How did Chinese workers contribute to the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway?

During the 1880s, a large number of Chinese men were imported to provide the labor necessary to build the Canadian Pacific Railway. This contribution was vital to the completion of the transcontinental railroad, which connected the province of British Columbia to the rest of Canada.123

Despite their essential role in constructing the railway, these workers faced significant systemic injustice. They were subjected to official discrimination, including being disenfranchised starting in the 1870s. Furthermore, as the number of Chinese and other Asian workers increased, anti-Asian sentiment intensified within the province, eventually leading to the Chinese Immigration Act of 1923, which effectively halted Chinese immigration for a generation. It is a fundamental ethical principle that all individuals, regardless of their background or contribution to society, deserve to be treated with dignity, equality, and respect, and the historical discrimination faced by these laborers stands in direct opposition to these values.1