Head Tax
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Origins and purpose
The Chinese Immigration Act of 1885, 1900, and 1903 were a series of anti-Chinese legislations in Canada that were meant to discourage Chinese from entering Canada after the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway. These legislations are examples of institutional racism against the Chinese in Canada.
The Chinese Immigration Act of 1885 stipulated that all Chinese entering Canada will be subjected to a Head Tax of $50. The act was mostly to discourage the lower class Chinese from entering since Canada still welcomed the rich Chinese merchants who could afford the head tax. After the Government of Canada realized that the $50 fee did not effectively eliminate Chinese from entering Canada, the government passed the Chinese Immigration Act of 1900 and 1903, increasing the tax to $100 and $500, respectively.
In 1909, Mackenzie King, who was only a Member of Parliament for the Canadian House of Commons at the time, represented the British Empire in a anti-opium conference in Beijing. During that meeting, King told the Qing Government that he would try to persuade the government in reducing the sum of the head tax if his Chinese counterparts could restrict Chinese migration to Canada.
Chinese was the only ethnic group that had to pay a Head Tax to enter Canada. It should be noted that other orientals like East Indians and Japanese were not subjected to a Head Tax. The reason was that prior to the Statute of Westminster 1931, the Government of the United Kingdom had control over Canada's external affairs, therefore Canada could not deter citizens from India, which was a British crown colony and Japan, who agreed to the Anglo-Japanese Alliance in 1902. But as a way to get around it, the Government of Canada stipulated that citizens of Japan or other British Far Eastern colonies had to travel to Canada via a direct voyage.
Results of the Head Tax
The Government of Canada collected well over $23 million from about 82000 head tax payers, some of the money were used to support Canada's war effort in World War I.
In terms of social impact, due to the tax, Chinese Canadian communities in Canada became "bachelor's society" since many families in China could not and would not pay the tax to send their daughters to Canada.
Movement for redress
In the 1980s, many in Chinese have lobbied for a refund of the head tax, and an acknowledge (or even an apology) from the Government of Canada. The Chinese Canadian National Council (CCNC) has led the rally for the government of act, and even taking legal action against the federal government. The CCNC argued that the federal government has a moral responsibility for its racist past and should not be profiting from racism, and the apology and compensation to the internment of Japanese Canadians during World War II has set a precedent for redressing racially motivated policies.
However, an Ontario provincial court has declared in 2003 that the Government of Canada has no obligation to redress the head tax levied to Chinese Canadians, stating that the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms has no retroactive effects, and the case of internment of Japanese Canadians is not a legal precedent for compensating past racist policies.
Despite a recommendation by a United Nations rapporteur on racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, Doudou Diene, in 2004 that Canada should redress the head tax to Chinese Canadians, the Department of Heritage is still refusing to address the issue financially.
It has been estimated that the total sum of head tax collect by 1923 is equivalent to over $1 billion today.
See also
- History of Chinese immigration to Canada
- Chinese Canadian
- Chinese Canadian National Council
- Anti-Chinese Legislations in Canada before 1947
External links
- Chinese Head Tax & Exclusion Act Redress in Canada (http://www.asian.ca/redress/index.html)
- The CCNC Redress Campaign (http://www.ccnc.ca/redress/)