www射-国产免费一级-欧美福利-亚洲成人福利-成人一区在线观看-亚州成人

   

CHINA / National

Chinese-Canadian to be compensated for head tax
(CP)
Updated: 2006-06-22 08:22

OTTAWA - The federal government appears set to offer money as well as a formal apology over a racist head tax once applied to Chinese immigrants.

Heritage Minister Bev Oda strongly hinted at compensation in the House of Commons on Wednesday. "An apology will be made in the House and we will also be addressing appropriate acknowledgement," she responded when asked if a compensation package would be announced.

Chinese-Canadian groups say they expect Prime Minister Stephen Harper will offer compensation as well as regret when he speaks to the Commons on Thursday.

They suggest the package will include payments of $10,000 to $21,000 for surviving immigrants who paid the tax, surviving widows and first-generation children.

Some of the survivors of the head-tax era are to be in the Commons when Harper speaks.

Joseph Wong, founding president of the Chinese Canadian National Council, said he can't believe the government would invite the elderly people to Ottawa then turn them away empty-handed.

"I am quite sure there will be a compensation package," he said.

Susan Eng, co-chair of the Ontario Coalition of Chinese Head Tax Payers, also said she thinks the government will offer compensation.

"Apologies will be hollow words without substance behind it. It's important that there be some kind of token gesture while they are sill alive to see it."

As well as money for individuals, Eng said the compensation package would include money for education ad commemoration of the troubling era.

The head tax, ranging from $50 to $500, was assessed on Chinese immigrants from 1885 until 1923 when immigration from China was banned entirely. It was 1947 before Canada opened its door again to Chinese.

Chinese Canadian organizations are bitter that the head tax was only applied after the Canadian Pacific Railway was completed - with the help of thousands of Chinese labourers.

"Once they had done the work to build the link across the country, they were told they weren't wanted," said Wong.

About 81,000 people are believed to have paid the tax, although only a handful are still alive.

Wong said there are only about 35 survivors, plus about 360 of their widows and fewer than 4,000 of their children.

He said the government was asked to make payments of $21,000 to each survivor or widow and $10,000 to their children. That would be in line with the payments made to Japanese-Canadians after the Mulroney government gave them an apology and redress package for their internment during the Second World War.

Wong said the apology is important.

"On the other hand, a symbolic gesture of compensation for all those years of discrimination and suffering is mandatory to really show the sincerity.

"We are not asking for the sky . . . but it should be a dignified amount which shows in a symbolic way the regret of the government."

Eng, too, said the apology is vital.

"An apology means that there is a public and official acknowledgement that this was legislation that was unreservedly racist . . . and this is something that the government of the day has chosen, properly, to apologize for."

Some say compensation for the head tax will pen the door to other minority groups with grievances. Ukrainian Canadians have argued they deserve compensation for internment during the First World War and Canadians of German and Italian descent have complained about internment during the Second World War.

 
 

Related Stories
 
主站蜘蛛池模板: 国产国语在线播放视频 | 大片刺激免费播放视频 | 久久中文字幕久久久久 | 一级做a爰片久久毛片潮喷 一级做a爰片久久毛片美女 | 男女午夜性爽快免费视频不卡 | 久久ri精品高清一区二区三区 | 91久久精品国产91久久性色tv | 久久精品vr中文字幕 | 久久精品在线视频 | 三级黄色免费看 | 五月桃花网婷婷亚洲综合 | 日韩性色 | 日韩一区二区视频在线观看 | 自拍小视频在线观看 | 欧美影院网站视频观看 | 69xx欧美| 88av视频| 99精品网站 | 三及毛片 | 高清视频 一区二区三区四区 | 成人毛片在线播放 | 波多野结衣视频在线 | 亚洲午夜免费 | 91精品国产综合成人 | 久久久久久国产视频 | 日韩精品一区二区三区视频网 | 欧美一级视频精品观看 | 国产高清在线精品一区二区 | 成年女人免费又黄又爽视频 | 国产精品v欧美精品v日本精 | 伊人久久免费 | 久久精品免费在线观看 | 国产精品视频久久久久久 | 午夜精品在线 | 农村寡妇女人一级毛片 | 88精品视频 | 欧美成人艳星在线播放 | 国产亚洲精彩视频 | 久久精品国产99国产精品 | 国产高清无专砖区2021 | 99re热精品视频国产免费 |