March 13, 1885 - Chinese Restriction Act - a podcast by Stephen Hammond

British Columbia passes the Chinese Restriction Act. In the late 1800s, Chinese people wishing to immigrate to Canada were welcomed into the country because they offered cheap (and in some cases, disposable) labour for building Canada’s Canadian Pacific Railroad (CPR). Once the railroad was completed, however, CPR reneged on its pledge to pay their passage back to China. Incidents of discrimination and resentment quickly escalated. On March 13, 1885, British Columbia passed the Chinese Restriction Act, preventing Chinese immigrants from entering the province. Since immigration was under federal jurisdiction, the Canadian government initially disallowed the act and similar BC legislation. But it wasn’t long before the Canadian government implemented its own restrictions – imposing a head tax on Chinese immigrants that started at $5 and rose to a peak of $500. This stopped the flow of Chinese immigration until the exclusionary parts of the Immigration Act were changed in 1947.

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