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Land Acknowledgement
Turtle Island, which refers to what is now North America, was from time immemorial, land of the Indigenous peoples. The land and waters, fauna and flora of this place have been stewarded
by the Indigenous peoples, the beauty and abundance of which we live with today. Chinese Canadians first came to the West Coast, the land of the Haida, Tsimshian, Kwakiutl, Nuxalk, Coast Salish and the Nuu-chah-nulth in search of a better life, and have since made home across Turtle Island. The fact that Canadians can live freely on both unceded and Treaty territories should not be taken for granted, and we stand in solidarity with the sovereignty and rights of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples.
Action! Chinese Canadians Together Foundation acknowledges our office operates on Mohkinsstsis, the ancestral territory of the Siksikaitsitapi — the Blackfoot people — comprising the Siksika, Kainai and Piikani Nations, as well as Treaty 7 signatories, the Tsuut’ina Nation, and the Îyâxe Nakoda Bearspaw, Chiniki and Wesley First Nations. Mohkinsstsis is home to Métis Districts 5 and 6.
Legend
1788
Chinese workers landed in Nuu-chah-nulth territory
Chinese workers landed in Nuu-chahnulth territory, in what is now British Columbia. They were a part of Captain John Meares’ expedition to build the first non-Indigenous settlement. This settlement led to the establishment of the British claim to the west coast of Canada.
1800s
Railroad construction starts
Between 1881 and 1884, up to 12,000 Chinese workers entered Canada to build the westernmost section of the Canadian Pacific Railway.
1850s
Founding of Africville
Black settlers established Africville in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Many were formerly enslaved in America and were promised liberty and freedom in Canada. Many built the roads in Halifax. Almost a century later, the City of Halifax tore down Africville, forcibly displacing what was a thriving community.
1858
First Chinese Community in Canada
The first Chinese community in Canada was formed in Victoria, BC. By 1860, the Chinese population in BC was estimated to be 7,000. The Chinese were as large a population as the European population.
1870s
The Chinese community started organizing for their rights
They successfully fought the imposition of a poll tax on the Chinese only in 1878.
1872
Chinese Canadians banned from voting in BC
After BC entered the Confederation, the provincial legislature took the right to vote away from Chinese British subjects. It also banned the First Nations majority from voting, creating a system of white minority rule. Chinese people were unable to become lawyers or pharmacists because they were not on the voters list.
1876
The Indian Act passed
The Indian Act was created in order for the federal government to administer Indian status, First Nation governance and management of reserve lands. The Act consolidated many colonial laws to control Indigenous governance, communities, and individuals.
1884
Leading Merchants established the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (中華會館)
They worked to serve the Chinese community and, until today it has been the main defence organization of the community.
1885
Head Tax/Chinese Immigration Act
The federal government passed the Chinese Immigration Act which imposed a $50 head tax on Chinese workers and their family members entering Canada. Chinese Canadians were the only group that had to pay a tax to enter Canada. The act was passed about six months before completion of the railway.
1885
The Canadian Pacific Railway completed
It is estimated that for every mile of railroad track laid, three Chinese workers died, tallying more than 600 deaths in total.
1885
Fear-based policy
John A. Macdonald took the right to vote away from everyone of “Chinese or Mongolian race” while he was establishing an electoral system based on ownership of private property. Macdonald did so out of fear that the Chinese would control the vote in B.C.
1890
Won Alexander Cumyow
As Canadian citizens, Won Alexander Cumyow and his brother appeared on the 1898 voter’s list. Cumyow voted in the BC provincial election, while registered in New Westminster. He was unable to re-register in 1902. Fifty-one years later, he was finally able to vote in the federal election in 1949.
1890
Segregation and Chinatowns
Many Chinese were segregated and forced to live on the fringe of the city in what was known as “Chinatown.” They were banned from specific public spaces and go to segregated schools, and movie theatres. During the Spanish Flu of 1918, Chinese patients were not permitted into a number of hospitals, deemed “white” hospitals, in Montreal. City by-laws, licenses, and formal labour regulations were used to constrict Chinese livelihoods in industry, business and labour. In BC, Chinese were barred from civic employment from 1890 until 1952.
1896
Denied the right to vote
Japanese Canadians, and First Nations were no longer able to vote in BC.
1903
Increased Head Tax
The tax was increased to $500. This amount was as much as two years’ wages for a Chinese worker. The high head tax prevented Chinese men from bringing their family to Canada.
1907
Anti-Asian riots
Following a rally at Vancouver city hall organized by the Asiatic Exclusion League attended by 10,000 people, a mob rampaged through Chinatown. It proceeded to the Japanese quarter. The Chinese Benevolent Association organized general strikes of the Chinese to force the government to pay for the damages.
1908
Hayashi-Lemieux Gentleman’s Agreement
A limit was placed on how many Japanese men could enter the country, from 400 to 150.
1914
Komagata Maru
In 1914, there was a denial of immigration for a ship full of Punjab Sikhs, due to a “Continuous Journey” regulation. The ship was forced out of Vancouver harbour by the Canadian Navy.
