British ColumbiaBurnaby, B.C., has delivered a formal apology for decades of discrimination against Chinese Canadians, acknowledging that historic municipal laws and policies barred people of Chinese descent from working for the city, owning land and earning a living.B.C. city commits to inclusion and education as families still feel impacts generations laterShaurya Kshatri · CBC News · Posted: Nov 15, 2025 10:50 PM EST | Last Updated: 2 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 4 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.Farmworkers in a field owned by F.J. Hart, whose mansion at Deer Lake is now the Hart House Restaurant. Chinese farm workers were an essential part of Burnaby’s early agricultural industry. (City of Burnaby Archives)Burnaby has delivered a formal apology for decades of discrimination against people of Chinese descent, acknowledging that historic municipal laws and policies barred them from working for the city, owning land and earning a living.At a special council meeting on Saturday, Mayor Mike Hurley said the city accepts responsibility for the racism and discrimination perpetrated by Burnaby’s municipal government and elected officials between 1892 and 1947.”The goals of these actions was exclusion,” he said.“We commit to actions to address the ongoing legacies of historic discrimination to build a brighter future for all of our community.”Burnaby Mayor Mike Hurley issued an official apology on behalf of the city for its historic discrimination against people of Chinese descent. He called an official meeting of city council on Saturday, where members also unanimously passed a motion to repeal three discriminatory bylaws. (Radio-Canada)The city says the apology comes after months of research and community engagement that uncovered several discriminatory bylaws enacted by earlier councils, though it noted they are no longer active or enforced. One of them dates back to 1892, when Burnaby passed a bylaw barring Chinese and Japanese residents from being employed by the municipality or its contractors.Other bylaws restricted people of Chinese descent from owning land and imposed regulations that made it difficult for them to operate businesses or earn a living. Burnaby also supported legislation that denied Chinese residents the right to vote or run for public office at the municipal, provincial and federal levels.WATCH | Burnaby to apologize to Chinese-Canadian community for past discrimination:City of Burnaby to apologize to Chinese-Canadian community for past discriminationThe City of Burnaby is trying to reconcile its historic discrimination against the Chinese-Canadian community. As Pinki Wong reports, Burnaby City Council has greenlit a plan to offer a formal apology.‘Lost years can never be restored’: historianThe discrimination faced by Chinese Canadians in Burnaby mirrored harsh federal policies of the time. Chinese migrants who arrived in the late 1800s and early 1900s seeking a better future in Canada instead found themselves uniquely targeted by a colonial government determined to keep new immigrants out, and to restrict those who stayed after helping build the Canadian Pacific Railway.In 1872, Chinese Canadians were denied the right to vote or run for public office. In 1885, the government brought in the head tax, which rose from $50 to $500 by 1903. When the head tax failed to deter immigration, the government introduced the 1923 Exclusion Act, which banned almost all Chinese immigration to Canada. Between 1923 and 1947, fewer than 50 Chinese people were allowed into the country. For thousands of families, the impact was devastating, says Debbie Jiang, a local historian and teacher.She says Chinese workers who came to Canada were forced to be apart from loved ones for decades.“Those intergenerational trauma and dysfunction in families takes a long time to heal,” she said. “Those lost years can never be restored.”She says formal acknowledgements are important, but communities continue to live with the consequences of discriminatory laws that fractured families for decades.“I think apologies do help but there’s still a long road to restoration for individual families who suffered that kind of separation,” she said.City commits to inclusionDespite all those barriers, Hurley says Chinese Canadians built deep roots in the city and contributed extensively to its growth.“[They] were resilient,” he said. “They ran successful businesses, helped to clear land and construct railway lines, and established farms that fed Burnaby and the region.”The repealing of the Exclusion Act in 1947 marked a turning point in the rights of Chinese Canadians, according to the City of Burnaby.Burnaby city council voted in February 2023 to create an advisory committee aimed at reconciling historical discrimination against Chinese Canadians and to eventual issue a formal apology. (City of Burnaby/Facebook)By the 1960s and 1970s, there were many neighbourhood businesses operated by Chinese Canadian families, including corner stores, green grocers and restaurants. Burnaby hired its first Chinese Canadian staff member in 1953.Other municipalities in B.C. have also issued an apology for historical discrimination against members of the Chinese community, including New Westminster in 2010 and Vancouver in 2018.In 2014, the province apologized for 160 wrong and discriminatory policies and laws that targeted the Chinese community.The City of Burnaby noted the official apology followed a “months-long engagement process guided by a community advisory group.”Hurley said the apology also serves as a commitment to ensuring “this dark period of our city’s history is never repeated.””We commit to action” he said.That action, he told the meeting, will include promoting awareness of Chinese-Canadian contributions to Burnaby’s history, providing cultural competency training to city staff and providing core community safety programs in Chinese languages.ABOUT THE AUTHORShaurya Kshatri is a web writer and reporter at CBC News Vancouver. You can reach him at shaurya.kshatri@cbc.caWith files from Sophie Chevance, Vivian Luk and The Canadian Press
City of Burnaby makes formal apology for decades of discrimination against people of Chinese descent
