本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛1885 tax becomes an issue in 2006

Brian Hutchinson

National Post

1098 words

15 December 2005

National Post

Toronto / Late

A1 / Front

English

(c) 2005 National Post . All Rights Reserved.

RICHMOND, B.C. - Raymond Chan is an emotional fellow. Canada's minister of state for multiculturalism has been known to cry in front of constituents in his suburban Vancouver riding. Sometimes he cries out of gratitude, and sometimes in anger. His eyes teared up when our discussion this week touched on human rights.

He likens himself to a crusader, a defender of democracy; he is quick to mention he was once jailed in China, for leading a protest against that country's authoritarian regime.

It might seem odd, then, that Mr. Chan is so firmly opposed to a measure of reconciliation here at home, especially one that appeals to many residents of his Richmond riding. Half of the riding's eligible voters are, like him, of Chinese origin.

The issue is the long-discarded head tax, a racist duty imposed on Chinese immigrants to Canada between 1885 and 1923. It's estimated Ottawa collected $23-million from Chinese newcomers in those years; those who are still alive, and many of their descendants, want the money back.

They would also like a formal apology.

Mr. Chan once heartily supported their requests for compensation and redress.

But no longer. And he's not alone; indeed, half a dozen large Chinese-Canadian organizations that represent hundreds more Chinese groups have sided with Mr. Chan and his new, cautious approach to the head tax question.

The issue has suddenly become an election hot button for Chinese-Canadians across the country.

It could cost Mr. Chan his job, and the Liberals some important seats in Parliament.

The Chinese Canadian National Council says there are only four head tax survivors in Canada. But there are an estimated 80,000 descendants and thousands more Chinese-Canadians who feel compensation and an apology are due.

Mr. Chan took up their cause and ran with the issue in Richmond during the 1993 federal election campaign, his first. He was elected and made a junior minister in Jean Chretien's Cabinet. A year later, he recommended to Cabinet some form of redress and an apology to survivors of the head tax. "I was shot down," he recalled.

He says an apology and compensation are never going to happen, at least as long as the Liberals are in power.

The NDP and the Bloc Quebecois have already called for a formal apology, and last week Conservative leader Stephen Harper unexpectedly jumped on the bandwagon.

The Tories, Mr. Harper noted in a statement, have "long recognized the terrible historical wrong of the Chinese head tax. It is time for Parliament and the Government of Canada to recognize this grave injustice and to apologize for it."

The statement-- and the timing of its release, in an election campaign -- smacked of political opportunism. But it pleased those Conservative candidates locked in close battles with Liberals in B.C.'s crucial Lower Mainland.

Darrel Reid is facing off against Raymond Chan in Richmond. "The head tax issue is huge," said Mr. Reid, sitting in his Conservative war room, a few blocks from Mr. Chan's own election headquarters. "It was the only tax ever collected from a specific ethnic group in Canada. It was wrong, and that has to be recognized."

Mr. Chan counters that making an official apology to head tax survivors and their families will "open the floodgates" to "countless lawsuits and financial responsibilities for other historical wrongs."

Besides, he says, the federal government has already figured a way to address the issue without assuming unrestricted financial liabilities. In February, Ottawa announced the $25-million Acknowledgement, Commemoration and Education Program, aimed at recognizing "the historical experiences of [all] ethnocultural communities impacted by wartime measures and immigration experiences."

The money is to be shared among various Chinese-Canadian groups, along with organizations representing other ethnic and cultural minorities.

"The ACE program is for the Italians, the Ukrainians, the Germans, the Jews, the Sikhs," Mr. Chan explained. "Now the Croatians have asked to participate. The blacks have come to participate. Everybody wants to be part of it now."

The National Congress of Chinese Canadians is among the largest groups in support of the ACE program. "The Chinese community stands united in the cause of educating all Canadians about this tragic period in our history," noted Ping Tan, the NCCC's executive co-chair.

