Chinese Railroad Workers Memorial

The Canadian Pacific Railway, built between 1880 and 1885, was the country’s first transcontinental railroad. Running from Lake Nipissing in Eastern Ontario westward through the Canadian Rockies to the coast of British Columbia, it helped unite the country and was crucial for the development of Western Canada. This could not have happened without the labor and sacrifice of the thousands of Chinese immigrants that worked on the railroad. When British Columbia joined the Confederation in 1871 one of the conditions was that a railway be built to connect the new province to the Eastern part of Canada within 10 years. Between 1880 and 1885, 17000 men emigrated from China, most form the province of Kwangtung (Guangdong). By some estimates, more than 4,000 workers died during the construction. Faced with discrimination, the immigrants often had the most dangerous jobs in the already dangerous task of blasting through the Rocky Mountains to lay the Western section of the track. They were killed by landslides, cave-ins, disease, and explosions. Despite this, the Chinese were paid half as much as the other workers. The Chinese Railroad Workers Memorial in Toronto was erected to commemorate the contribution and sacrifice of these workers, who remained nameless in the history of Canada. After the railroad was complete many of the immigrants that survived could not find new jobs. Erected in 1989 and designed by Eldon Garnet and Franicis LeBouthillier, the monument is a sculpture of two railroad workers lifting timber and using pulleys and ropes. The boulders at the base are from the Canadian Rockies, and you can commonly find wreaths at the foot of the memorial.