On May 15th, 2014, British Columbia’s Premier Christy Clark offered an official apology to the Chinese Canadian community. Learn more about Motion 19 – Apology for Past Discriminatory Practices against Chinese Canadians:
Chinese Historical Wrongs Consultation | Final Report and Recommendations
Executive Summary
In late 2013, the Ministry of International Trade and Ministry Responsible for the Asia Pacific Strategy and Multiculturalism began a consultation process leading to a formal apology to Chinese Canadians for historical wrongs. Participants in the consultations were asked to consider what the apology should say and how it should be delivered. They were also invited to suggest legacy initiatives to help British Columbians understand the impact of these historical wrongs and the achievements of Chinese Canadians. Based on the information gathered, the historical context has been summarized and a series of recommendations have been prepared. These are broadly outlined below and described in more detail in the report.
Historical Context
Chinese workers first arrived in Nuu-chah-nulth territory in 1788 to build a year-round, non-indigenous fur-trading fort. As British colonial outposts continued to be built, and long before British Columbia became part of Canada, Chinese workers were common in fur trade settlements.
After gold was discovered in the Fraser Valley in 1857, Chinese migrants from San Francisco were among the tens of thousands of workers who came from all over the world to join the gold rush. These first Chinese workers were soon joined by others who came directly from China. After the prosperous gold rush period ended in the 1860s, Chinese workers continued to migrate to British Columbia, creating early industries and service businesses.
After British Columbia entered Confederation in 1871, anti-Chinese rhetoric and political coalitions grew. In 1871, the new B.C. legislature passed an act to deny the vote to Chinese, “Native Indians” and other non-whites. Thus began a long history of anti-Chinese racism that included legal, professional, labour and social discrimination and impediments to education, land ownership, and business operations. Discrimination was systemic, extending throughout economic, social and political life.
While arguably the strongest forms of this discrimination were federal laws (the head tax and exclusion laws), these were adopted in large part because of pressure from the B.C. government, which implemented its own discriminatory laws and practices. The government of British Columbia now strives to fight racism and these laws and practices have long been repealed or made illegal by human rights legislation. However, these past historical wrongs continue to cause anger and disappointment among Chinese Canadians.
In May 2014, the legislative assembly and the Province of British Columbia apologized to Chinese Canadians for past historical wrongs.
Report Recommendations
The following recommendations regarding the apology and related legacy initiatives were developed from the consultations and reflect broad participant consensus.
Principles – To be acceptable, the apology and legacy initiatives must reflect the principles of respect, sincerity and commitment to reconciliation.
Apology wording and delivery – Apology wording must address the wrongs endured by Chinese Canadians historically and reflect the government’s commitment to ensure that discrimination will never be repeated. The formal apology should be brought forward and supported by all members of the legislative assembly, and introduced by the Premier.
Update of British Columbia’s education curriculum to include historical wrongs –
The Ministry of Education and the Ministry of International Trade have already committed to adding age-appropriate resources for the K-12 curriculum as part of an ongoing process. This commitment was made ahead of the announcement of this report’s recommendations based on the overwhelming consensus at every consultation forum and meeting. The government is advised to ensure that teachers have appropriate, easy-to-use resources and lesson plans to teach children new perspectives of B.C.’s history and are supported in their use of these materials.
Public education and general awareness – It is recommended that the Government prepare public education initiatives illustrating the contribution of Chinese British Columbians to B.C. society. This could include an exhibit on the B.C. Gold Rush, the railway or Clan Associations. It is also recommended that the Province publish a full-colour book similar to BC People: Portraits of Diversity in BC to celebrate Chinese Canadians in British Columbia. This book could be available to cultural centres, libraries and schools. Consultation submissions will also be made available to the public in an easy and accessible online format.
Review legislation – It is recommended that the government undertake a review of discriminatory legislation identified in the consultation to ensure it has been repealed and to review legislative procedures to demonstrate that British Columbia does not have, nor will it ever produce, racist legislation again.
Historical sites, artifacts and commemorations – It is recommended that historical sites be inventoried to identify important locations and artifacts and that a related plan be developed to help the community honour this cultural history in perpetuity. One project recommended is the recognition of the role of clan and society associations that were founded in communities across British Columbia. Other recommended projects include the creation of commemorative plaques or monuments at one or several locations. A design competition for a monument in Victoria at the Legislature is of special interest. These plaques or monuments will help honour the positive contributions of Chinese Canadians to B.C.’s history, culture and prosperity.
Funding for Legacy Initiatives – It is recommended that legacy funding of $1 million be provided to implement the recommendations. A key message voiced by many forum speakers and participants was that “words are not enough.” Participants were united in their desire to see some financial support from government for legacy initiatives that celebrate the contributions of both Chinese Canadians and others who suffered discrimination.
