British Columbia apologizes for historical anti-Chinese laws

Premier Christy Clark issues formal apology for racist and discriminatory past policies



News from the north! B.C. says sorry. Last week, the Chinese community in British Columbia received a formal apology from the provincial government for racist past policies that targeted immigrants and residents.

Chinese community gets apology from B.C. for historical wrongs

On Thursday, British Columbia's premier Christy Clark issued the apology, aiming to make amends for more than a hundred historical laws, regulations and policies that discriminated against people of Chinese descent since the 1870s, such as denying immigrants the right to vote and charging them a head tax to immigrate.

There was no individual compensation offered as part of the apology, but it was announced that the government would put $1 million into a legacy fund that would be used to fund educational initiatives.

Here is the full text of the motion:

Hindu temple vandalized in possible hate crime

Some local news out of Canada about a possible hate crime... In Surrey, British Columbia, authorities are investigating the vandalism of a Hindu temple over the weekend. Temple leaders are certain the incident was a hate crime: Temple bashing hate crime, says Hindu leader.

Sometime early Sunday morning, surveillance cameras caught two men -- who appear to be South Asian -- entering the Lakshmi Narayan Hindu Mandir temple. The vandals used baseball bats to smash up the windows of the temple's front entrance. Nothing was stolen, which leads some to believe this was more than just a simple act of vandalism: