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CA-K165History

Chinese workers who built the CPR in British Columbia

The Memorial to Commemorate the Chinese Railroad Workers in Canada, Toronto, by Eldon Garnet and Francis LeBouthillier, photographed in 2008.
The Memorial to Commemorate the Chinese Railroad Workers in Canada, Toronto, by Eldon Garnet and Francis LeBouthillier, photographed in 2008. "Memorial to Commemorate the Chinese Railroad Workers in Canada" by Eldon Garnet and Francis LeBouthillier (2612739371) · Shaun Merritt · Photo source · Photo licence: CC BY 2.0. Resized for display; item previews may be cropped. The image remains under the licence shown.
Factual accuracy review: No recorded challenge

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In the early 1880s, thousands of labourers from China helped build the Canadian Pacific Railway through British Columbia’s mountains; about three-quarters of the men on the section between the Pacific and Craigellachie were Chinese. They were paid a dollar a day, half a white worker’s pay, and hundreds died from accidents or illness.

Scope & context

The workers’ role and conditions, not the last spike (see CA-K054) or the head tax (see CA-K035).

Sources behind this record

1