1916
The first Chinese Labour Association
The Chinese Labour Association was formed to advocate for treatment similar to that of white workers in the lumber industry.
1920
Renewed Exclusions
The Federal Government Chinese Exclusion Act passed a bill to disqualify persons from voting federally if they were not permitted to vote provincially. The Chinese and other Asians were consequently once again banned from voting in BC. Saskatchewan also banned the Chinese from voting.
1920
Cultural Genocide
By 1923, the federal government and leading Christian churches were organizing the cultural genocide of First Nations people through the residential school system, which had been made compulsory in 1920.
1922
Segregation
The Victoria school board imposed segregation of Chinese students. They deemed it necessary to protect White children from Chinese students who they thought brought disease, depravity and immorality. Joe Hope and the Chinese Canadian Club, along with the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, organized a year-long Chinese students’ strike against the school board.
1923
Chinese Exclusion Act
The Chinese Exclusion Act banned nearly all Chinese immigration. This completely stopped immigration from China for 24 years. The Act forced everyone “of Chinese origin or descent”, including Canadian-born citizens, to register with the government. 55,872 people registered under the act, 87% of whom were adult men, most of whom had families in China, whose immigration was now impossible. Until 1947, when the act was repealed, Chinese Canadians boycotted the Canada Day July 1st celebration calling it, “Humiliation Day”. Chinese Canadians were the only racialized group required to register on pain of criminal prosecution.
1923
Joe Hope
Joe Hope, the Canadian-born President of the Chinese Canadian Club, lobbied the Senate to repeal the proposal of mandatory English language test, which would have resulted in massive deportation of Chinese and other immigrants.
1931
Bachelor Society
Due to the immigration policy, the Chinese Canadian community became a male-dominated bachelor society by the 1930s. In 1931, out of a total Chinese population of 46,519, only 3,648 were females. Less than half were adult women. Montreal had 48 Chinese females out of a total Chinese population of 1,982.
1939
Unwanted Soldiers
Chinese Canadians, alongside Indigenous and Black Canadians, served in both World Wars to fight for their civil liberties and acceptance into dominant society. Over 600 Chinese Canadians served in the WWII.
1941
Japanese discrimination
All persons of Japanese heritage, regardless of citizenship, were required to register with the Registrar of Enemy Aliens to prove that there was no significant illegal immigration from Japan.
1942
Japanese Canadians uprooted
23,000 Japanese Canadians were forcibly uprooted from the BC coast, interned, and their property sold at bargain prices. In 1945, 6,500 were forced to go back to Japan and only allowed to return to BC in 1949.
1945
Vivian Jung
Vivan Jung was the first Chinese-Canadian to become a teacher in Vancouver. As a teacher, she was required to obtain a swimming certificate. She was unable to enter Vancouver’s only public swimming pool because of a colour bar. Jung and her friend’s advocacy led to lifting the colour bar in the pool. Canadian-born Chinese were qualified as teachers in the 1910s, but could not find teaching positions in BC.
1945
The U.S. Government Repeals Racist Policy
In the U.S.. policies that targeted the Chinese were seen as particularly shameful because China was a wartime ally. The U.S. government repealed its anti–Chinese immigration law during the war. The Canadian government did not, despite pressure to do so, which continued into peacetime.
1946
Kew Dock Yip
Kew Dock Yip was the first Chinese Canadian to become a lawyer. Along with Irving Himel, he worked together with like-minded civil liberties and human rights activists by founding Canadian Civil Liberties Association.
1947
Canada Repeals Chinese Exclusion Act
The Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed, making it possible for the spouses of Chinese Canadians, and their unmarried children under the age of 18, to immigrate to Canada. Racial quotas still limited Chinese immigration to a few hundred people a year. Although Canadian-born they were denied the political and civil rights that white Canadians enjoyed.
1947 – 1959
Wong Foon Sien
Wong Foon Sien, a journalist, labour activist, and community leader, campaigned for less restrictive immigration policies following the 1947 repeal of the CEA. His persistent lobbying, including to PM John Diefenbaker, allowed hundreds of families of Chinese origin to reunite in Canada.
1948
Norman Kwong
Norman Kwong played football in the Calgary Stampeders, one year after the CEA was repealed. Many years later, he went on to become Alberta’s Lieutenant Governor.n
1949
Won Alexander Cumyow
At the age of 88, Won Alexander Cumyow, who was Canadian-born, finally voted in the federal election with unfettered rights.
1955
Margaret Jean Gee
Margaret Jean Gee was the first female Chinese lawyer to be called to the bar in BC, and the first Chinese-Canadian woman to open her own law practice.
1957
Douglas Jung
Douglas Jung, an activist, war veteran, and politician, became the first Chinese Canadian to be an elected Member of Parliament. He led a Canadian delegation to the United Nations.
1960s
Jean Lumb
Jean Lumb led a campaign to save Toronto’s Chinatown, when a proposal for massive redevelopment threatened to displace the community. She was in charge of representatives from over 40 Chinese organizations who lobbied the city council. Her story is also reflected by numerous other Chinatowns in Canada that fought against displacement and redevelopment.
