Heritage Toronto

Chinese labourers at work on the Canadian Pacific Railway, British Columbia, 1884. Courtesy of Library and Archives Canada.

Head Tax document for Chin Ng, Ottawa, March 16, 1918. Courtesy of Toronto Public Library.

Chinese Railroad Workers Memorial looking west, Toronto, circa 1990. Courtesy of the City of Toronto Archives.

Chinese Railroad Workers Memorial, Toronto, July 11, 2022.

Chinese Railway Workers Memorial

Work on the railroads

The first true railway to be built in Canada was the Champlain and Saint Lawrence portage railway in Quebec which opened in July of 1836. By the 1850s, several companies began working on smaller railroads. But, Canadians eagerly awaited the construction of a transcontinental railway, known as the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). The line would connect British Columbia to the Eastern Provinces. Much of the land used to build the CPR fell on Indigenous treaty lands.

During the stretch of construction between 1881 and 1885, CPR employed over 17,000 Chinese labourers to work on the railway. The company gave these workers the most dangerous tasks; for example, labourers were often forced to work at dangerous heights with little to no safety equipment. Due to these working conditions, many workers lost their lives during construction of the railway and were often buried in unmarked graves along the railway line. To this day, the number of deaths is unknown, with estimates ranging from 700 to 4,000.

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Chinese Railway Workers Memorial

Changes to immigration policy

Following the completion of the CPR in 1885, the Canadian government enacted the Chinese head tax, which made it extremely difficult for Chinese individuals to immigrate to Canada. In 1923, this was followed by the Chinese Exclusion Act, which effectively banned Chinese immigration altogether for several decades. This series of legislation had enormous effects on the Chinese community in Canada, with many families forced apart.

Although the government abolished the Exclusion Act in 1947, immigration to Canada from China remained difficult until the 1960s when the government reformed its immigration policies. In 2006, Prime Minister Stephen Harper officially apologised on behalf of the Canadian government for the harm that the head tax and other racist immigration policies had on Canada’s Chinese communities.

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Chinese Railway Workers Memorial

Creating the monument

In 1982, a group of Chinese Canadians created the Foundation to Commemorate the Chinese Railroad Workers in Canada (FCCRWC). The foundation’s aim was to help preserve the history of Chinese railroad workers in Canada and educate the public about the issues that the Chinese community faced. With the help of the city, they put together a plan for the Chinese Railway Workers Memorial. Eldon Garnet designed the monument and completed the project in 1989.

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Chinese Railway Workers Memorial

A monumental legacy

The Chinese Railway Workers Memorial continues to be an important spot in Toronto for the Chinese community. Every year on July 1, the FCCRWC has a rededication ceremony for the memorial. Over the years the memorial has also become a symbol of worker’s rights in Canada. On April 27, 1990, the Canadian Labour Congress chose the site to hold their annual Day of Mourning. Over 1000 labourers congregated beside the monument to commemorate those that had been hurt or killed in workplace-related injuries.

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Chinese Railway Workers Memorial

Additional resources

Asian Heritage Society, “Chinese Labour on the Canadian Pacific Railway”, 2019.

City of Toronto, Chinese Railroad Workers Memorial, ArtworxTO, 2022.

Matthew McRae, “The Chinese head tax and the Chinese Exclusion Act”, Canadian Museum of human Rights, 2022.

“The Ties That Bind Project”, presented by the Foundation to Commemorate the Chinese Railroad Workers in Canada, 2010.

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Chinese Railway Workers Memorial

Work on the railroads

Chinese Railway Workers Memorial

Changes to immigration policy

Chinese Railway Workers Memorial

Creating the monument

Chinese Railway Workers Memorial

A monumental legacy

Chinese Railway Workers Memorial

Additional resources

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