North Cowichan council wants to see the Old Hillcrest Chinese Cemetery, located at 6119 Payne Rd., designated as a Cowichan Valley Regional District Historical Site.
Council voted unanimously at its meeting on Sept. 17 to write a letter of support to the CVRD for the 80-year-old cemetery, which is already a Provincial Historic Site, to become a historical site in the district.
There are 127 Chinese Canadians buried in the cemetery who were instrumental to the forestry industry in the Cowichan Valley and throughout B.C.
It was formally established in 1945, when Carlton Stone, the founder and owner of Hillcrest Lumber Co., transferred 9.38 acres of land at the Old Hillcrest Sawmill in Sahtlam for the purpose of burying Chinese labourers, who were a marginalized group in the province at the time and most had no family nearby to care for them in life or death.
Coun. Mike Caljouw, who introduced the motion to write the letter of support to the CVRD, said the cemetery is a vital part of community heritage in the Cowichan Valley and reflects the contribution and struggles of Chinese residents who played an important role in the history of the region.
“Recognizing the site would honour their legacy and ensure their stories are not forgotten, and demonstrates our commitment to an inclusive and respectful understanding of local history,” Caljouw said.
“I think by designating it a historical site would help protect it for future generations and provide the recognition it deserves as a place of cultural and historical significance.”
Enacted in 1923, the Chinese Immigration Act, also known as the Chinese Exclusion Act, barred immigration from China and one of the most far-reaching effects of the law was the prolonged separation of families, as those already residing in Canada were prevented from sponsoring spouses, children, or other relatives. As a result, many Chinese immigrants lived and died as bachelors, not by choice but by the weight of discriminatory laws and systemic exclusion.
After the repeal of the Chinese Immigration Act in 1947, diasporic Chinese people in Canada could finally obtain citizenship and slowly begin the challenging process of family reunification, and the cemetery is seen as marking a critical historical threshold between these two periods.
