Some news out of Vancouver... heard about the recent passing of Charlie Sang Now Quan, an unlikely activist who spoke out against the past wrongs of Canada's Chinese head tax and Exclusion act. He was 105: Head tax activist dies in Vancouver at 105.Canada's head tax was a fixed fee charged to each Chinese person entering the country. When Quan came to Canada from China in 1923, he was forced to pay the $500 head tax. Later in life, well into his 90s, he was one of the few remaining head tax survivors who actively fought for redress and apology from the government -- and won:
"Charlie was the guy that taught me what being a chink was," Tan said. "That is a word that is used to describe the Chinese in the most surly, derogatory, disrespectful way, and Charlie didn't like that."This man was living proof that you can never be too old to fight for what's right. Mr. Quan was a ninety-something activist who never gave up on justice. That's gangsta. More here: Vancouver Chinese head-tax payer Charlie Quan dies at age 105.
After meeting Tan in the late '90s, Quan began actively calling for an apology and redress. He met with three prime ministers — Jean Chretien, Paul Martin and Stephen Harper — to plead his case.
When the federal government in 2006 issued an official apology and tax redress cheques of $20,000 to survivors and spouses, Quan was among the first to receive his.
"The next day, I went down to visit him and he had this incredibly big smile on his face," Tan said. "He came up to me and he said, 'Sid, I'm not a chink any more. I get my money back.'"