The Opium War, and the opium trade proper between China and Great Britain lead to the development of sinophobic ideals surrounding the Chinese. As a result, Chinese immigration into countries such as Canada, as well as their integration into Canadian societies was immensely difficult within the years to follow. In 1885, British Columbia's local legislature passed a bill to prevent Chinese immigration. The bill imposed a fine of "$50 or six months imprisonment on any Chinaman not a previous resident who attempts to enter British Columbia." Canadians saw the Chinese as one of the greatest threats to national prosperity; they were viewed as figures of economic, social, and cultural destruction. .
Canadians believed the Chinese were embodiments of social destruction. In a letter written by Emily Murphy, famously known as a Canadian woman's rights activist, to the Magistrate she described the Chinese as drug peddlers whose "habit forming drugs are destroying and enslaving a steadily increasing number of our people." In her letter, Murphy explicitly associates the Chinese with opium claiming, "they waste up their good money for smoking opiums and so let their families, such as their father, mother, sisters, and young brothers starving at China. Murphy's letter reflects the negative connotations placed on the Chinese race entirely, as well as the fear that they would negatively influence the Canadian population. Murphy states a story she heard from a man, wherein he states how "Chinese peddlers taunted him with their superiority at being able to sell the dope without using it, and by telling him how the yellow race would rule the world". There was no doubt in her mind that the Chinese were the downfall of the white race by means of social corruption. She says in referring to the Chinese, "if he brings poisoned lollipops in his pocket and feeds them to our children, it might seem wise to put him out".