Integrating legacy initiatives – It is recommended that the Ministry responsible for multiculturalism coordinate legacy initiatives and other web-based information related to the historical wrongs. The consultation identified a vast array of historical and contemporary information about the historical wrongs and the contribution of Chinese Canadians to B.C. The comprehensiveness of these resources is impressive, yet they are dispersed and at times difficult to find because there is no coordinated effort to consolidate them. This is seen as an appropriate initiative that government can undertake.
No individual compensation for head tax redress – It is recommended that there be no individual financial compensation for head tax descendants. The consensus of consultation participants was that financial resources should benefit the entire community, not individuals. Many stated that the federal government had addressed the redress issue in 2006 with its one-time payment to surviving head tax payers.
1 Introduction
British Columbia continues moving forward as a welcoming and inclusive society. The purpose of this report is to summarize the results and suggestions received through the consultation process to recommend a formal apology and legacy initiatives from the British Columbia Legislature for discrimination against Chinese Canadians by past provincial governments.
These laws and policies denied Chinese British Columbians basic human rights, including the right to vote, hold public office, or own property; imposed labour and employment restrictions; and prevented them from being full and equal participants in society. British Columbians were discriminated against simply because they were of Chinese descent. These racist practices are an historical fact. It is also a fact that today British Columbia strives to welcome and accept people of all cultures and to fight racism and intolerance.
Cultural diversity and increased participation and engagement by all cultures are vitally important to creating a strong and vibrant social and economic future for British Columbia. Chinese Canadians have made substantial contributions to the culture, history and economic prosperity of our province. Despite being subjected to discrimination, they persevered with grace and dignity.
The report makes the recommendation that the formal apology to Chinese Canadians be delivered by the Premier in the Legislature, supported by all Members of the legislative assembly, to demonstrate respect, sincerity and commitment to the apology and reconciliation. The blending of cultures and traditions has made British Columbia what it is today – an inclusive society that is seen as modern, tolerant and multicultural.
2 Historical Context
First Arrivals
In 1788, while Captain James Cook and Captain George Vancouver led expeditions to survey, and claim, the coastline of modern-day British Columbia for the British crown, Chinese workers landed in Nuu-chah-nulth territory. They were part of Captain John Meares’ expedition to build the first year-round, non-indigenous settlement. Helping erect a fur trading fort in what the British named “Nootka Sound,” these first Chinese migrants arrived alongside the first British inhabitants in the traditional territories of the First Nations of British Columbia. As British colonial outposts continued to be built in the following decades, long before British Columbia was a part of Canada, Chinese workers were common in fur trade settlements.
Gold Mountain
When gold was discovered in the lower Fraser Valley in 1857, and in the years that followed, tens of thousands of miners from around the world joined the gold rush. Along with these miners came a large group of Chinese from San Francisco who arrived in Victoria by boat in June 1858.
Soon after, more Chinese came from California and directly from China, seeking riches both from digging gold and creating businesses that provided services to other miners.
Even when the prosperous period of the gold rush ended in the 1860s and British Columbia faced adverse economic conditions, Chinese continued to migrate to what they called “Gum San” – Gold Mountain – a name they used for California, British Columbia and the Australian colonies. Although the discovery of gold in these places sparked global gold rushes, the name “Gold Mountain” lasted long after the gold was gone, signifying for the Chinese the dream of wealth and a better life. The mostly male Chinese migrants often worked alongside and sometimes married into First Nations communities up the Fraser River and throughout British Columbia. They sought a better livelihood by building early industries such as market farming, logging, fishing and mining, and providing services through businesses such as general stores, cafés and laundries.
The Rise of Anti-Chinese Politics
When British Columbia entered Confederation in 1871, the creation of the first provincial legislature coincided with the growth of anti-Chinese political movements in places such as California and the Australian colonies. The use of anti-Chinese political rhetoric in the new province of British Columbia helped build early political coalitions around a racist ideology. A crucial political strategy was to deprive non-whites of the vote, and Chinese in British Columbia lost the vote in 1871 as the new legislature passed an act to disenfranchise “Native Indians,” Chinese and other non-whites.
Cities and municipalities in British Columbia adopted the same strategies, and Chinese Canadians, now unable to vote in elections, became the scapegoats and targets for political movements that used anti-Chinese discrimination and legislated racism to rally voters. From the 1870s onward, racial discrimination against Chinese Canadians became a mainstay of British Columbia politics, culture and society. In Nanaimo and Kamloops, for example, civic governments segregated Chinese Canadians, attempting to confine them to the outskirts of town.
