the Chinese exclusion act: why i stopped celebrating canada day after taking grade ten history class

Originally written July 1, 2021 for July 2021 Drumbeat

[cw: mentions of anti-Indigenous, anti-Black racism, genocide, history of anti-Asian racism]
written by Julie Phan 潘家雯

coming off the heels of canada day, i've been thinking about how we were raised in the school system to believe in canadian multiculturalism and canadian pride-- but what is there to be proud of?

canada is a white supremacist nation where Indigenous, Black and people of colour continue to suffer from inequity, racial profiling and state violence. there has been continuous talk but no action taken by the canadian government towards reconciliation with Indigenous communities. genocide is ongoing.

as if there aren’t already enough reasons to stop celebrating canada day,  i stopped fucking with canada day after taking on a research project for grade ten history class. 

these projects were rather open ended,  we were allowed to explore topics we wanted; the history of chinese people in canada was never taught in school and the only way i could learn about it was through doing my own research. i learned about how chinese people came to canada and were subsequently degraded by society, scapegoated for the post-war economic downfall and became the target of discriminatory legislations.

the Chinese immigration act (also known as the Chinese exclusion act) was passed on july 1st, 1923, banning most Chinese people from entering canada and separating families for decades. it was enacted after the discriminatory head tax system that placed $500 on every Chinese immigrant failed to prevent further migration after the demand for Chinese labour decreased

the symbolism of choosing this day to pass the exclusion act is not lost on me; the day chosen to celebrate canada and canadians was also the day the message was sent to chinese people in canada that they could not and will never be canadian, driving a wedge between these two identities. it also calls back to the driving of the last spike of the canadian pacific railway that officially celebrated the symbolic “joining” eastern and western canada, where no Chinese were invited to participate in an attempt to erase the 15000 Chinese labourers who helped build the railroad and hundreds of lives that were lost doing the most dangerous tasks.  

to this day, some members of the chinese canadian community refuse to celebrate canada day, it is instead known as “humiliation day” and a day of remembrance.  it's a reminder that while this act has long been repealed, racism and inequality is still rooted in other laws (such as quebec's bill 21).  we should actively stand by and support communities who continue to suffer under systemic inequity. we shouldn’t buy into the myth of canadian multiculturalism. canada day was never meant to celebrate anyone who isn’t white; we shouldn’t forget that canada continues to be a white supremacist, settler colonial state and until our ongoing issues are resolved, we don’t really have anything worth celebrating.