But the program's one-size-fits-all approach doesn't sit well with thousands of Chinese-Canadians affected by the head tax.

"Mr. Chan used to support us, and now he has turned his back on us," said Sid Tan, a Vancouver resident and spokesman for the Chinese Canadian National Council, which says it represents half of all head tax survivors and their relatives. "It really sickens me. The money is just going to go to Liberal friends. It's like a Chinese-Canadian sponsorship scandal."

He says Chinese groups that supported the ACE program have already submitted proposals for things such as commemorative rock gardens and museums. His members, meanwhile, have asked for grant information but have been ignored.

"There is a lot of anger over this," he said. "The Liberals bungled the whole issue of redress and they have basically divided the Chinese community."

It's an opening opposition parties are keen to exploit, and it has Liberals in B.C. on the defensive.

"I don't buy their little apology [demands] at all," Hedy Fry, the Liberal MP for Vancouver Centre, told a local newspaper this week.

As for Mr. Chan, he'd rather discuss other issues, such as same-sex marriage. His opponent, Darrel Reid, opposes it. A Mennonite, Mr. Chan used to oppose gay marriage, too. Not anymore.

THE HEAD TAX

REDRESS

Before election was called, government and 11 Chinese-Canadian groups agreed to $2.5-million deal to set up educational and commemorative projects related to the tax.

HISTORY

Ottawa imposed a $50 tax on all Chinese immigrants in 1885, after completion of the Canadian Pacific railway. Tax was raised to $100, then $500 in 1903 -- the equivalent of two years' pay. In 1923 a new law effectively banned Chinese immigration. It was repealed in 1947.

OBJECTIONS

Chinese community says agreement bypassed some community groups and does not include an apology or compensation.

bhutchinson@nationalpost.com; Ran with fact box "The Head Tax" which has been appended to the story.

Black & White Photo: Jason Kryk, CanWest News Service / The late Wing Shu Hong's receipt for the $500 head tax he paid when he immigrated to Canada in 1918.更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net

本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛Head tax stance may cost Liberals; Issue pivotal in Trinity-Spadina Ianno vulnerable to NDP challenger

Rita Daly

Toronto Star

765 words

15 December 2005

The Toronto Star

ONT

B02

English

Copyright (c) 2005 The Toronto Star

Old loyalties to political parties die hard. But the controversial Chinese head tax issue is stirring up a cauldron of emotions in Toronto's Chinatown that could cost Liberal incumbent Tony Ianno some crucial votes.

"This time the Liberals are being taken down because they have done wrong," says George Lau, trudging along the snow-covered sidewalk on Spadina Ave., south of College St.

His father, now deceased, paid the discriminatory $500 head tax to come into this country and now Lau, 74, is angry enough at the Liberals' position to be out campaigning for the NDP's Olivia Chow.

Ianno, has held the Trinity-Spadina riding for 12 years, but for the third time he is up against a formidable foe. Chow, who resigned her Toronto City Council seat to run, hopes to join husband and NDP Leader Jack Layton in Ottawa after the Jan. 23 election. Running for the Conservatives is lawyer Sam Goldstein.

While Ianno and Chow remain equally popular among many residents, the head tax issue has turned some die-hard Liberal voters against their traditional party of choice.

Up until last year's election Lau always voted Liberal, a common practice for many foreign-born Canadians grateful to the Trudeau government for easing immigration rules. He won't any more.

"It's not just me," he says, clutching one of Chow's election leaflets. "A lot of people are putting their vote into the NDP."

Late last month the federal government hammered out a $2.5 million agreement with a group called the National Congress of Chinese Canadians, angering other Chinese organizations left out of the deal who wanted an official apology and individual compensation to head-tax payers and their families. The money is being earmarked instead for educational activities.

"We're not compensating an individual for something that took place at the time the laws were what they were," says Ianno, campaigning a few blocks north on College St.

