Protestors march in Edmonton's Chinatown on Canada Day, July 1st. Photos credits: Peter Wong, Fred Locke More media photos

Go to original article: Edmonton Sun Online
Edmonton Sun, July 2, 2006 (page 5)

HEAD-TAX REDRESS RALLY

Edmonton Sun
July 2, 2006

Dozens of Edmonton descendants of Chinese immigrants who were forced to pay a federal head tax protested Ottawa's redress package outside Canada Place yesterday.

"Our message today to the Conservative government is very clear - we want redress now and we want it before the next federal election," said Kenda Gee, Edmonton co-chairman of the Chinese Canadian Redress Alliance.

Yesterday's protest came slightly more than a week after Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized and offered compensation for what he called "a great injustice" - the head tax once imposed on Chinese immigrants and a subsequent 24-year ban on immigration from China.

The Conservative government is offering a $20,000 payment to each of the roughly 20 surviving head-tax payers and approximately 250 spouses of deceased payers. But Chinese-Canadian redress groups are demanding the roughly 4,000 elderly, surviving children of head-tax payers be compensated as well.