As geographer David Chuenyan Lai writes, “Even after death, the Chinese were segregated from Westerners. Ross Bay Cemetery in Victoria, for example, was divided into 21 blocks of which Block L was set apart for the burials of ‘Aborigines and Mongolians.’ The Burial Records reveal that the first Chinese person interred there on 18 March 1873 was listed as ‘Chinaman No.1’ and subsequent Chinese burial plots designated as ‘Chinaman No.2,’ ‘Chinaman No.3’ and so on.”
The Building of the Railway
Before 1885, when the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) made movement across the country cheap and convenient, British Columbia was difficult to access from other parts of Canada. It was easier, cheaper and faster to get to British Columbia from Hong Kong than from Halifax. Creating a better transportation system was essential to connect the new Confederation. With the beginning of the construction of the CPR in the 1880s, Chinese workers were crucial for building the difficult western sections of the railway. Chinese railway workers were brought by ship from both California and China to start building the CPR from the west coast at the same time that European labourers began building the eastern section from the east coast. Over the course of construction and by the end of 1882, of the 9,000 railway workers, 6,500 were Chinese Canadians. They were employed to build the B.C. segment of the railway through the most challenging and dangerous terrain.
Chinese workers were paid $1.00 a day, and from this $1.00, they had to pay for their food and gear. White workers were paid $1.50 to $2.50 per day and did not have to pay for provisions. As well as being paid less, Chinese workers were given the most dangerous tasks, such as handling the explosive nitroglycerin used to break up solid rock. Due to the harsh conditions they faced, hundreds of Chinese Canadians working on the railway died from accidents, winter cold, illness and malnutrition.
Although Chinese Canadian workers faced and overcame great obstacles to help build the CPR, they were left out of the national celebration surrounding its completion. In the iconic historic photograph of CPR Director Donald Alexander Smith driving the ceremonial “last spike,” when the western and eastern sections of the CPR finally met in Craigellachie, British Columbia, all of the Chinese Canadian workers were cleared from view. Several forum participants pointed out the lingering injustice captured in that image: there is not a single Chinese Canadian worker in the photograph, even though Chinese Canadian labourers suffered, toiled and died building the railway that has come to symbolize the unity of Canada from coast to coast.
The Head Tax
Almost immediately upon completion of the CPR, pressure from the B.C. provincial legislature to pass exclusionary legislation against the Chinese led to the enactment by the federal government of the Chinese Immigration Act of 1885. This legislation imposed a $50 fee, called the “head tax,” on each Chinese person entering Canada. Only six classes of people were exempt: diplomats, clergymen, merchants, students, tourists and men of science. Modelled on the 1881 poll tax passed in New Zealand, the intention of the head tax was to discourage Chinese labourers from coming to Canada. n 1901, the tax was increased to $100 and in 1903 it was increased again, to $500 – the equivalent of two years wages for a labourer. Despite the heavy tax, Chinese migrants continued to come, as they could earn 10 to 20 times more in Canada. Many Chinese Canadians borrowed money to pay the tax. Then they laboured for years to pay off their debts.
No other ethnic group in British Columbian history has suffered such formally sanctioned mistreatment of its members on entering Canada over such an extended period. During the period of the head tax between 1885 and 1923, over 97,000 Chinese immigrants still came to Canada seeking a better life, with many helping to build B.C. and Canadian society. They lived and worked in every town and city across British Columbia. In many small towns, Chinese Canadian cafés served as community gathering places. Chinese Canadian farmers grew fresh produce and Chinese Canadian grocers supplied local neighbourhoods. The B.C. government received approximately 40 per cent of the $23 million total (nominal value) tax revenue collected through the head tax.
Racism and Discrimination in Social Life
Chinese Canadians were segregated socially, economically and politically. For example, consultation forum participants described how Chinese Canadians were not permitted to swim in Victoria’s Crystal Pool. By 1923, acts were passed in British Columbia forbidding Chinese Canadian merchants from employing white women. Eventually, this discriminatory regulation was replaced by an act requiring Chinese Canadian merchants to apply for a special permit – rarely granted – to employ white women. Beginning in the 1930s, Chinese restaurants in Vancouver were banned from hiring white waitresses, and movie theatres routinely segregated Chinese Canadians, requiring them to sit in the balcony.
Chinese Canadians experienced discrimination and segregation in education and the professions. In September 1922, the Victoria School Board separated Chinese Canadian students into a segregated school. Professional societies in British Columbia practised anti-Chinese discrimination by excluding anyone whose name was not on the voting lists. Because Chinese Canadians had been disenfranchised, they could not become professionals such as lawyers, pharmacists, engineers or doctors in British Columbia until after 1947, when Chinese Canadians finally reacquired the right to vote.
