Chinese Canadian Head Tax issue one of 2006's top events

The Chinese head tax issue made
top newsmaker in every chinese media's year end review.  But was
rarely seen in English Language media year end summaries. 

Top
Chinese-Canadian stories listed by Susanna Ng includes Head Tax redress
apology plus the resignation by Michael Chong over recognizing Quebec
as a “nation” within a united Canada.  see Susanna's Chinese in Vancouver: Year end review  and her stories on Chinese Head Tax.

But
Chinese head tax should be more than just an “ethnic issue.” It is a
Canadian issue.  Canadian parliament charged a head tax from 1895
until 1923 when parliament creeated the “Chinese exclusion act” which
lasted until 1947.  That's 52 years of legislated racism! Oh…
plus an additional 49 years without an apology – not to mention a tax
refund.

Chinese
language media was a leading force in the head tax issue, covering it
almost  every day during the election campaign after November
25th, when 200 people protested the Liberal signing of the ACE program
– see
Chinese Head Tax: Protest in Vancouver Chinatown.

English Language media still seemed slow on this issue, often relegating it to ethnic issue side bar stories.  The first real head tax story in the Vancouver Sun was from Toronto head tax descendant Brad Lee who wrote The liberals bungle a great opportunity to do the right thing: This was followed by Daphne Bramham's Dec, 2 column
Compensate Chinese immigrants fairly:  I didn't see an actual news story in the Vancouver Sun, until Dec 8 when
Stephen Harper and Conservatives jump on the Head Tax apology band wagon.   

But also notable was the coverage by the Georgia Straight's Charlie Smith. Head tax unites activists,
Georgia Straight: Harper Stickhandles Redress as well CBC Radio did a number of audience call-in shows + interviews with head tax redress activists. 

At
year end of 2005, Chinese head tax was listed in the top ten by a
number of Asian newspapers, citing it to have both importance for
Canada, as well as global importance.  Last year, this time, the
Chinese Head Tax emerged as the sleeper issue for the January 2006
Federal Election.  Three Conservative candidates broke from Stephen
Harper's former No Apology stance, to join with the NDP, Bloc Quebecois and
Green Party.  Then with the Liberals facing themselves behind the
Conservatives in polling, Liberal PM Paul Martin mumbled a so-called
personal apology about head tax on Fairchild Chinese language radio
station, but would not commit to a formal governmental apology – nor
did he repeat the same “apology” for English language media.   see:Political debate heats up over Chinese head tax.

Then on June 22nd, the 
Head Tax Apology Ceremony
finally happened.  In the days leading up, English language media
finally got on the head tax band wagon, literally, by putting reporters
on the head tax redress train from Vancouver to Ottawa. 

In October, The Vancouver Sun even put together a list of 100 Influential Chinese Canadians in BC…
listing head tax activist Sid Tan.  But while the Sun made it
their lead feature on the front page, they relegated a story about Charlie Quan receiving the first head tax redress cheque to backwater pages in the West Coast section.  Even the Globe & Mail had made it the lead story in their BC edition.

But
Head Tax redress groups say the Conservative government hasn't gone far
enough for a just an honourable redress, only honouring 0.6% of a total
81,000 head tax certificates that were issued from 1885 to 1923. 
Only surviving head tax payers and spouses will receive a $20,000
ex-gratia payment.  And it took the government months and months
to settle on the definition of a spouse, even asking that

Meanwhile,
the Conservative cabinet ministers and MP's make a big photo
opportunity of presenting the ex-gratia payments to senior citizens in
the '90's, at great distress and effort on behalf of this very aged
seniors.  My own maternal grandmother is 96 years old, and is much
too weak to be trotted out for display.  And the irony is that
there will be NO ex-gratia payment for her father's head tax
certificates because he died back in the 1920's.  Any family whose
head tax paying parents or their spouses died prior to the
Conservatives reaching power in February 2006 is out of luck.  Too
bad… so sad…

Chinese-Canadian head tax redress is still burning up the blogs.  Susanna Ng has created a poll listing Top news of importance to CC society in 2006. And yes… head tax is leading the polls.