June 30, 1923 - Chinese Immigration Act - a podcast by Stephen Hammond

Chinese Immigration Act aimed at excluding Chinese immigrants gets royal nod. Since Chinese immigrants were seen as cheap labour, some politicians feared that if B.C. had too many of them, it could lower the living standards of non-Chinese Canadians. This is the logic by which the British Columbia legislature passed a number of anti-Chinese laws. Although it was not their jurisdiction, they also persuaded federal lawmakers to do the same. On June 30, 1923, the Chinese Immigration Act obtained royal assent, allowing the government to bar immigrants of Chinese descent from entering Canada. There were exemptions for merchants, diplomats, students and “special circumstances.” The latter allowed the parents of Adrienne Clarkson, Canada’s governor general from 1999 to 2005, to enter the country. Chinese Canadians referred to the legislation as the Chinese Exclusion Act, and to its day of implementation – July 1st – not as Canada’s birthday, but as Humiliation Day. While the racist “head tax” on Chinese immigrants had been lifted, the new legislation made it just as difficult to enter Canada. In 1947, after seeing the contribution Chinese Canadians made during World War II, the Canadian government repealed the Chinese Immigration Act. However, it was another two decades before skin colour no longer served as the government’s most important criteria for who could immigrate to Canada.

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