Head tax apology urged

Head tax apology urged
Discriminated Chinese migrants are all elderly now
By SARAH GREEN, TORONTO SUN



Shee Johnson Wong, 103, is greeted by Dr. Joseph Wong at a press conference. (Photo: Laura Gallella, Toronto Sun.)
Sim Nuey Chin is 94. James Pon is 89.
They are among the last survivors and their spouses -- there may be as few as 200 -- who paid a head tax of $50 to $500 for Chinese to immigrate to Canada decades ago.
With the number of survivors dwindling as they enter their 90s and 100s, an Ontario group urged Ottawa yesterday to apologize soon for the head tax and subsequent Exclusion Act, which barred Chinese immigrants for more than two decades until the end of World War II.
"We urge the government to act quickly to ensure they see justice in their time," said Susan Eng, co-chairman of the Ontario Coalition of Head Tax Payers and Families.
The group hopes for a July 1 apology to coincide with the date in 1923 when the Exclusion Act came into force.
Halton MP Garth Turner, who spoke for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, gave a "100% iron-clad commitment" yesterday that the government would apologize and redress past wrongs.

"This will happen," Turner said, adding more details will emerge in the Throne Speech on April 3.
Eng said negotiations are slated to begin Friday with MPs Bev Oda and Jason Kenney.
Groups have not attached a dollar figure to compensation, but Eng noted 82,000 immigrants paid $23 million from 1885 to 1923.

17 YEARS TO REPAY
James Pon was just 5 years old when his father paid $1,000 to bring him and his mother to Canada in 1922.
"It took him 17 years to repay this debt, even though the person who loaned the money didn't charge him one penny of interest,"Pon recalled yesterday.
His family was so destitute that Pon was "farmed out" at age 12 to work in restaurants.
"It was horrible. My father couldn't afford to keep me at home. From a boy of 12, I was suddenly a man," Pon said.
Sim Nuey Chin, whose husband paid the $500 tax, lived apart from her spouse for nearly 30 years, separated by the Exclusion Act.















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