City of Vancouver sets date for Chinese apology

Civic officials in the west coast Canadian city of Vancouver have set date for a ceremony to issue a formal apology to the city's Chinese community for historical wrongs, reports Ming Pao, a Canadian newspaper. 

Vancouver's civic leaders set to apologize for past discrimination against Chinese residents. [File photo: singtao.ca]

An apology ceremony will be held on April 22, 2018 in the city's Chinatown district in the downtown region of Vancouver.

The apology will be conducted in English, Cantonese, and Toishanese, which is a Chinese dialect spoken by the majority of Chinese immigrants who first arrived in Vancouver in the late 18th Century.

In addition, a series of cultural activities are to be held following the ceremony.

Chinese people started migrating to the province of British Columbia in 1788, eventually making up ten percent of the province's population by 1901.

However, from 1886 to 1948, Chinese residents were not allowed to vote in civic elections.

Today, an estimated one-third of Vancouver's population has an ethnic Chinese background.