Chinese Groups Thank Kenney for Head Tax Effort

The head tax was a fee Chinese people had to pay to enter Canada when the Chinese Immigration Act was in effect from 1885 to 1923.
Save
Chinese Groups Thank Kenney for Head Tax Effort
Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney poses with Joseph Iam, one of several Chinese Canadians who came to Parliament Hill Wednesday afternoon to thank Kenney for the work he did on the issue of the Chinese head tax. (Matthew Little/The Epoch Times)
Matthew Little
6/11/2009
Updated:
10/1/2015
<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/DSC_0199_2.JPG" alt="Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney poses with Joseph Iam, one of several Chinese Canadians who came to Parliament Hill Wednesday afternoon to thank Kenney for the work he did on the issue of the Chinese head tax. (Matthew Little/The Epoch Times)" title="Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney poses with Joseph Iam, one of several Chinese Canadians who came to Parliament Hill Wednesday afternoon to thank Kenney for the work he did on the issue of the Chinese head tax. (Matthew Little/The Epoch Times)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-1827933"/></a>
Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney poses with Joseph Iam, one of several Chinese Canadians who came to Parliament Hill Wednesday afternoon to thank Kenney for the work he did on the issue of the Chinese head tax. (Matthew Little/The Epoch Times)

Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney was thanked by a group of Chinese Canadians who came to Parliament Hill Wednesday afternoon for the work he did on the issue of the Chinese head tax.

The head tax was a fee Chinese people had to pay to enter Canada when the Chinese Immigration Act was in effect from 1885 to 1923. The fee was meant to discourage Chinese from coming to Canada after the Canadian Pacific Railway was completed. Prime Minister Stephen Harper offered an apology for the tax in 2006 along with compensation of approximately $20,000 for each survivor or their spouse.

Kenney also thanked the Chinese community for raising funds for victims of the earthquake that struck Sichuan province in China on May 12 last year and for victims of the Tsunami that hit Burma nine days earlier.