Chinese Head Tax

The Chinese Head Tax took place between 1885 and 1923 varying from fifty to five hundred dollars. Before the Exclusion Act was established in 1923, an estimated 82, 000 Chinese had paid the tax. Prime Minister Stephen Harper refers to the redress payment as a token, in the sense that it cannot make up for the suffering from the tax. This payment of twenty thousand dollars will be presented to about four hundred survivors and widows. Prime Minister Harper refers to the tax as "a moral blemish on our country's soul."