December 1st, 2006
For Immediate Release
Chinese Head Tax Payers in Mississauga and
Etobicoke Receive Redress

BURLINGTON, Ontario, December 1, 2006 – Mike Wallace, Member of Parliament (Burlington), today presented cheques of $20,000 each to three residents of Mississauga and Etobicoke who had paid the Chinese Head Tax.

“I am proud that Canada’s new Government is continuing to fulfill its commitment to Chinese Head Tax payers by providing these symbolic payments,” said Mr. Wallace.

“With the delivery of ex-gratia payments to living Head Tax payers, we are taking one more step toward recognizing past experiences and hardships and to contributing to healing in the Chinese Canadian community,” said the Honourable Beverley J. Oda, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Status of Women.

On October 20, 2006, Minister Oda participated in a ceremony in Vancouver to present the first ex-gratia payments. These payments follow from the official apology to Chinese Canadians for imposition of the Head Tax, made by Prime Minister Stephen Harper on June 22, 2006, on behalf of the Government of Canada.

Details are being worked out for the application process for symbolic payments for living persons who were in a conjugal relationship with a Head-Tax payer who is now deceased.

The Head Tax was imposed on Chinese immigrants entering Canada from 1885 to 1923. A similar tax existed in the Dominion of Newfoundland between 1906 and 1949, before the province entered Confederation.

Additional details are available on the Department of Finance web site. http://www.fin.gc.ca

For further information please contact: Jon. W. Watson or Mike Wallace, MP

Jon. W. Watson
Executive & Legislative Assistant
Mike Wallace, MP Burlington
www.mikewallace.ca
T: (613) 995 0881
F: (613) 995 1091
763 Confederation
House of Commons
OTTAWA K1A 0A6