June Chow
The proper to know via Canada’s Entry to Info Act and the suitable to private privateness beneath the Privateness Act cling in perpetual steadiness at our nationwide archives. In 2021, an ATIP request submitted to Library and Archives Canada (LAC) sought to open a set of historic authorities information that remained Restricted inside its Chinese language Immigration information collection, particularly, C.I. 44 varieties and index playing cards. The one centesimal anniversary of the passing of the 1923 Chinese language Exclusion Act (formally, the Chinese language Immigration Act, 1923) was quick approaching; members of the Chinese language Canadian neighborhood have been all too conscious of what number of recollections of this previous had already been misplaced via the generations. This put up gives an in depth, firsthand account of how a neighborhood labored with its nationwide archives to open racist authorities information wanted to grasp and confront this historical past. It reveals how a neighborhood’s company, self-determination, and proper to recollect its previous can transfer an establishment to motion.
The historical past of the Chinese language Exclusion Act sought to be advised via these it excluded from entry and participation in Canadian society beneath Vancouver-based curator, Catherine Clement. Her exhibition, The Paper Path to the 1923 Chinese language Exclusion Act, was deliberate to open in 2023 for the 100-year anniversary of the passing of the laws. By 2021, analysis was effectively underway together with a seek for authentic information.
Whereas Chinese language immigration information exist in abundance at LAC, they largely characterize the racist actions and beliefs of the federal authorities. When head tax and different Chinese language immigration (C.I.) certificates that had been issued to people within the authentic surfaced en masse in the course of the head tax redress marketing campaign, researchers anticipated that they might convey the lived expertise of state management on households and people. Opposite to this perception, surviving certificates held in the neighborhood revealed deep silences and omissions. Descendants inherited the information with out the flexibility to interpret them, nor did they’ve recourse to the recollections of their ancestors whose lives had been captured in these paperwork as much as three or 4 generations in the past.
Among the many certificates that surfaced, a sample emerged. The importance of frequent references to “Part 18” and 1923/1924 dates of creation grew to become clear when the descendant of Dere Mee Gim introduced ahead their C.I. 30 certificates, together with a duplicate of her C.I. 44 registration type. Is that this something?, the household questioned. It was. Whereas Part 18 of the Chinese language Immigration Act, 1923 outlined the necessary registration of each Chinese language particular person residing in Canada inside twelve months, the C.I. 44 varieties that recorded “each particular person of Chinese language origin or descent in Canada” had by no means been seen.
On the time of this discovery, the C.I. 44s at LAC have been Restricted by regulation. On the time, there was little or no in the way in which of archival description that might assist a researcher perceive the information or what info they contained. The outline learn:
Scope and content material: The sub-series consists of documentation associated to registrations made beneath Part 18 of the Chinese language Immigration Act of 1923. Every registration was documented in a one-page Chinese language Immigration C.I. 44 type. The sub-series consists of C.I. 44 certificates (microfilmed), the corresponding index card system (microfilmed), and an inventory of people who registered as native-born beneath Part 18 of the Act.
Our analysis staff for The Paper Path moved to make these information public. I used to be a pupil within the Grasp of Archival Research program on the UBC College of Info and used a category task in my FIPPA course to submit the ATIP request asking for launch of the restricted C.I. 44 information. Collectively, Clement and I additionally wrote a letter addressed to Leslie Weir, the Librarian and Archivist of Canada, that outlined the neighborhood’s must have entry to the information. It urged LAC to behave rapidly to make sure the information may contribute to our exhibition analysis, and be made publicly accessible in time for the Chinese language Exclusion Act commemoration on July 1, 2023. Retired Supreme Courtroom Justice Randall Wong, the primary Chinese language Canadian federally appointed decide and a director of the brand new Chinese language Canadian Museum the place the exhibition was to be hosted, signed the letter, which carried endorsements each by members of the Chinese language Canadian neighborhood and members of the archival occupation.
