By March 31, 2008, the Government of Canada had identified 785 surviving head tax payers and their spouses and paid them each $20,000 as compensation. Prime Minister Stephen Harper makes an official apology in the House of Commons to Chinese Canadians for more than six decades of legislated racism against them through the <i>Head Tax and Exclusion Act</i>. Ontario Superior Court justice dismisses a class action asking for compensation for the <i>Head Tax and Exclusion Act</i>, but also states that the Government of Canada has a moral obligation to redress Chinese Canadians. The Chinese Canadian National Council surveys the Chinese Canadian community and registers more than 4,000 head tax payers, their spouses and descendants and launches a campaign for an apology and redress. Two elderly Chinese head tax payers, Dak Leon Mark and Shack Yee, meet with MP Margaret Mitchell (Vancouver East) and ask for help in getting a refund and redress for the $500 head tax they both paid to enter Canada. With the proclamation of the <i>Charter of Rights</i> and Freedoms, the fundamental rights of all people in Canada are entrenched in our Constitution. The Chinese Canadian National Council forms as part of the community's response to gross misrepresentation in a national news report. Chinese Canadian lawyer Kew Dock Yip teams up with Jewish civil rights lawyer Irving Himel to repeal the <i>Chinese Exclusion Act</i>. Kew Dock Yip, a son of Vancouver merchant Yip Sang, is called to the Ontario Bar, becoming the first Chinese Canadian lawyer. The <i>Chinese Exclusion Act</i> comes into force on Dominion Day in 1923. The <i>Chinese Exclusion Act</i> comes into force on Dominion Day in 1923. Further amendments to the <i>Chinese Immigration Act</i> quintuple the head tax on Chinese to $500 to discourage individual and family settlement in Canada. Amendments to the <i>Chinese Immigration Act</i> double the head tax on Chinese immigrants to $100. The federal government assigns the Royal Commission on Chinese Immigration and later levies a $50 head tax on all Chinese immigrants. The federal government assigns the Royal Commission on Chinese Immigration and later levies a $50 head tax on all Chinese immigrants. Further amendments to the <i>Chinese Immigration Act</i> quintuple the head tax on Chinese to $500 to discourage individual and family settlement in Canada. The driving of the 'last spike' into a railway tie at Craigellachie, B.C., marks the completion of the mainline of the CPR and connects Canada to British Columbia. Thousands of Chinese are recruited by the Canadian Pacific Railway to build the western section of the transcontinental railroad through the Rocky Mountains. Thousands of Chinese are recruited by the Canadian Pacific Railway to build the western section of the transcontinental railroad through the Rocky Mountains. The Fraser Valley Gold Rush in British Columbia attracts the first major migration of Chinese to lands that later become Canada. Kew Dock Yip, a son of Vancouver merchant Yip Sang, is called to the Ontario Bar, becoming the first Chinese Canadian lawyer. Amendments to the <i>Chinese Immigration Act</i> double the head tax on Chinese immigrants to $100. The driving of the 'last spike' into a railway tie at Craigellachie, B.C., marks the completion of the mainline of the CPR and connects Canada to British Columbia. The Fraser Valley Gold Rush in British Columbia attracts the first major migration of Chinese to lands that later become Canada. Chinese Canadian lawyer Kew Dock Yip teams up with Jewish civil rights lawyer Irving Himel to repeal the <i>Chinese Exclusion Act</i>. The Chinese Canadian National Council forms as part of the community's response to gross misrepresentation in a national news report. Prime Minister Stephen Harper makes an official apology in the House of Commons to Chinese Canadians for more than six decades of legislated racism against them through the <i>Head Tax and Exclusion Act</i>. Living head tax payers, their surviving spouses and families board the 'Redress Express' train, from Vancouver bound for Ottawa, to hear the Prime Minister's official apology for the head tax and <i>Exclusion Act.</i> Prime Minister Brian Mulroney apologizes to Japanese Canadians for past injustices against them, their families and their heritage related to their internment during World War II. Canada's first Chinese Canadian Member of Parliament, Douglas Jung, introduces the so-called 'Amnesty' program that allows thousands of formerly illegal immigrants from China to regularize their status in Canada with the immigration department. Two elderly Chinese head tax payers, Dak Leon Mark and Shack Yee, meet with MP Margaret Mitchell (Vancouver East) and ask for help in getting a refund and redress for the $500 head tax they both paid to enter Canada. Living head tax payers, their surviving spouses and families board the 'Redress Express' train, from Vancouver bound for Ottawa, to hear the Prime Minister's official apology for the head tax and <i>Exclusion Act.</i>

Redress Express

Nearing the end of the first session of the 39th Parliament of Canada in June, 2006, Chinese Canadians caught word of an imminent apology from the minority Tory government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

The Ontario of Coalition of Head Tax Payers and Families organized a cross-country train ride with VIA Rail, dubbed the “Redress Express,” that collected aging head tax payers and their families for a journey that began in Vancouver, picking up passengers and journalists along the way, and ending in Ottawa, in time for the last session of Parliament before the summer break. The Redress Express reached Toronto on June 21, 2006, where it gathered about 100 Chinese Canadians, including then 106-year-old head tax payer Ralph Lung Kee Lee and his family, for the last leg of the journey on the Road to Justice. Mr. Lee was entrusted with the ceremonial last spike donated by the late Canadian historian Pierre Berton in 2003. He would later hand it over to fellow head tax payer James Pon, then 88, to give to Prime Minister Harper with instructions that the iconic symbol of the Chinese Canadian redress campaign be put in a place of honour in the Parliament buildings.

The last whistle for the Redress Express sounded at Toronto’s Union Station on June 21, 2006, as the train pulled out onto the mainline bound for Ottawa and justice. It was more than 120 years since the Chinese Immigration Act imposed the first head tax, giving payers of the unjust fee and their families for generations to come a “Chinaman’s chance” in Canada.


Apology at last!

PM Steven Harper making the apology

On June 22, 2006, Prime Minister Stephen Harper rose in the House of Commons on the last order of business for the first session of the 39th Parliament of Canada and delivered an official apology to Chinese Canadians.

During his address, the Prime Minister broke Parliamentary tradition of speaking either English and French in the House of Commons, when intoning in the Chinese dialect of the majority of southern Chinese who worked on the railway, he said: “Gar Nar Dai Doe Heem (Canada apologizes).”

Click here to read the full apology by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

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