The Government of Canada's Head Tax dates back many, many years. The Head Tax was originally legislated in 1885-only after the completion of the British Columbia section of the Canadian Pacific Railway.
The Head Tax was collected from Chinese immigrants from 1885 to July 1, 1923 when the new federal Act The Chinese Immigration Act. commonly called the Chinese Exclusion Act was enacted. This Act was brought in to exclude, with few exceptions, all Chinese from coming into Canada.
Judy Maxwell, chief researcher of the Chinese Canadian Military Museum through her research at the Ottawa National, Victoria, and Vancouver Archives has documented proof that a number of head tax payers have been repaid. Within the Chinese Canadian communities, there is debate:
Two main issues:
Many years before the creation of the CCNC, a few Chinese Canadian veterans, primarily Dan Lee, wrote individual letters to government officials about the head tax issue. Later on, the Army Navy and Air Force Veterans in Canada (ANAVETS), Pacific Unit 280 would also write letters again yielding few results.
In the 1980's, Doug Jung, a former veteran, lawyer, Member of Parliament, and a delegate to the United Nations would collectively with Dan Lee, and the Chinese Benevolent Association, propose that a national organization be formed to deal with the Head Tax issue. As a result, a national conference was called in Vancouver and the National Congress of Chinese Canadians(NCCC) was bom.
The Chinese Canadian veterans and NCCC have agreed by consensus that the approach to the federal government would be apology first and then compensation. As the writer had been a past President of ANAVETS, Pacific 280 there had been two meetings that we reviewed and agreed to the same approach.
The Chinese Canadian Military Museum Society (CCMMS) formed in 1998 arrived at the same consensus. Recent results were happening and at the past meeting the writer was nominated to represent the CCMMS and the majority of the Chinese Canadian veterans, because of more comprehensive membership numbers, to deal with the Head Tax issue.
When the two organizations, NCCC and CCNC, were formed in the 1980's and 1990's the Government of Canada called a joint meeting in the early 1990's to deal with the head tax issue. After several meetings, the CCNC discontinued their attendance unable to reconsider their differences over the issue of compensation.
Since 2002, Inky Mark, a member of Parliament and of Chinese descent presented a private member Bill-C333 The Chinese Canadian Recognition and Redress Act' in the House of Commons, Ottawa. This bill has since gone through two readings and noting that it takes three to become law.
In February of 2005, the federal government budgeted $ 25 million to redress the issues of Chinese Canadians, German Canadians, Italian Canadians, Jewish Canadians, Ukrainian Canadians, and Indo Canadians. During the summer of 2005 the federal government directed the department Canadian Heritage to consider proposals from the six ethnic groups. The NCCC's collective proposal from national Chinese Canadian organizations was accepted by Canadian Heritage under the federal government's ACE PROGRAM: A--Acknowledgement C--Commemoration E--Education.
Since the summer of 2005, NCCC rushed work on the ACE program because of the possible non-confidence vote in the House of Commons. As a result, NCCC was faced with the work done to date, the allotted $25 million, and a possible signed agreement. On short notice a successful NCCC conference was called in Vancouver with over 180 delegates from Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Saskatoon , Regina, Edmonton, Calgary, Price George, Price Rupert, Kamloops, Victoria, and Vancouver. These delegates from the above cities represented the Chinese Benevolent Associations, the Chinese Cultural Centres, the Freemasons, SUCCESS, the Chinese Canadian veterans, and others. All these organizations collectively have membership of over 200,000.
An Agreement in Principle was signed in Ottawa on Thursday, November 24 . The writer was asked to be one of the four signatories at that ceremony in the parliament building. This Agreement was signed as a formal commitment between the Government and NCCC.
The national conference held the weekend of November 26 and 27, 2005 approved:
At the national conference on November 26, 2005, Prime Minister Paul Martin visited the NCCC site and met with one of the original payer of the head tax, Charlie Quan aged 98. Four generations of his family were present. In his comments. Prime Minister Martin noted that it was his father, Paul Martin Senior, that brought forth the Bill that repealed the Chinese Immigration Act of 1923-on January 1, 1947.
2005 Dec 12