Japanese Canadians have lived in Canada since the 1870s. Most of them lived in British Columbia (BC), where they worked as fishers, farmers and business owners. Racism against Asians led the BC government to ban Japanese Canadians from voting in provincial elections in 1895. This also excluded them from voting in federal elections.
When Canada was at war with Japan during the Second World War, Japanese Canadians living in BC lost other democratic rights. They were moved to internment camps and barred from voting even if they were living outside BC. It wasn’t until 1948 that Japanese Canadians were granted full federal voting rights.
In the years that followed, Japanese Canadians advocated for an apology. In 1988, the federal government formally apologized for past injustices.
