By Tao Wenzhao

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized last month for the nation's notorious head tax, which was aimed at blocking the flow of immigrants from China, and announced the Canadian Government's intention to offer symbolic individual payments to surviving head tax payers.

An historical error was redressed, though the apology came a bit too late.

Chinese immigrants entered Canada via the United States in the 1850s. Preceding that, large numbers of Chinese laborers were attracted from South China's Pearl River Delta to California following the discovery of gold.

Although gold mining in California soon went into decline, gold was soon found in the Canadian province of British Columbia. American miners poured into Canada, including a number of Chinese workers. The northward rush started around 1858. Five years later, the number of Chinese workers in Canada reached 2,000. The number kept expanding in subsequent years, with Chinese people moving from gold mining to plantations, fisheries and various kinds of service industries.

The construction of the Pacific Railway in the United States began in the 1860s, while the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway came a bit later. By the 1880s, railway construction became the focus of development in western Canada. The Canadian Government, therefore, sanctioned the recruitment of 17,000 Chinese laborers from southern China's Guangdong Province.

Between 1881 and 1895, these Chinese workers toiled along the route of the Canadian Pacific Railway, winding its way through the Rocky Mountains. Many paid with their sweat, but some paid with their lives. It is believed that at least 1,000 Chinese workers died during the construction of the railway.

Prime Minister Harper said the devotion of these Chinese workers helped make Canada the nation it is today. This could not be more correct.

But once the railway was completed in 1885, things only got worse for Chinese workers in North America.

The Chinese Exclusion Act was passed in the United States in 1882, which always led Canada in this regard.

White workers found it difficult to compete with the hardworking Chinese. To make matters worse, the majority of the Chinese had no intention to settle down and integrate into local society. What they wanted was to make money and send it home. As a result, they were isolated from mainstream society in every way language, customs and habits, and were discriminated by the whites for "being aliens."

Pressure started growing in Canada for the adoption of legislation similar to the US Chinese Exclusion Act. So the exclusion of Chinese immigrants began almost as soon as the last spike was ceremonially driven into the Canadian Pacific Railway at Craigellachie, British Columbia on November 7, 1885.

In 1885, a head tax of C$50 was imposed on Chinese immigrants, which increased to C$100 in 1901 and remained at C$500 from 1904 until 1923. At the time, the sum was equivalent to two years' wages for a Chinese immigrant.

Chinese workers were the sole target of the head tax diplomats, students and businesspeople were exempt.

Statistics show that a total of 81,000 Chinese workers were forced to pay this notorious tax. Many ran up big debts, borrowing huge sums to pay the tax. Moreover, the tax prevented family reunions, with immigrants' wives and children unable to afford to travel to Canada now that their families were in debt.

Prime Minister Harper said in his apology that the high head tax forced many family members to stay in China. A failure to acknowledge this injustice meant that many people did not treat Chinese immigrants as fellow Canadians, the prime minister went on to say.

His remarks hit home.

While the Canadian Government imposed a head tax on Chinese immigrants, the United States remained open to European immigrants, who, therefore, were reluctant to go to Canada. In addition, many Canadians emigrated to the United States. In this context, Chinese immigrants, after paying the head tax, came to Canada, which had a short supply of labour at the time.

In this way, Canada killed two birds with one stone, easing its labour shortage while also raking in huge sums in head tax payments.

But when the United States started to restrict the flow of immigrants from Europe in the 1920s, more Europeans turned to Canada. Now there was no need for Chinese workers, Canada's doors were firmly closed to the Chinese. Canada enacted the Chinese Immigration Act in June 1923, which prohibited all Chinese, except for diplomats, businesspeople and students, from entering the country. At the same time, the head tax was scrapped because there were no longer any Chinese immigrant workers to be levied.

The Chinese Exclusion Act in the United States was repealed in the 1940s thanks to the enhancement of China's international status.

During World War II, China fought side by side with the allies against fascism and signed the Declaration by United Nations in January 1942, together with the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union.

Not only was this Chinese-exclusion legislation out of place in the framework of international relations at the time, it also ran counter to the will of many American people. President Franklin Roosevelt sent a letter to the US Congress, urging the abolition of the law. He said in the letter that the United States would correct a historical error through scrapping the legislation. The act formally died in February 1944.

Canada's Chinese Immigration Act was not abolished until 1947. In his speech delivered at the Canadian Parliament, Prime Minister Mackenzie King said that the law, based on discrimination, treated people from a particular country as an inferior race. The discriminatory law was repealed.

Starting from the 1980s, Chinese Canadians demanded an apology for the head tax. This campaign finally resulted in Harper's apology.

The number of Canadian citizens of Chinese descent has reached more than 1 million. This group constitutes a fairly big source of ballots in elections. Moreover, the status Chinese Canadians in the fields of politics, economics and scientific research has been enhanced and their sense of getting involved in politics and safeguarding their rights is getting increasingly stronger.

A lesson has been learnt. Winning deserved rights and redressing an historical error take a long time, even in a law-governed society such as Canada.

Now being freed from their historical baggage, Chinese Canadians can do more to help make Canada a more pluralistic nation.

The author is a researcher with the Institute for American Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

(China Daily June 30, 2006)