may 30, 1884 - B.C. Chinese Regulation Act (passed, 1884)

Description:

"In 1884, the B.C. legislature passed into law the Chinese Regulation Act, creating an annual tax of $10 on every Chinese person over the age of 14, defining the target of the legislation as 'any native of the Chinese Empire or its dependencies not born of British parents, and shall include any person of the Chinese race.'"

"The Regulation Act went further than imposing a racially discriminatory tax; it also prohibited issuing licenses to Chinese for a variety of occupations, prohibited the exhumation of Chinese bodies, ostensibly for their return to China, and imposed size restrictions on accommodations inhabited by Chinese. Also contained within the Act was a higher levy on Chinese applying for a 'free miner’s certificate,' set at $15 while everyone else paid an annual fee of $5."