The Fighting 44s

This is good news for families of Chinese Canadians who paid the Chinese Head Tax (see our previous post here). Heritage Minister Bev Oda on Wednesday announced that the restitution payments of $20,000 will be made available to spouses of deceased head tax payers, a relief to some families and a act of good faith by the Harper government, considering that so many of the Chinese head tax payers have long passed away.

I’ve mentioned before how trite the move was to make only $20,000 available only to surviving Chinese head tax payers. Take out the personal trauma inflicted by the racist law, and still the $20k seems a light return given the amount of money taken from the Chinese during the life of that law. From the article: An estimated 81,000 Chinese immigrants paid the head tax, raising $23 million more than $1.2 billion in today’s currency for the Canadian government and the provinces that were collecting.

For more information on the Chinese Head Tax (Canadian), check out this FAQ resource here.

Partners of Chinese Head Tax Payers to get Compensation
Last Updated: Wednesday, April 11, 2007 | 4:49 PM ET
The Canadian Press

Ottawa says it will extend compensation to the eligible conjugal partners of those forced to pay the controversial Chinese head tax.

Canadian Heritage Minister Beverley Oda said Wednesday that payments of $20,000 will now be made to the partners of head tax payers who have died.

Previously, only surviving head-tax payers or their spouses were eligible to claim a settlement from the Conservative government, according to a package announced in October 2006.

Oda said the payments were meant to acknowledge the effects of racist immigration policies.

Canada imposed the head tax on Chinese immigrants who came to the country between 1885 and 1923, then stopped the policy to bar all Chinese immigrants until 1947.

Oda said the spouses of head tax payers were made to suffer because of the policies yet still made significant contributions to Canadian society.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued a full apology to the Chinese-Canadian community for the head tax of June 2006.

An estimated 81,000 Chinese immigrants paid the head tax, raising $23 million —more than $1.2 billion in today’s currency — for the Canadian government and the provinces that were collecting.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 15th, 2007 at 8:18 pm and is filed under Advocacy & Activism, News, Social Issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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