Gary Mason, The Globe and Mail
January 12, 2006
VANCOUVER -- Not that long ago, they would have meekly accepted the federal government's long-held position to neither compensate nor apologize for the racist head tax once imposed on Chinese immigrants. But that has changed.
Canada's ethnic Chinese are meek no longer.
"I think the head-tax issue is a good example of the Canadianization of the Chinese community," says Winnie Ho, news director of Fairchild Television. "And I think that has set up a whole new dynamic in terms of dealing with the Chinese community, a dynamic that we're really seeing for the first time in this federal election."
The ethnic Chinese vote is coveted by politicians right across the country. But no more so than in Greater Vancouver, where in some communities Chinese Canadians comprise up to 40 per cent of the population.
Chinese organizations are beginning to understand the power they have. And the broad rights that exist in Canada to exercise their influence and stick up for what they believe is right.
"A lot of Canada's so-called new Chinese immigrants have now been here 10, 20 years," says Ms. Ho, one of the most influential figures in the ethnic Chinese community. "They now understand how the game is played. They now understand they don't have to accept whatever they are told. That is what happened with the head-tax issue and I think there is a lesson in that for all politicians."
Initially, the federal government had an agreement with a number of Chinese- Canadian organizations to provide $2.5-million for programs acknowledging the racism of the past. But the agreement included no apology and no compensation for any of the few surviving immigrants who paid the head tax, nor for any of their families.
The Chinese Canadian National Council, however, said that wasn't good enough. It questioned how the money would be spent. It questioned why any agreement couldn't come with a formal government apology, which was important to many Chinese Canadians.
The council bombarded ethnic Chinese news organizations like Ms. Ho's with e- mails and new information on the head-tax issue, keeping the matter at the front of television newscasts and on the front page of the highly influential Chinese-language newspapers.
The council refused to let the issue die.
"I think what you are seeing is the Chinese adopting real Canadian values," Ms. Ho says. "This is not an insignificant development. We are learning that if you don't like something, change it, or fight for change, fight for what you believe in. You don't just have to swallow it and say nothing.
"That is the opposite of what my mom and dad would tell me to do. They would say, 'Forget it, it will be okay.' That is the traditional way of thinking. And that's what some of the more traditional Chinese organizations did originally. They said, 'Well, $2.5-million is better than nothing.' But the national council said, 'Wait a minute. We can do better. This is worth fighting for. This is about dignity.' "
The groundswell of support that built up in the Chinese-Canadian community around the council's campaign to fight for an apology caught politicians off guard. It wasn't long, however, before Conservative Leader Stephen Harper sensed what was afoot. Early in the election he reversed his party's position on the head tax, saying his government would issue a formal apology and compensate those affected.
It left the Liberals, especially in B.C., scrambling. They knew they had to do something or it would likely spell electoral death to cabinet ministers such as David Emerson and Raymond Chan, whose B.C. ridings are 40 per cent ethnic Chinese.
First, Mr. Emerson said he would fight for an apology. Then he persuaded Liberal Leader Paul Martin to issue a personal apology on a Chinese radio station. As for Mr. Chan, it seems all he has been successful in doing is confusing the issue, leaving many in the Chinese community perplexed as to where he and his party now stand.
Mr. Chan has long believed that an official government apology would leave Ottawa open to lawsuits by head-tax victims and their families. When he was asked last weekend, however, whether a Liberal government would formally apologize for the head tax, he said yes. A day later, he told the Chinese media he was misunderstood and his earlier position stood.
"We have big confusion on this issue now," says George Ho, deputy editor of the Chinese daily Ming Pao.
"The Liberals have showed an attitude that they want to do the right thing but what that is remains very murky. That is not good, I think. Because the other parties are pretty clear on this issue."
Ms. Ho believes Mr. Chan is in trouble in his Richmond riding and not just because of the head-tax issue. Rather, it's because of a tendency, she says, to lecture fellow Chinese Canadians when they don't agree with him.
"Often he'll tell someone who disagrees with him on an issue such as gay marriage that they aren't Canadianized enough," Ms. Ho says. "That they don't know Canadian values. And that's completely wrong. The Chinese in Canada do understand Canadian values. That's why they don't want to be talked down to any more. That's why they aren't just going to accept whatever they're told."
She pauses.
"The head-tax story is really about being more Canadian."
