Sober Saturday: Buying Chinese Votes

On the surface, the fact that Bev Oda and the federal
conservatives have promised to apologize to the Canadian Chinese community for a head tax levied upon Chinese entering Canada between 1885 and 1923 is noble. But in reality, the government is attempting to buy votes with moral capital on the back of historical wrongs. It's blatant election mode strategy to amass Chinese support across the country and to build blue inroads into immigrant communities in Ontario. It's no wonder Canadians are cynical about politics.

The historical context of the head tax is complex. It was an attempt to stave off a growing exclusionist contempt for Chinese at the time, that was fuelled by the fact that migrant Chinese labourers evaded taxes in the host society, occupied an enviable share of the labour market and maintained their own economic, commercial, cultural and even legal institutions, which was viewed as a reluctance to participate in the broader society's institutions. Although these insititutions remain, to this day, a testament to the strength and uniquity of the Chinese culture, they helped fuel cross-cultural tensions between the host society and Chinese migrants. The head tax eventually gave way to the exceedingly discriminatory and exclusionary Chinese Immigration Act of 1923, after anti-Chinese sentiment had finally filtered up to become official policy.

I have no problem with apologies. I do have a problem with politicians morally grandstanding on historical wrongs, and thus, further exploiting the Chinese in Canada. And make no mistake, exploitation is what this apology is all about, even though they plan to counter the negative by using an Asian Minister to trot it out.