The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #65989 Message #1092399
Posted By: Metchosin
13-Jan-04 - 11:24 PM
Thread Name: BS: 100 years ago...
Subject: RE: BS: 100 years ago...
One of the glaring inaccuracies seems to be that, in 1903, Canada supposedly passed a law "prohibiting poor people from entering the country for any reason."
What Canada did in 1903 was to increases the Chinese Head Tax from $50, to a staggering $500. This was imposed only on those of ASIAN descent.
This was an obscene, racist attempt to prevent further Chinese immigration and also an attempt to stop the thousands of Chinese labourers, already here, that Canada had used to build it's railways and blast it's tunnels and mines, from bringing their wives, children and relatives to Canada.
You could come to Canada if you were European and poor, but Canada was going make it next to impossible if you were Asian.