26 January 2006
Last Spike Embodies Community's Desire to Right Wrongs of Past
Stashed in the bottom of a filing cabinet in Avvy Go's law office is a rusty piece of metal that
symbolizes the Chinese-Canadian community's struggle to resolve the head tax issue.
The year before his death in 2004, iconic writer Pierre Berton donated the 120-year-old railway spike to the redress
campaign, lead by the Chinese Canadian National Council, which has been asking the federal government to apologize and compensate the
surviving payees and their families since 1984.
Go, counsel for the Ontario Coalition for Chinese Head Tax Payers and Families, contacted Berton and other prominent Canadians, such as
June Callwood and Margaret Atwood, seeking their endorsement of the community's push for restitution for the discriminatory tax, which
was imposed in 1885 to stem the flow of Chinese immigrants who were no longer needed to build the county's transcontinental railroad.
About 81,000 Chinese paid a total of $23 million in head tax - ranging from $50 to $500 each - to come to Canada until 1923, when the
Chinese Exclusion Act barred all but a handful of Chinese immigrants to Canada. That legislation was repealed in 1947.
Berton, a noted historian and author of The Last Spike, chronicling the building of the Canadian Pacific Railroad, received the spike
memento from the Craighellachie, B.C., site where the track was completed on 7 Nov 1885.
"I had no idea he had a spike," Go recalls. "Actually he had two. He said he used one as a doorstop and if he could find
the other, he would give it to me."
"He was very friendly," adds GO, reflecting on her meeting with the legendary writer. "He came all dressed in a suit and
bowtie and allowed us to film an interview with him, talking about the racism the Chinese railway workers faced, and giving us his
support."
Since then, The Last Spike - the memento has the same name as the book - has accompanied Go and other redress advocates on their
crusade, which peaked during the federal election with all four political parties making varying overtures for apology and compensation
for the first time.
Enclosed in glass case, the six-inch-long spike has been an honoured guest at lunches, meetings and commemorative events
of head tax payers and their supporters across the country.
But travelling with the artefact is a challenge, given the airlines' strict post-9/11 safety measures.
"I didn't want to put it in my luggage," said Go, "so I had the CCNC give me a letter explaining its significance so I
could carry it on board.
"Usually, there's no problem, but, once, I was flying from Calgary to Edmonton and the security officer made me take it out
because he said it could be used as a weapon.
"But it's not even sharp. Its only value is historic. I had to check it and, by the time we landed, the case was broken. We had to
replace the cover."
Most recently, the spike showed up at the 120th anniversary of the completion of the railway at the Chinese Railroad Workers monument
at Front St. and Spadina Ave.
Also in attendance was Jim Pon, chair of The Foundation to Commemorate Chinese Railroad Workers in Canada, who led the initiative to
erect the memorial in 1989.
The 88-year-old retired engineer, who immigrated to Canada in 1922 at age 5, is one of about 200 surviving head tax payers.
He would like to see the spike retired to a railway museum, along with other memorabilia, such as shovels, boots and clothing, now
stored in CPR's Montreal warehouse.
Pon's paternal grandfather was one of the 17,000 Chinese who came from famine-ravaged China to tunnel and lay tracks
through the Rockies, connecting British Columbia to the east after that province threatened to join the U.S. About 4,000 Chinese men
died due to the dangerous working conditions, exhaustion and scurvy.
"The Last Spike has my grandfather's history in it," says Pon. "He said it was a pretty rough time. The Chinese made
only half of the $1.50 a day that the white workers made, and they had to pay for food and accommodations out of that. Chinese lives
were cheap.
"It's an ugly chapter in Canadian history."
Go, who began working on redress as a 1988 CCNC law student, says an expression of regret would ideally be accompanied with a
compensation package that could fund a museum.
However, she explains, the immediate goal is a formal apology in the House of Commons and repayment to surviving payees and their
widows.
Prior to the election, the Liberal government signed a $2.5-million "no-apology-no-compensation"
deal with the National Congress of Chinese Canadians.
Doug Hum, a retired community development worker whose father paid the head tax, would like the spike to find a permanent home. He
believes it's an important symbol for young Canadians.
"They need something tangible that they can see, so they understand this history," said the 65-year-old father
of two, recalling his 21-year-old son's reaction to the spike.
"He thought it was kind of wild that there in front of him was this thing that nailed the country together."
Editor: Is this how silly myths get started? The "Last Spike" was driven at Craigellachie by Donald Smith, the
most senior director of the Canadian Pacific Railway present at the ceremony, around nine in the morning of 7 Nov 1885. His
effort to hammer the spike home, a plain iron spike by the way, not a fancy gold one, bent the spike. It was picked up by another person
there who presented it to Smith (Lord Strathcona) who subsequently had it made into a broach for his wife. I seriously doubt Pierre
Berton owned the "Last Spike". This is the history as I know it, if I'm wrong would some knowledgeable reader please correct
me.
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