government representatives, tourists, merchants, scientists, and students.

An additional amendment in 1892 required Chinese residents of Canada who wished to temporarily leave the country to register with an immigration official prior to their departure.

In 1900, the head tax was raised to $100 by Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, due to a still growing influx of Chinese immigrants.

"[2] Companies in short supply of cheap labour would often advance this money to bring Chinese immigrants to Canada.

[16] Numerous riots occurred across the country to protest the presence of Chinese people in economic and social settings.

[16] Numerous Canadian provinces disenfranchised the Chinese or placed heavy restrictions on them in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

For example, immigration remained limited to the wives of Chinese Canadian citizens and their unmarried children under the age of eighteen.

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.Effective 29 August 2006, Canada's redress program combined "payments to individual head tax payers, (or, if the payer is deceased, to their spouse) with funding for educative and commemorative programs.

[6] The aim of establishing a "white" society for Canada, as Kenneth Munro explains, "such discrimination flew in the face of that crucial premise of Canadian nationhood, namely, respect for diversity of culture and traditions.