"The Chinese has no British instincts or British feelings or aspirations...if [the Chinese] came in great numbers and settled on the Pacific coast they might control the vote of that whole Province, and they would send Chinese representative[s] to sit here, who would represent Chinese eccentricities, Chinese immorality, Asiatic principles altogether opposite to our wishes; and, in the even balance of parties, they might enforce those Asiatic principles, those immoralities . . . , the eccentricities which are abhorrent to the Aryan race and Aryan principles, on this House.” (
Source)
- Sir John A. MacDonald, 1885, on why people of Chinese ancestry should be denied the right to vote.
Thus began decades of institutionalized racism in Canada against Chinese immigrants, dictating where they could settle, what jobs they could hold, what businesses they could start, how much they could borrow, who they could marry, enacting a punitive head tax, etc.
And, yet, Chinese Canadians aren't exactly lining up to be on the side of Aboriginal activists right now. I wonder why?