The Exclusion Act
In 1923, pressured by the B.C. government, the federal government enacted the Chinese Immigration Act (commonly called the Chinese Exclusion Act). Passed on July 1, Dominion Day, the act was humiliating and debilitating in its damage to Chinese Canadian communities. Despite its name as an “immigration” act, in practical terms, persons of Chinese origin were no longer permitted to enter Canada.
During the 24-year period of exclusion between 1923 and 1947 (when the Exclusion Act was finally repealed), fewer than 100 Chinese were allowed to enter Canada. Many Chinese Canadians in British Columbia were separated from their family members in China, and some never saw their families again. For many Chinese Canadians, the Exclusion Act was the clearest signal from Canada that they did not belong. As described at the Kelowna forum, it was a lonely life for the men who lived away from their wives and families for so many years. Some letters from those early immigrants were found in the Kelowna museum’s basement decades later – letters that were never sent. They begged the writers’ families for forgiveness for their failure as husbands and fathers because they were not able to bring their families to Canada.
The legally sanctioned racial discrimination engendered by the Exclusion Act was systemic and sustained, and its toll in human suffering deserves pause for reflection.
Soldiers and Veterans
The outbreak of World War II was a pivotal point in the history of Chinese Canadians in British Columbia. The B.C. government strongly opposed enlisting any Asians in the armed forces, fearing that military veterans would ask for the right to vote afterward. Despite such obstacles and the injustice and discrimination they faced, some Chinese Canadians volunteered for military service to prove their loyalty to Canada, some of them travelling outside British Columbia to find a place that would allow them to enlist.
During the Victoria consultation forum, Chinese Canadian war veteran Gordon Quan said, when he was young, he wanted to fight for his country, and his country was Canada. “We didn’t know about the discrimination laws until well after the war was over. When we came home [after fighting Canada’s enemies], we fought for our rights.”
Due in large part to the honour and sacrifice of the Chinese Canadian veterans in World War II, the federal government repealed the Exclusion Act on May 14, 1947, relaxing immigration for the family members of Chinese Canadians. Subsequently, other discriminatory laws against the Chinese were also repealed. Having the right to vote and run for public office, Chinese Canadians began to participate in politics. Vancouverite Douglas Jung, a veteran of World War II, was the first Chinese Canadian elected as a member of parliament in 1957, and Kamloops Mayor Peter Wing was elected as the first ethnic Chinese mayor in North America in 1966. Ben Lee served as a city councillor in Kelowna between 1973 and 1996, where he is still affectionately known as a community leader.
A New Era
The 1967 immigration reform created the “points system” and removed racial discrimination in immigration policy, opening the door again to Chinese immigration. As a result, new Chinese immigration rose steadily in the 1970s and 1980s.
According to the 1981 census, people of Chinese origin made up less than three per cent of the B.C. population. In contrast, in 1901, Chinese Canadians were roughly 10 per cent of the B.C. population (14,885 of 149,709). It was a full century before that proportion was reached again in 2001 (373,830 of 3,698,850). By 2011, Chinese Canadians made up nearly 15 per cent of British Columbians.
New immigrants have contributed to a thriving Chinese Canadian culture in Vancouver and the lower mainland, in particular Richmond, where 44 per cent of the population are ethnic Chinese.
On June 22, 2006, Prime Minister Stephen Harper offered an apology and compensation for the head tax once paid by Chinese immigrants. Survivors or their spouses were paid approximately $20,000 as compensation. There were only an estimated 20 Chinese Canadians who had paid the tax still alive in 2006.
British Columbia now has the largest Chinatown (Vancouver) and the oldest Chinatown (Victoria) outside San Francisco in North America. Chinese British Columbians have made contributions in every aspect of B.C. society including science, art, music, academia, sports, business and community services. Many Chinese Canadians have been appointed to the Order of Canada, the highest honour in this country.
Need for an Official Apology
The litany of historical wrongs still looms in British Columbia’s society. Chinese Canadians remain justly angered and disappointed by the historical wrongs imposed on them by their provincial government. While many of the offending acts, regulations and policies were federal, often they were encouraged or initiated by past B.C. provincial governments or federal members of parliament from British Columbia.
For these reasons, the government of British Columbia is now apologizing for the historical wrongs of past provincial governments that were once considered appropriate. While the governments that passed these laws and policies acted in a manner that were lawful at the time, British Columbians today consider this racist discrimination unacceptable and view it with extreme indignation.
A formal apology will assist in providing closure on this dark period in British Columbia’s history.
Additional References:
Faculty of Art
