Path To Healing

What can be learned from the Chinese Canadian experience? What is the path to inclusion for all minority groups in Canada? Some of Alberta’s leadings academics and activists ponder these questions.

Dr. Lloyd L. Wong
Associate Professor of Sociology
University of Calgary

Canada currently strives to guarantee individual equality through public policy and legislation such as the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom, Canadian Multiculturalism Act, Canadian Human Rights Act, Employment Equity Act, and various provincial codes and acts. At this point it is helpful to reflect on why present day legislation and policies are needed.

They are needed because Canada’s past is one fraught with racism and ethnic discrimination. Thus the knowledge and understanding of this racist history helps us to understand the necessity of current legislation and social policy. For example, it was through legislative inequality, such as the Chinese Immigration Act of 1885 that set the legal framework for the Chinese Head Tax. It was through the blatant Chinese Immigration Act of 1923, more popularly known as the Chinese Exclusion Act, that prevented, from 1923 to 1947, the Chinese from entering Canada and disenfranchised the Chinese who were in Canada by denying them democratic political participation in Canadian society. Therefore, current equality legislation and social policy measures (such as the recent Chinese Head Tax redress) are fundamentally linked to Canada’s past.

Unfortunately these aspects of Canada’s past are often downplayed or ignored because of their ‘dark’ side of overt racism. However, it is precisely knowledge and understanding of these aspects of Canadian history, however unpleasant they may be, that helps to educate Canadians, particularly the younger generations, of the need for current legislation and policies that legally guarantee individual equality, inclusion, and full participation in Canadian society. With the guarantees in place the challenge now is for all Canadians to ensure that collectively equality, inclusion, and full participation of minorities actually happens.

Dr. Roger Gibbins
President and CEO
Canada West Foundation

It is impossible to open the newspaper without encountering stories about China’s astounding economic growth, and about the need to build transportation and cultural gateways to connect Canada to this new reality. Hopefully, however, this new economic reality will also provide an opportunity for us to reflect on the history of the Chinese experience within Canada. As we try to build new bridges, this history provides compelling examples of how poorly Canadians have used public policies in the past. If we can understand our past, and understand the mistakes we made, then perhaps we will have more success going forward. If we are really going to benefit from the new Asian reality, if we are to draw from the strengths of Chinese Canadians, we have to get things right within Canada. This means frankly addressing our history of racism and its lingering traces today. Only by getting it right here and now can we move forward with confidence. Indeed, only by getting it right at home do we deserve to benefit from new global opportunities.

Dr. Lloyd Sciban
Associate Professor
University of Calgary

The official apology for the Chinese Head Tax and the sixtieth anniversary of the revoking of the Chinese Exclusion Act have provided Canadians with an opportunity to reflect on the significance of Chinese Canadian history. This reflection should reveal that Chinese Canadians have contributed greatly to building our country and promise to continue doing so; moreover, that Canadians, in general, have not only failed to recognize this contribution, but have hindered it through biased attitudes. Whether one considers the role of Chinese Canadians in the early construction of our nation's industries and services or their contemporary achievements in healthcare, eldercare, and raising educational standards, their contributions are apparent. Furthermore, these contributions have come through perseverance in the face of widespread opposition and with a surprising generosity (e.g., large donations to Canada's WW II effort while being denied citizenship). Hopefully, all Canadians will celebrate these contributions and recognize our past ignorance of them for the harm it has caused.

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