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It was a moving and symbolically important day for Chinese Canadians in 2006 as then Prime Minister Stephen J. Harper stood in the Commons and officially apologized for the Chinese Head Tax and other discriminatory policies instituted by past governments. You can read Mr. Harper’s speech below.Mr. Speaker, I rise today to formally turn the page on an unfortunate period in Canada’s past.
Beginning in 1881, over 15,000 of these Chinese pioneers became involved in the most important nation-building enterprise in Canadian history – the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The conditions under which these men worked were at best harsh, and at times impossible: tragically, some one thousand Chinese labourers died building the CPR.
This tax remained in place until 1923, when the government amended the Chinese Immigration Act and effectively banned most Chinese immigrants until 1947. Therefore, Mr. Speaker, on behalf of all Canadians and the Government of Canada, we offer a full apology to Chinese Canadians for the head tax and express our deepest sorrow for the subsequent exclusion of Chinese immigrants.
No country is perfect. Like all countries, Canada has made mistakes in its past, and we realize that.And even though the head tax – a product of a profoundly different time — lies far in our past, we feel compelled to right this historic wrong for the simple reason that it is the decent thing to do, a characteristic to be found at the core of the Canadian soul.
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