1971
Trudeau Introduces Canada’s Multicultural Policy
Canada’s multiculturalism policy grew partly in reaction to Bilingualism and Biculturalism, which endorsed a “bicultural Canada” as only English and French, barely recognizing “other ethnic groups.” This dilemma was partially resolved in 1971 by Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau’s assertion that Canada was a “multicultural country with two official languages.”
1979
W5 Campus Giveaway
CTV’s W5 program made the allegation that foreign students were taking the place of white Canadians in universities. This report implied that all students of Chinese origin were foreigners, and that Canadian taxpayers were subsidizing Chinese students. Sixteen anti-W5 committees from Victoria to Halifax mobilized the Chinese population and secured a vague apology from CTV.
1980
Recognition of Contributions
The first official recognition of Chinese railway workers was in 1980, when Parliament passed a motion recognizing “the contribution made to the Canadian mosaic and culture by the people of Chinese background.” In honour of Chinese Railway workers, the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada installed a bronze plaque at Yale Museum, British Columbia in 1982.
1982
Canadian Charter of Rights/Freedom
“Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination and, in particular, without discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability.”
1983
Challenging the Charter of Rights
Dak Leon Mark and Shack Yee requested that the Canadian government refund the $500 head tax they had each paid. In the years that followed, more than 4,000 Chinese Canadians came forward seeking redress.
1986
Gender Imbalance
The profound gender imbalance within Chinese Canadian communities created by restrictive immigration persisted throughout the decades. The gender balance was seen to be restored by the census of 1986.
1994
Redress Rejected
The Chinese Canadian National Council led redress efforts and the federal government rejects a call for redress on Chinese Head tax.
1996
Linda A. Loo
Linda A. Loo became the first woman of Chinese descent to be appointed as a judge to the Supreme Court of B.C.
1999
Imprisoned without Trial
599 undocumented Chinese migrants arrive on the BC coast on four leaky boats. Many called for their immediate deportation. Close to 500 are imprisoned for two years without trial until deported. Immigration officials celebrate it as their most successful operation since the Komagata Maru.
2003
SARS
Racist flyers were dropped off in Richmond, BC homes. This is one of many racist incidents that have occurred, and it indicates the recurring and persistent presence of Yellow Peril. In this case, painting the Chinese as invasive, foreign, and unwanted.
2005
Gim Foon Wong
Many individuals and groups had creative ways to campaign. 82 year old Gim Foon Wong, son of two head tax payers and a World War II veteran, rode his motorcycle from Victoria to Ottawa on a Ride for Redress campaign, with a flag which read “I am a Canadian.” When he arrived in Ottawa, Prime Minister Paul Martin refused to meet him, but his actions were later commended for energizing the movement.
2006
Formal Apology – Federal
On June 22, Prime Minister Stephen Harper offered an official apology to Chinese Canadians for the head tax and Chinese Exclusion Act. After more than 25 years of lobbying, decades of community effort led by the Chinese Canadians National Council, who took the government to court, the community finally was able to get a redress, following recommendations by a UN representative to redress the Head Tax.
2006
Compensation
Frank Lim, Betty Fong, Bing Yen Tom and Gook Fung Tom are among the surviving head tax payers and their spouses who each receive a cheque for $20,000 as federal compensation for the head tax.
2010
Not Too Asian
Maclean’s Too Asian magazine cover is published, with the implication that too many Asian Canadian students are taking over Canadian Universities. The article was criticized and condemned by multiple Asian committees, and politicians. To this day, no apology was given by Maclean’s.
2011
Fred Wah
Fred Wah was awarded the Parliamentary Poet Laureate.
2014
BC Government Apology
One tenth of all legislation passed in BC’s history, 223 different acts, discriminated against the Chinese. On May 15, 2014, Premier Christy Clark formally apologized to the Chinese Canadian community on behalf of the entire BC legislature.
2020
Rise of Anti-Asian racism and COVID
Collective groups rose to combat anti-Asian racism that spiked after COVID. Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam, faced online racism during COVID and spoke out about the rising racism publicly. As Chief Public Health Officer of Canada she played a vital role in steering the country through the Covid Pandemic. However, she was publicly attacked by a leadership candidate of the federal Conservative Party who asked, “Does she work for Canada or for China?” and accused her of spreading false propaganda of the Chinese Communist Party. While this once again shows how Chinese Canadians can be easily positioned as dangerous foreigners, Dr. Tam’s attacker was widely condemned, including by prominent Conservatives.
2023
Centennial of the Chinese Exclusion Act
Nominated by the Action! Chinese Canadians Together (ACCT) Foundation and Dr. Lloyd Wong, the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada recognized the exclusion of Chinese immigrants from 1923 to 1947 as a national historical event, commemorated by a plaque at the Wing Sang Building in Vancouver, British Columbia. A national remembrance event was held at the Senate Chamber in Ottawa on June 23, 2023.
2023
Onwards
What is your role in Canada’s future?