Calling Power to Account: Law, Reparations, and the Chinese Head
Tax Case, David Dyzenhaus and May Moran, eds., Toronto: University of
Toronto Press, 2005, pp. 471.This is a collection of fifteen essays that addresses different
aspects of the Chinese head tax case. Edited by two law professors and
written mostly by lawyers and law professors, the collection has a strong
legal flavour. The book begins with the legal case of Mack vs.
Attorney General of Canada. However, the book does not provide a
succinct summary of the case. In brief, the case involves three Chinese
Canadians, Shack Jang Mack, Quen Ying Lee and Yew Lee, filing a statement
of claim through their attorney in December, 2000, in a class action on
behalf of head tax payers in the Ontario Superior Court. In all, the case
went through three courts, and the original ruling dismissing the claim of
head tax payers was upheld by the Court of Appeal and the Supreme
Court.