What is the history of chinese immigration to canada?

In the late 1770s, some 120 Chinese contract labourers arrived at Nootka Sound, Vancouver Island.[1]:312 The British fur trader John Meares recruited an initial group of about 50 sailors and artisans from Canton (Guangzhou) and Macao. At Nootka Sound, the Chinese workers built a dockyard, a fort and a sailing ship, the North-West America. Regarding this journey was and the future prospects of Chinese people settlement in colonial North America, Meares wrote:

The next year, Meares had another 70 Chinese shipped from Canton. However, shortly upon arrival of this second group, the settlement was seized by the Spanish in what became known as the Nootka Crisis. The Chinese men were imprisoned by the Spanish. It is unclear what became of them[1]:312 but likely that some returned to China while others were put to work in a nearby mine [3]:196 and later brought to Mexico.[4]:106 No other Chinese are known to have arrived in western North America until the gold rush of the 1850s.

the two colonies had the earliest laws mandating religious tolerance.