Critics Blast Government Over Head Tax Handout

The Canadian government is under fire for quietly negotiating a deal to give $12.5 million, set aside for reconciling past racist legislation against Chinese Canadians, to a single group that does not represent the victims.

In a statement issued Tuesday by the Federal NDP, party House Leader Libby Davies said it was "completely inadequate" for the government to exclude 4,000 payers of the Chinese head tax—a charge that applied to all ethnic Chinese immigrating to Canada from 1885 to 1923—from redress negotiations.

The government collected $23 million from the tax, which was charged only to ethnic Chinese and went as high as a year's salary. It was meant to discourage Chinese from immigrating to Canada.

Today, the government has set aside $25 million for redress for a number of ethnic groups that were discriminated against by past government policies. $12.5 million of that is expected to go to the Chinese.

Roy Bormann, Communications Director for Raymond Chan, the Minister of State for Multiculturalism, says compensation for the actual victims of the head tax is not possible.

"When you apologize you incur a liability for it. We cannot, as a government, put that sort of liability onto taxpayers," he told The Epoch Times. "We can't just incur liability that doesn't exist right now. It's very much a legal argument."

The money is intended to be used for commemoration and education programs to "educate Canadians about the hardships that various ethnic groups incurred," says Bormann.

But critics are asking why all of the money is being given to a single group, the National Congress of Chinese Canadians.

A news release from the Chinese Canadian National Council (CCNC) accuses Raymond Chan of carrying out secret deals with the National Congress because he has close ties with the group.

"It's outrageous that Minister Chan would say publicly on CBC that he is still open to negotiations with other groups while concluding a secret deal with his political cronies," said Susan Eng, Co-Chair of the CCNC. "What part of "Gomery" do they not understand?"

The National Congress announced last Friday that a deal with the federal government was basically complete.

"We have concluded the negotiations and now we are looking forward to signing the agreement with the federal government as soon as possible," National Congress head Pin Tan was quoted as saying by CBC.

Tan has said he would use $2.5 million of the $12.5 just to establish the foundation that would dole out the rest of the money for educational programs.

Presumably that money would go to educating Canadians about the discrimination that early Chinese immigrants faced and the contributions they made. However, the organization does not have a reputation as a promoter of Chinese rights.

Sid Chow, a member of Vancouver's CCNC, says that the National Congress was created after the massacre of pro-democracy students in 1989 as a "soft-power response to the [pro-democracy] CCNC."

The organization regular advocates for the policies of the Chinese government. Ping Tan and another leader of the National Congress have reportedly supported the Chinese government's 1989 crackdown on students.

In response to the news that all redress funds have been earmarked for the National Congress, the CCNC has organized a series of urgent meetings to bring public awareness to the deal. Attendees have included surviving head tax payers like Charlie Quon, 98, of Vancouver.

The CCNC is prepared to sue the government to stop the deal and has set up a web form (http://www.headtaxredress.org/signon.php) to collect names of supporters.

In the meantime, the NDP has written to the Prime Minister on the issue.

"At the forefront of the redress movement is the Chinese Canadian National Council, which represents thousands of head tax payers and their families," said NDP Leader Jack Layton.

"If this deal goes forward in its current form, the CCNC will have no say in how the funds will be spent."