... One of these groups that endured suffering, especially during the early 1900s, were the Chinese Canadians. From approximately the 1870s until the 1950s, almost a hundred thousand Chinese immigrants fled to Canada, some in search for jobs, and some in order to escape wartime China. No matter what kinds of hopes and dreams of refuge the Chinese had before coming to Canada, all they found were poor living conditions, racial discrimination, and difficult government regulations to live by. As time passed, Chinese Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) workers¡ªcalled coolies ¡ªwere laid off, a head tax was imposed solely on Chinese immigrants, making it harder for their families to reunite, and finally the Chinese Exclusion act came into effect. These events caused most Chinese immigrants to return to their battling home country rather than staying to work off their debt and to live in this endless humiliation. Now, sixty years later, survivors of the Chinese Head Tax are finally able to fight for financial and emotional reconciliation. ... The government should grant this compensation, not only for the benefit of the nation itself as honourably upholding human rights, but also in consideration of the tormented lives of Chinese Canadians, who are currently fighting for redress, and in memory of those who have already passed away. A compensation should be offered, not necessarily to make up for the monetary loss, but as a symbol of the government¡¯s recognition of the injustice displayed towards the Chinese in the early 1900s, and a promise that it will never occur again. ... Why should Chinese Canadians, who have endured equal¡ªif not more¡ªtorment be any different? It is time for the Chinese Canadians redress movement to be answered.
Many people may question why a mere policy of the past should draw such attention, but just a glimpse of the Chinese immigrants¡¯ insufferable lifestyle should be persuasive enough. First of all, the cruelty and intolerance of the racist government policies and the Canadian attitude towards the Chinese should be recognized. ... The Canadian government not only failed to show appreciation to the Chinese for their large contribution towards the completion of the CPR, but instead, unjustly imposed a head tax in order to limit Chinese immigration to Canada. ... This is exactly what had happened with the Chinese, for helping to construct the CPR. Seven thousand Chinese workers were initially welcomed into Canada during the late 1800s to do dangerous, backbreaking, cheap labour for the CPR. Other non-Chinese workers were not as willing to take part, even though their work was less dangerous and their wages were often double or even triple the wage of a Chinese worker. By the time the CPR was completed in 1885, over a thousand Chinese workers had sacrificed their lives in the construction, and therefore overall played a large part in uniting Canada as a whole.
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