Canadian Immigration

Anti-Asian Riots (Harper’s Weekly, 1907)

The cheap yellow and brown men have driven out the Whites and Indians from the salmon fisheries and canneries, the farms and the mines.


– So reported the the Harper’s Weekly correspondent in the attached article that documented the 1907 anti-Asian race riots in Vancouver, British Columbia. Having visited San Francisco some time earlier, the journalist mused that similar mob-violence will result in the American West if the Federal Government does not take steps to soothe the racial tensions in some manner.

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The Yellow Peril in Vancouver (Review of Reviews, 1910)

The Canadians of British Columbia were just as uncomfortable with Asian immigration as their American neighbors on the west coast. This article discusses the Canadian Prime Minister, at the time, Sir Wilfred Laurier, and what he planned to do about Asiatic immigration, such as placing a head tax on each Asian who migrated. The growth of the Indian Hindu population along the Canadian West Coast is also mentioned

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Race Riots in Vancouver (Harper’s Weekly, 1907)

A Harper’s Weekly correspondent filed the attached report that served as an eye-witness account of the 1907 anti-Asian riots that flared up in the Canadian city of Vancouver, British Columbia. The riot triggered countless acts of violence and arson targeting the Asian communities of that western city. The widespread Asian migration to the Dominion of Canada was a result of the diplomatic agreements between Japan and Great Britain (Anglo-Japanese Alliance, 1902–1922) resulting in a tremendous amount of racist tension among Canadian Whites.


Today, the surname Li is the most common last name in Canada.


Click here to read about the Japanese-American internment camps of W.W. II.

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