Hon. Marie-Françoise Mégie: Honourable senators, I rise today to speak to Senator Woo’s inquiry, the goal of which is to call the attention of the Senate to the one hundredth anniversary of the Chinese Exclusion Act, the contributions that Chinese Canadians have made to our country, and the need to combat contemporary forms of exclusion and discrimination faced by Canadians of Asian descent.

As Senator Woo pointed out on February 14, 2023:

 . . . 100 years ago, in this chamber, senators voted to adopt the Chinese Immigration Act, 1923. This piece of legislation is better known as the Chinese Exclusion Act . . . .

Senator Kutcher, Senator Simons, Senator McCallum, Senator Jaffer and Senator Oh also spoke to this inquiry.

They all provided numerous examples to illustrate the systemic discrimination suffered by Chinese Canadians. They also highlighted the important contributions made to our country by the Chinese and Asian communities, in spite of everything.

As I listened to my colleagues’ speeches, I too felt compelled to speak out. The last thing I want to do is conflate the issues, but Black communities have also been targeted by similar legislative measures in Canada.

The Canadian Encyclopedia states, and I quote:

Order-in-Council P.C. 1324 was approved on 12 August 1911 by the Cabinet of Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier. The purpose of the order was to ban Black persons from entering Canada for a period of one year because, it read, “the Negro race...is deemed unsuitable to the climate and requirements of Canada.”

The time periods might be different, as the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed 12 years later, but there are many similarities between the discrimination faced by the Chinese and Black communities in Canada, which proves, unfortunately, that history repeats itself.

It is therefore essential to fight contemporary forms of exclusion and discrimination that many Canadians still face to this day.

I thank Senator Woo for his dedication to bringing awareness to the systemic discrimination that Chinese Canadians experience. The exhibit he put together in the Senate foyer shines a light on a very dark chapter of Canada’s history that gets left out of the school books. As Senator Woo mentioned, the exhibit acts as a tangible link to the past and as a call for vigilance against all modern forms of exclusion.

This call resonated with Prime Minister Trudeau. Let me read out a passage from the statement he issued on May 14, 2023:

[The Chinese Exclusion Act] was a dark time in Canada’s history that has lasting impacts today. Along with the Chinese Immigration Act of 1885, which imposed a head tax on Chinese newcomers to Canada, the racist 1923 legislation almost completely prevented people from China from entering Canada for 24 years. It remained in place until its eventual repeal on this day in 1947. This systemic discrimination and racist policy separated loved ones, impoverished families, and reinforced prejudice against people of Chinese origin in Canada – scars that would endure for generations.

My dear colleagues, we absolutely have to take the opportunity presented by this inquiry to improve our knowledge of Canadian History with a capital “H.”

As historians have told us over and over, if we don’t learn from history, we’re doomed to repeat it.

As you can see from reviewing the sequence of events, that happened in 1911 and in 1923. Never again must we pass such discriminatory laws.

Our role is to transmit our values of inclusion and equality to future generations so they can live in a more just country.

To eliminate all forms of racism, whether implicit or explicit, we here in this chamber must remain vigilant.

Thank you.