CRM 404 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: John A. Macdonald, Chinese Head Tax In Canada, War Measures Act
16 Sep 2013
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Document Summary
A lot of chinese men were migrating in towards canada because of the gold rush. Mainland china at this time was largely farming communities and wasn"t doing so well. A lot of them went to west coast and british columbia. Gold rush dries up around 1870"s and 17,000 chinese workers made the cpr (1881-1885). John a. macdonald was very endorsing of chinese men to come over and fill out the labour shortage in order to build the railroad. A lot of chinese men volunteered to use explosives. They were also paid half the amount of non-chinese workers. Estimates of chinese deaths range from 600 - 3500 over four years. -> the chinese at the time were viewed as disposable labour, because they were paid very little and a lot of them would die whilst during the job. After railroad was built, sir john a macdonald put up the electoral franchise act which barred chinese people from voting.
