BC inquiry project~ BY: maryam

Was Canada always multicultural? Canada wasn’t always multicultural as it is now. Back then Canada was doing it’s best to keep the south Asians out of Canada. They had made laws like “Immigrants must have $200 on them to enter Canada (up from$25) or “If you want to enter Canada then you must come directly from your country” That was directed to Japan and India In 1906 about 700 immigrants went to B.C. – 1907-1908 about 2623 south Asian immigrants entered Canada,

South Asia~ 20 men seen as rebels were killed.. Komagata Maru Incident 1914~ It was a ship that was coming from Hong Kong, nearly 376 people were on it, there were HK, Japanese, via shanghai, and Indians on that ship. The ship was headed to Canada but as soon as they got there they were turned away because the komagata maru didn’t come straight to BC. komagata maru was in a sense designed as a test of Canada’s strict immigration policies or laws.

Chinese Immigration act~ The Chinese Immigration Act required that Chinese migrants pay a head tax of $50 to come to Canada. Canada didn’t like Chinese people coming over to the country for gold mining and work & discover new land. Chinese people were the largest group of non- Europeans to settle in B.C Chinese people started settling in Canada, developed Chinatowns in all major towns. Canada hired Chinese to build the CPR, it was easy for the people who hired Chinese people to cut off how much they were supposed to pay so most of the Chinese people who worked on the railway got paid $1 a day. Chinese people also did most of the dangerous and hard work.

Immigration act~ Is an act directed to Chinese people, even though they worked for us, Chinese didn’t have the right to vote in Canada. In 1885 Canada made a law that Chinese people cant enter Canada if they don’t pay $50 then it wet up to $100 but the Chinese people were still entering Canada, so they raised it up to $500 to not let the Chinese enter but they were still able to enter Canada.

The conclusion~ Canada wasn’t always been a multicultural country, they way they treated the Chinese, Indian, Japanese and all other south Asian countries was really rude and it wasn’t acceptable.