"What we're dealing with is the future, and today, in a way that educates Canadians at large so we can never allow this to happen again."

The community, he adds, "supports it overwhelmingly."

Ronnie Chiu, a real estate agent in the area, considers Chow a friend. But he sides with the Liberals on this issue and is campaigning for Ianno. Individual compensation would "open up a whole can of worms," he says.

His father, too, paid the head tax, he explains. But like so many Chinese immigrants back then, he bought another man's immigration papers to enter the country. "I, on the other hand, arrived on my father's papers. The guy who sold my father his papers has sons as well. So who is legally entitled to receive compensation? It would be one big mess."

Some 81,000 Chinese paid a total of $23 million between 1885 and 1923 under the head-tax scheme. Only a few hundred are still alive. Chow says it wouldn't hurt the government, at the very least, to pay those survivors back their money and apologize to the head-tax families.

"You can't move forward until you settle the past," she says. For years Chow has listened to families' stories of hardship, of years of labour it took for fathers to pay off the head tax, of families separated by the government's discriminatory laws against the Chinese.

The Chinese community, comprising nearly 20 per cent of the riding population, has been divided in the past when it comes to politics. Chinatown sits in the middle of Chow's former city ward, but long-time resident and NDP supporter Doug Hum - also the descendant of a head-tax payer - says not everyone in the Chinese business community likes her.

"Some don't feel she is business-oriented enough. You know, when public health gets after the restaurants, I guess they feel she doesn't crack down on public health and tell them to lay off."

Some businessmen with ties to the booming economy of mainland China have also criticized Chow for being too vocal in denouncing the Tiananmen Square massacre and raising human rights issues.

483568-337523.jpg | "What we're dealing with is the future," Liberal Tony Ianno says. Olivia Chow of the NDP says settle the past first. Sam Goldstein, a lawyer, is running for the Conservatives. - Olivia Chow of the NDP says settle the past first. - Sam Goldstein, a lawyer, is running for the Conservatives.更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net

本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛More groups, including the NDP and Tories, are calling for a review of the Chinese Head Tax settlement given the dubious credentials of the NCCC, its main beneficiary.
By Cindy Drukier

Epoch Times Staff
Dec 15, 2005

Head Tax Certificate, 1913. (Fortsteele.bc.ca—Image courtesy of Trail City Archives, Trail, BC, 1253)

High-res image (600 x 470 px, 0 dpi)

Making official amends to Chinese Canadians for 62 years of discriminatory immigration policy became an election issue last week when both the Conservatives and New Democrats criticized the Liberals mishandling of the so-called 'head tax' issue.

Starting in 1885, the year the Canadian Pacific Railway was completed largely due to contributions from Chinese immigrants, the Canadian government tried to curtail further Chinese immigration first by imposing $50 head taxes on new immigrants, then by banning Chinese nationals altogether.

The head taxes—which eventually reached as high as $500 per person—and the subsequent halt of Chinese immigration decimated the Canadian Chinese community and broke up numerous families, with wives unable to join their husbands in Canada.

Surviving head tax payers and their relatives are seeking an apology and financial redress from Ottawa.

The Liberals signed a deal for redress in November that they hoped would settle the head tax issue for good. The $2.5-million agreement-in-principle with Canadian Heritage is for setting up a Chinese Canadian Community Foundation to educate Canadians about the past ill-treatment of Chinese immigrants. It does not include individual compensation or an apology.

The rub that's galvanizing the Chinese-Canadian community is that the deal was negotiated with a single organisation, the National Chinese Canadian Congress (NCCC). The NCCC does not represent any head tax payers, nor does it have a track record on rights issues. Many Chinese-Canadians also dislike its close ties with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Although the final agreement was officially signed by four people, they hardly seem to represent diversity in the Chinese community: Ping Tan is Executive Chair of the NCCC; Man Wai Yu is Vice-chair of the NCCC's Montreal branch (although he signed as the Montreal Chinese Cultural Center); Lena Wong is Vice President of the Greater Toronto Chinese Cultural Centre whose Vice Chair is Hughes Eng, NCCC Co-chair; and Howe Lee, President, Chinese Canadian Military Museum Society.

