Before 1923, Chinese immigration was heavily controlled by the
Chinese Immigration Act of 1885, which imposed an onerous
head tax on all immigrants from China. After various members of the federal and some provincial governments (especially
British Columbia) put pressure on the federal government to discourage Chinese immigration, the
Chinese Immigration Act was passed. It went into effect on 1 July 1923. The Act banned immigrants of Chinese heritage from entering Canada except those under the following titles: • Diplomat • Foreign student • "Special circumstance" granted by the
Minister of Immigration under Article 9 of the Act (This is the class that former
Governor General Adrienne Clarkson's family fell under.) • Merchant Because Canada became a signatory following World War II of the United Nations'
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, with which the
Chinese Immigration Act was inconsistent, the Canadian Parliament repealed the act on 14 May 1947 (following the proclamation of the
Canadian Citizenship Act, 1946 on 1 January 1947). However, independent Chinese immigration to Canada came only after the liberalization of Canadian immigration policy under the governments of
John Diefenbaker and
Lester Pearson, first by the elimination of restrictions based on national origins in 1962, followed by the establishment of the world's first
points-based immigration system in 1967. Labour organizations were among the prominent voices calling for Chinese exclusion. The Trades and Labour Congress of Canada, along with the Retail Merchants Association of Canada and veterans' groups, publicly supported the passage of the act. In British Columbia, trade unions and veterans' associations argued that Chinese workers accepted lower wages, which they claimed limited employment opportunities for European Canadians, and used this as justification to pressure federal politicians toward race-based immigration restrictions. ==Redress and legacy==