Head tax ‘refund’..OH NO NOT AGAIN!

Head tax ‘refund’ urged on B.C. gov’t by Chinese-Canadian group

 

 

BY GORDON HOEKSTRA, POSTMEDIA NEWS JANUARY 12, 2014

 

 

 

Sid Tan, a founder of the Head Tax Families Society of Canada, said his group wants the provincial government to fund legacy projects to be decided by families of those who paid the tax.

Photograph by: Arlen Redekop , PROVINCE

Chinese-Canadian advocates called on the B.C. government to repay $9 million in head taxes as a “symbolic” gesture as part of a commitment to apologize to B.C.’s Chinese community for past wrongs.

The B.C. Liberal government is holding seven consultation meetings with British Columbians of Chinese descent to determine the wording of an apology for historical wrongs such as the head tax, which ended in 1923, and the Chinese Exclusion Act, which was repealed in 1947.

B.C.’s International Trade Minister, Teresa Wat, who is responsible for multiculturalism, has said compensation is not part of the apology process.

“We are asking for a tax refund,” Sid Tan, a founder of the Head Tax Families Society of Canada, said before the start of the third consultation Sunday in Vancouver.

Tan said the idea is not to return money to individuals but to use it to fund legacy projects to be decided by families of those who paid the tax.

He said his group is pursuing individual compensation from the federal government, which collected $23 million in head taxes.

Canada started charging a head tax in the late 1800s to discourage Chinese immigration. The B.C. government supported it and even accepted federal payments.

Tan noted the $9 million received by B.C. would be worth much more today, possibly as much as $1 billion. Compounded annually for 100 years at five-per-cent interest, $9 million is worth $1.2 billion.

Tan argued the B.C. government’s decision to apologize has financial considerations, including an impact on trade with China.

“This is all about telling them we are not racist any more — ‘We did this apology’,” Tan told reporters. “But this apology message to our trade partners is that in B.C. you can profit from racism and keep the proceeds.”

Wat said that in the first two consultations — in Victoria and Kamloops — no one asked for compensation.

“It is a loud and clear the message that most speakers think the government should consider education legacy efforts, and we are here to listen,” she told reporters at the start of the session at the Chinese Cultural Centre in Vancouver.

At least some organizations are not interested in compensation from B.C., including the Chinese Benevolent Association of Vancouver (CBAV).

“Our position is, really, from the conversation we’ve had with our 100-plus community members. We are not looking for compensation,” said CBAV vice-president Jun Ing.

The B.C. government’s process has also been criticized as being more about a quick apology than reconciliation, which critics say is important if the apology is to have meaning and weight in the broader community.

Wat said the consultation sessions are open to the public, and the apology sessions will result in recommendations to government in addition to helping decide the wording of the apology.

She said that she was also depending on the media to take the message of the apology out to the wider public.

Bill Chu, who heads up Canadians for Reconciliation Society, has chastised the B.C. government for preparing to apologize for past wrongs without consulting widely with people who are not Chinese. “It’s a farce when it comes to reconciliation,” Chu said Sunday.

Virtually all of the attendees Sunday were Chinese, and Chu said he is restricted to speaking at one of the consultation sessions.

Chu pointed to the City of New Westminster, where there was research and broader community consultation before an apology was decided on, as a better model.

Jenny Kwan, the NDP MLA for Vancouver-Mt. Pleasant, who attended the Vancouver forum, also said a broader reconciliation effort is needed.

Last week, the NDP released more than 100 archival records of government-sanctioned discrimination against Canadians of Chinese, Japanese and South Asian descent.

An all-party apology over the Chinese head tax fell apart last March when news broke about a controversial ethnic outreach strategy.

The strategy suggested that formal apologies in the legislature to ethnic communities for historic wrongs could result in quick wins at the ballot box.