Kew Dock Yip and the Chinese Exclusion Act plaque, 2022.  

Plaque Text

The 1923 Chinese Immigration Act, also known as the Chinese Exclusion Act, banned nearly all Chinese immigration to Canada. The Exclusion Act followed decades of high taxes designed to restrict Chinese migration. In 1947, lawyers Kew Dock Yip (1906-2001) and Irving Himel (1915-2001) successfully lobbied the Canadian government to repeal the Chinese Exclusion Act.

Early Chinese migrants to Canada came to British Columbia during the 1858 Fraser River Gold Rush and in the 1880s for the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway. In 1885, Canada passed a law that limited Chinese immigrants and placed a substantial "head tax" on new arrivals. The tax increased until 1903, when it reached $500, the equivalent of several years' wages. In 1923, the Chinese Exclusion Act effectively banned all Chinese immigration.

Kew Dock Yip, born in Vancouver, British Columbia, was the first lawyer of Chinese descent licensed to practise law in Canada. Yip and Irving Himel, who served with Yip in the army reserves, committed to repeal the Exclusion Act. They set up a team of activists that lobbied the federal government for over a year until the law's removal in 1947.

Yip served Toronto's Chinese community for 40 years through his law office on Elizabeth Street, in particular helping reunite families. In 1998, the Law Society of Upper Canada awarded him the Law Society Medal for outstanding service.