From: The Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples/Chinese/Peter S. Li
The laws that curtailed the civil and political rights of Chinese in Canada before World War II were based on a stereotypical concept of race and reflected the attitudes of many Canadians of European origin towards Asians. In the legislation, no consideration was given to those Chinese who were naturalized Canadians. They were subjected to the same anti-Chinese discrimination as aliens and were deprived of even basic human rights. For example, the Chinese Immigration Act of 1923 clearly stipulated that the classification of persons of Chinese origin or descent was to be applied “irrespective of allegiance or citizenship.” The statutes of British Columbia were also explicit in defining a “Chinaman” according to race, not nationality. According to the Provincial Elections Act of British Columbia, “Chinamen means any native of the Chinese Republic or its dependencies not born of British parents, and shall include any person of the Chinese race, naturalized or not.”
Although the Chinese were not legally barred from becoming naturalized Canadian citizens, the process was difficult after the passing of the Chinese Immigration Act. Only 349 individuals were naturalized between 1915 and 1930, for example, and after the latter year an order-in-council required that those applying for Canadian citizenship obtain consent from the Chinese ministry of the interior. Since the Naturalization Act of 1914 stated that wives were to take the nationality of their husbands, a Chinese women with Canadian citizenship automatically became an alien by marrying an alien Chinese.
Although the act recognized that “a person to whom a certificate of naturalization is granted by the Secretary of State of Canada” had the same rights as a native-born British subject, the Supreme Court of Canada was not prepared to protect the rights of naturalized Chinese against discriminatory legislation. In 1914 a restaurant owner in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, appealed to the court claiming that his rights as a British subject had been violated by the Saskatchewan act of 1912 that prohibited the hiring of white females by Chinese employers. The Supreme Court dismissed the appeal, and the judge who wrote the decision explained: “There is no doubt in my mind that the prohibition is a racial one ... It extends and was intended to extend to all Chinamen as such, naturalized or aliens ... The Chinaman prosecuted in this case was found to have been born in China and of Chinese parents and, although, at the date of the offense charged, he had become a naturalized British subject, and had changed his political allegiance, he had not ceased to be a Chinaman within the meaning of that word as used in the statute.”
By the time the Chinese Immigration Act was passed in 1923, Chinese in Canada had been deprived of many legal entitlements that other Canadians took for granted, such as the right to vote, to pursue any line of work, and to enter and leave the country freely. The cumulative effect of these exclusionary policies was to reduce the Chinese to second-class citizens. In addition, they were frequently subjected to racial hostility. Among the most serious examples were the riots of 1887 and 1907 in Vancouver. On both occasions, crowds wantonly vandalized the Chinese district and attempted to intimidate the Chinese from competing with white workers for jobs. The 1907 riot caused so much damage to the Chinese and Japanese areas of the city that the federal government sent the deputy minister of labour, Mackenzie King, to investigate the losses. He recommended $26,990 in compensation to the Chinese. However, there appears to have been little expression of remorse after the riot, and anti-Chinese feelings remained strong.
During the early part of the twentieth century, antagonism extended to the school system, despite the small number of Chinese children in Canada. In 1908 the Victoria school board accepted a recommendation to provide separate classes for these children, and in 1922 it decided to put all the Chinese students in a separate school. At that time, there were 216 Chinese students in four schools in the city. The students and their parents started a boycott that lasted a year, until the school board permitted the children to return to regular schools.
In recent years, the Chinese-Canadian community has become more vocal in its demand for social equality, as racial tensions surface on several occasions. Massive demonstrations and vigorous lobbying by Chinese Canadians forced the CTV network to issue an apology for its 1979 controversial program about Chinese students at Canadian universities. In April 1980 Murray Chercover, the president of the network, acknowledged that “our critics – particularly Chinese Canadians and the universities – criticized the program as racist: they were right ... There is no doubt that the distorted statistics, combined with our visual presentation, made the program appear racist in tone and effect ... We sincerely apologize for the fact that Chinese Canadians were depicted as foreigners, and for whatever distress this stereotyping may have caused them in the context of our multicultural society.”
There have been other protests against biased treatment of Chinese in the media. For example, in 1991 the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation aired a radio program in Vancouver called “Dim Sum Diaries,” in which the accents of Chinese immigrants and their behaviour were caricatured. The United Chinese Community Enrichment Services Society (commonly known as SUCCESS) launched a series of protests. The CBC and SUCCESS eventually issued a joint statement which acknowledged that “it has become abundantly clear that notwithstanding the intentions of the writer and producer, the program had in fact hurt and distressed many in the Chinese community, particularly the more recent immigrants.”
The Chinese in Scarborough, Ontario, were the focus of another public debate in 1984. Many individuals and businesses had moved there as rising housing prices in Toronto pushed people to relocate in the suburbs. The increase in the Chinese population caused considerable public outcry. A meeting to discuss the traffic and parking problems allegedly caused by the influx of Chinese drew five hundred participants, one of whom later openly admitted that anti-Chinese sentiment was a factor. The Chinese-Canadian community reacted quickly, and several organizations and community leaders condemned the racial overtone of the gathering. Rising tensions prompted the mayor of Scarborough to appoint a task force on multicultural and race relations.
In the mid-1980s, as immigrants from Hong Kong and Taiwan began to build large houses in affluent neighbourhoods of Vancouver, such as Shaughnessy, Kerrisdale, and Oakridge, there was a hostile reaction to their opulence lifestyle. The construction of these so-called monster homes prompted many protests by residents to municipal officials and councillors. Heated public meetings were held, and in response to public pressure, the Vancouver city council made many changes in the zoning by-laws between 1986 and 1989 aimed at restricting the height and size of houses relative to the lot. As they have increased their presence and influence on the west coast, the Chinese have once again become a target of racial antagonism, and they are blamed for destroying traditional Vancouver neighbourhoods and transforming the city into another Hong Kong. Anti-Chinese signs have surfaced and T-shirts with messages unfriendly to Chinese immigrants appeared. Surveys conducted by the polling firm Angus Reid in 1989 revealed that about 60 percent of respondents in British Columbia agreed with the statement that “immigrants are driving housing prices up,” whereas nationally, only about 30 percent supported it. However, a report published the same year by the Laurier Institute showed that the major factors contributing to increased demand for housing in Vancouver were natural increase, net migration, and changing household structures.
These incidents suggest that, despite their long history in Canada, Chinese Canadians are still seen as foreigners and a public burden by some members of society. In stressing the positive contribution of immigration from Hong Kong, Lieutenant Governor David Lam of British Columbia observed, “It’s one of best things that will ever happen to Canada ... Those talents, education and experience represent billions of dollars of time and investment. We get all that plus the entrepreneurial spirit and the capital. What more could you want?” Despite racial tension in Vancouver, Lam was optimistic that harmony could be achieved: “We should learn to celebrate the differences rather than merely tolerating the differences. We can turn diversity into enrichment and perplexities into strength.”
The protest movements of the community in recent years clearly reflect the sensitivity of post-war Chinese Canadians towards issues of racial equality and minority rights. No doubt, the growth of the population in Canada and the emergence of a Chinese middle class have made it easier for the community to lobby for their rights in a multicultural Canada.
