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1. Chinese Immigration Act1885

2. Chinese Immigration to Canada The first large influx of Chinese immigrants to stay in Canada came north from San Francisco following the gold rush to the Fraser River Valley in 1858. In the 1860s many moved on to prospect for gold in the Cariboo Mountains of British Columbia. When workers were needed for the Canadian Pacific Railway, many were brought directly from China. From 1880 to 1885 about 17,000 Chinese labourers helped build the difficult and dangerous British Columbia section of the railway. In spite of their contributions, there was a great deal of prejudice against the Chinese, and they were paid only half the wage of white workers.
3. Chinese Immigration Act of 1885 placed a head tax on all Chineseimmigrants coming to Canada, forcing them to pay a fifty dollar fee to enter the country. ]In 1900, the fee was raised to one hundred dollars (a substantial amount of money at that time). In 1903, the amount was raised to five hundred dollars, the equivalency of two years' wages, which was a small fortune to the Chinese immigrants as well as other Canadians at the time. Later, another law was passed, declaring that only one Chinese immigrant could come to Canada for every fifty tons (50.8 tonnes) of the ship they were travelling on, for that one voyage. That meant that only ten immigrants could come to Canada on a ship weighing five hundred tons (508 tonnes).
4. Chinese Immigration Act of 1923Chinese Exclusion Act which banned Chinese immigration entirely Chinese Camp in Kamloops 1868
5. Chinese head tax The Chinese head tax was a fixed fee charged for each Chinese person entering Canada. It was also considered to be one of the most racist laws ever passed by the Canadian Government. The head tax was first levied after the Canadian Government passed the Chinese Immigration Act of 1885. It was meant to discourage Chinese from entering Canada after the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The head tax was ended by the Chinese Immigration Act of 1923, which stopped Chinese immigration except for business people, clergy, educators, students and other categories
6. This immigration was large enough — some 3,000 Chinese, when the 1871 census counted only 33,586 in the province — to arouse concern. The province of British Columbia passed a strict law to virtually prevent Chinese immigration in 1878. However, this was immediately struck down by the courts as ultra vires [beyond the powers of] the provincial legislature, because they impinged upon federal jurisdiction over immigration. As a dominion of the British Empire, Canada tried to discourage, but could not, by its international obligations, completely eliminate, Chinese immigration at its borders. Canada's federal Chinese Immigration Act of 1885 stipulated that all Chinese entering Canada pay a $50 fee, later referred to as a head tax. This was amended in 1887, 1892]and 1900,with the fee increasing to its maximum of $500 in 1903
7. Impact of the head tax The Government of Canada collected about $23 million in face value from about 81,000 head tax payers, some of the money being used to support Canada's war effort in World War II. The total head tax collected by 1923 has been estimated as equivalent to over $1.5 billion in 1988 dollars The head tax system had the effect of constraining Chinese immigration: making labour available for the railroads, and putting limits on the lives of the immigrants. This was in contrast to the goal of exclusion of Chinese immigration altogether, as articulated by contemporary politicians and labour leaders The system was effective in discouraging Chinese women and children from joining their men, so the Chinese community in Canada became a "bachelor society"
8. End of the head tax The head tax was ended by the Chinese Immigration Act of 1923, which stopped Chinese immigration entirely, though certain exemptions such as those for business owners and others permitted some continued immigrationIt is sometimes referred to by opponents as the Chinese Exclusion Act, a term also used for its American counterpart http://canadaonline.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ&zTi=1&sdn=canadaonline&cdn=newsissues&tm=9&gps=107_330_1020_546&f=10&tt=14&bt=1&bts=1&st=14&zu=http%3A//www.cbc.ca/news/background/china/chinese_immigration.html
9. Movement for redress In the 1980s, many Chinese and groups lobbied for a refund of the head tax, and an apology, or formal acknowledgment, from the Government of Canada. http://www.redressremix.ca/?gclid=CMTPv_D32KYCFQTNKgod1G0AJA#/splash