Last week, the opposition parties entered the fray, supporting the growing number of Chinese Canadian groups in condemning the settlement.

At a Vancouver press conference held by several New Democrats on December 8, candidate Mary Woo Sims slammed the agreement as "completely unacceptable" for "exclude[ing] at least 4000 head tax payers, their families and descendants through an agreement with only one part of the community."

On the same day, Conservative leader Stephen Harper said that it was time for Parliament to "apologize" for what happened then promised that a Conservative government would work with all Chinese-Canadians reach a consensus on redress.

NCCC Credentials Questioned

Critics are challenging the NCCC's claims that it has the support of 280 organisations and 300,000 Chinese Canadians. In fact, several of the organisations the NCCC purports to represent didn't even know they were on the NCCC's list of supporters. In some cases, a director or individual member signed on behalf of the group without consulting the wider membership.

When The Epoch Times requested a copy of the membership list, NCCC Executive Secretary David Lim first reacted evasively, then didn't return phone calls and finally admitted that the NCCC's national co-chairs wouldn't release it. Tan and Eng would not talk to reporters about the issue.

In a December 5 press statement, the Chinese Canadian National Council (CCNC) a human rights organisation representing 4000 head tax payers or family members, called upon the Prime Minister to "verify the accuracy" of the supporters list.

"They even listed CCNC at first as a supporter but later apologized and removed our name from the list," said Colleen Hua, CCNC National President. "The Government should just withdraw this rushed deal because they clearly failed to conduct the necessary due diligence."

The Army, Navy & Air Force Veterans in Canada who also appeared as a supporter, sent a strong letter to the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage stating that the NCCC does not have their endorsement.

Other groups that appeared erroneously on the list include, Family Services of Greater Montreal, Amities Chinoises, Chinese Community Centre of Ontario (CCCO) and the Chinese neighbourhood association in Montreal.

On November 27-8, days after the agreement-in-principle was signed with the government, a meeting of Chinese community representatives was convened in Vancouver ostensibly to discuss creating the new Foundation.

Donald Chen, President of the CCCO, described the process at the conference as "undemocratic… chaotic" and without room for discussion.

According to Chen, somehow 23 people were nominated for the Foundation Preparation Committee but it wasn't clear to him by whom. Further nominations were rejected while all 23 original nominees won their posts, among them all ten NCCC co-chairs plus other NCCC officers, such as Executive Secretary Lim. NCCC's chief, Ping Tan, himself was elected Committee Chair.

Chinese Government Ties

The NCCC's executive is often criticised for its cozy relationship with the CCP. A Globe and Mail article on August 6 called Tan and Eng "the most prominent of the [Chinese] consulate's friends." Apparently, it is common for both to host banquets for visiting Chinese VIPs, including the notoriously repressive former president Jiang Zemin, and to "echo" the official CCP party line, said the article.

Tan also owns Toronto's Bond International College, a boarding school with strong connections to the CCP. Consular officials regularly come to speak at the college and many of its students are sent by the Chinese government for training.

Cathy Liu used to work at Bond, but was fired by Tan two days before an NCCC-organised anti-Falun Gong rally. Liu, a follower of the meditation practice outlawed in China, had been told by Tan to stop appealing outside of the Chinese consulate in Toronto. The reason cited was that the consulate was the College's biggest customer. Liu is currently fighting her dismissal through the Ontario Human Rights Commission.

Susan Eng, Co-chair of the Ontario Coalition of Chinese Head Tax Payers and Families sees the election as a great opportunity to expose what's happened behind the scenes and get Ottawa to sign a new deal. "The Opposition Parties appear to understand the need for real redress and we will continue to press the Liberal Party and candidates for their commitment."

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