Weir’s response to our letter acknowledged the urgency of the request and guaranteed us that we’d hear from LAC’s ATIP and Litigation Response staff, who would be capable to assist us perceive and negotiate choices for reviewing and opening the C.I. 44 information. In session with this staff, we realized that a normal method to opening the information beneath Canada’s Entry to Info Act and Privateness Act would supply entry to information of 58,000 Chinese language individuals in Canada; nevertheless, every document can be closely redacted given the intensive quantity of private info they contained. These outcomes would serve neither celebration effectively, with restricted entry for the neighborhood and quite a lot of labour for LAC. LAC recommended that it might be extra useful to formally abandon the ATIP request and as an alternative pursue a course of referred to as block evaluation. In block evaluation, blocks or collection of archived authorities information are systematically reviewed utilizing sampling methods to find out whether or not information may be proactively opened for public entry. Consultant information throughout the collection are recognized and examined for threat related to the age of the document and the subject material.
This selection sounded extra promising. Clement and I offered LAC analysts with Dere Mee Gim’s C.I. 44 document, and cited authorities information that include the same extent of private info as examples of information already opened: C.I. 9 information of journey throughout the Chinese language immigration collection; and information of Gained Alexander Cumyow and his household within the 1921 census. Six information throughout the C.I. 44 document set have been sampled beneath the block evaluation. Threat was deemed highest associated to those that have been Canadian-born minor youngsters on the time of registration, those that have been institutionalized in asylums, and people who have been deported because of the registration course of.
Nonetheless, LAC deemed that the dangers have been outweighed by the potential advantages. Findings of the block evaluation allowed the information to be opened in November 2021, just some months after the unique ATIP request was submitted. The 29 microfilm reels have been digitized by LAC and our staff supplied with a analysis copy of the pictures. The photographs have been additionally offered by LAC to its companions to assist facilitate on-line digital entry in time for neighborhood commemoration. Via LAC’s partnership agreements, the Canadian Analysis Data Community (CRKN) added the newly opened information to its Héritage Canadiana assortment, and FamilySearch and Ancestry transcribed the document set and added it and its pictures to their respective websites as a brand new family tree useful resource. Up thus far, our work with LAC was largely via its employees primarily based in Ottawa and Gatineau. Its regional workplace in Vancouver, nevertheless, allowed for the chance of a pupil place inside LAC to additional steer the C.I. 44 information via the establishment and its many groups and departments concerned in guaranteeing information entry. Funding from the UBC College of Info paid for me to spend 3 months at LAC main as much as July 1st. Among the many instruments I created to introduce the newly out there C.I. 44 information have been a blogpost, an up to date document description with discovering support, and a analysis information to be used by CRKN.
Because the July 1, 2023 commemoration, the work of neighborhood members and LAC has been ongoing to enhance entry to the C.I. 44s effectively past their opening, together with to associated Chinese language immigration information. Whereas a lot stays untapped of their analysis potential, the C.I. 44 information have been fulfilling probably the most urgent want for family tree and the restoration of misplaced or silenced ancestors.
For now, this account seeks to show the lengths a neighborhood will go to entry its personal information wanted to grasp its personal historical past—and the way its nationwide archives should reply. It reveals how it’s attainable for communities and establishments to work collectively when fairness is centred and a neighborhood’s proper to recollect its previous is acknowledged and revered. It’s hoped that classes proceed to be realized by each events from this shared expertise.
June Chow is an archivist, archival scholar and award-winning heritage employee practising throughout Chinese language Canadian communities and specializing within the histories and up to date challenges of Chinatown neighbourhoods. This blogpost is customized from a paper presently beneath peer evaluation with Archivaria, The Journal of the Affiliation of Canadian Archivists (ACA), and accepted for presentation on the 2025 ACA convention. June has been archivist of The Paper Path to the 1923 Chinese language Exclusion Act for the previous 5 years. She presently works at College of Toronto Libraries in its Richard Charles Lee Chinese language Canadian Archives.
Sources
June Chow, “New to Chinese language Canadian family tree: C.I. 44 information of registration,” https://thediscoverblog.com/2023/06/29/new-to-chinese-canadian-genealogy-c-i-44-records-of-registration/.
The Paper Path assortment (RBSC-ARC-1838), UBC Library Uncommon Books and Particular Collections, College of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, https://rbscarchives.library.ubc.ca/paper-trail-collection
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