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1880

1880

Birth of Vancouver's Japantown

Powell Street was once home to Canada's largest Japanese neighbourhood

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1881

Construction Begins on CPR

Following scandal and threats to secede, work finally starts on the transcontinental railway

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1881

Chinese Railway Workers

17,000 Chinese immigrants work on Canada's transcontinental railway

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1881

Nisga’a Challenge Land Loss

Chief Mountain’s visit to Victoria kicks off a century-long land rights campaign

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1884

Residential Schools

Canada makes residential schools official policy, setting the stage for more than a century of cultural genocide

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1884

James Teit

An amateur ethnographer becomes a passionate early advocate for Indigenous rights

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1884

Potlatch Ban Introduced

Federal government amends Indian Act, forbidding an important Indigenous practice

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1885

The Chinese Head Tax

In 1885, the head tax was set at $50. By 1903, it was $500

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1886

CPR Ends in Vancouver

A railway transforms a fledgling town called Granville into B.C.'s largest city

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1886

The Great Vancouver Fire

Not one year old, an emerging city goes up in flames

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1887

Stanley Park Established

The creation of one of Canada's largest urban parks displaced scores of longtime residents

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1888

Chinatown's Unofficial Mayor

Yip Sang flees China and makes a name for himself in Canada's Pacific province

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1888

Indigenous Lose Fishing Rights

New rules allow settler canneries to prosper at the expense of Indigenous fishers

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