Chinese head tax
Through the mid- to late 19th century, some 362 labourers were brought from Alaska to do construction work on the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), though they were paid a third or a half less than their co-workers (about CA$1/day).
Once the Canadian Pacific Railway was completed, the demand for cheap labour was non-existent, so the provincial legislature of British Columbia passed a strict law to virtually prevent[clarification needed] Chinese immigration in 1885.
[3] However, not all Chinese arrivals had to pay the head tax; those who were better off financially and presumed to return to China based on the apparent, transitory nature of their occupation or background were exempt from the penalty.
However, the concept of a redress movement did not begin until 1984, when Vancouver Member of Parliament (MP) Margaret Mitchell raised the issue of repaying the Chinese Head Tax for two of her constituents in the House of Commons of Canada after the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms had been proclaimed and entrenched in the Constitution Act, 1982.
[13][14] The redress campaign included holding community meetings, gathering support from other groups and prominent people, increasing the media profile, conducting research and published materials, making presentations at schools, etc.
In a CA$1.2 billion legal challenge led by the CCNC, it was argued that the apology and compensation for the internment of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War, offered by the government in 1988, established a precedent for redressing other racially motivated policies.
[24] In 2005, Gim Wong, an 82-year-old son of two head tax payers and a World War II veteran, conducted a cross-country Ride for Redress on his Honda Gold Wing motorcycle, whereupon his arrival in Ottawa Prime Minister Paul Martin refused to meet him.
The NCCC was formed on a platform of "no apology and no individual compensation," and was seen by many as the reason the Liberal government selected them as the representative group to negotiate the deal without any prior consultation with the Chinese Canadian community at large.
[27] The surprise Liberal agreement caused a great outcry in the Chinese Canadian community, as the purported deal with the NCCC had been conducted without their input, resulting in an escalation in the redress movement, nationwide.
[citation needed] Similarly, on December 8, 2005, Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper released a press statement expressing his support for an apology for the head tax.
[32] That year, from April 21 to 30, the Crown-in-Council hosted the first, formal public consultations across Canada in cities most actively involved and responsible for the campaign: Halifax, Vancouver, Toronto, Edmonton, Montreal, and Winnipeg.
A number of the leading groups demanded meaningful redress, not only for the handful of surviving "head tax" payers and their widows or spouses, but first-generation sons and daughters who were direct victims, as recounted in the documentary Lost Years: A People's Struggle for Justice, proposing that the redress be represented (and limited) by each, actual "head tax" certificate brought forward by its surviving family members, or estate.
During his address Harper spoke a few words in Cantonese, "Ga na daai doe heep" (Chinese: 加拿大道歉, 'Canada Apologizes'), breaking the parliamentary tradition of speaking either English and French in the House of Commons.
