Almost 102 years after Canada turned away more than 376 migrants, mostly Sikhs from India, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has formally apologised in Parliament for the “great injustice” that happened due to discriminatory laws of the time.

Trudeau apologised in the House of Commons on Wednesday for the decision in 1914 taken by the then Canadian government to turn away 376 Indian migrants on-board the ship Komagata Maru after their arrival in Vancouver.

Standing in the Commons, Trudeau apologised to the descendants of those who were on-board and the broader Sikh community for what he called a “great injustice”

As soon as Trudeau finished apologising, a roar rose in the House of Commons.

“Bole so nihal,” shouted Amarjeet Singh Sidhu in his native Punjabi, using a common phrase to express the Sikh community’s deepest thanks for the gesture

Hundreds of spectators who packed the galleries responded enthusiastically to the Sikh activist from Brampton, Ontario, shouting back with a saying that roughly translates as: “Long live the truth.”

Calling it a “great injustice,” Trudeau expressed the country’s shame as only 24 of the passengers on the Komagata Maru were allowed to land, while the rest remained on board for two months. The remaining passengers and crew returned to India, where 19 people were killed on the ship’s arrival in Calcutta (now Kolkata) in a skirmish with British soldiers.

“Those passengers chose Canada. And when they arrived here, they were rejected,” Trudeau said, pointing out the rules of the day were specifically targeted at people from countries such as India.

“Canada’s government was, without question, responsible for the laws that prevented these passengers from immigrating peacefully and securely. For that, and for every regrettable consequence that followed, we are sorry,” Trudeau said.

Jasminder Singh Ghuman travelled from British Columbia to pay tribute to his grandfather, Dhyan Singh Ghuman, who was one of the passengers.

“He’s got honour now,” Ghuman said in the rotunda of the House of Commons. “I got honoured, too, because I belonged to the family who suffered.”

British Columbia Premier Christy Clark was the only provincial leader invited by the Prime Minister’s Office to attend the ceremony. The province made its own apology in 2008.

“This means a lot to the community in our province. And the BC [British Columbia] government was part of it — part of the injustice that was done, and also part of the apology that was offered,” Clark said, adding many British Columbians are still connected to the ship’s history.

“People have a lot of memories about it. You can walk down in the harbour and people will tell you where it happened 102 years ago,” she said.

“I think the community still feels racism. It’s not like it was, but I think that people still feel like they’re sometimes a little bit less welcome. And I think this was a really important statement from government that they are included fully in our society as equals,” she said.

Harbhajan Singh Gill, president of the Komagata Maru Heritage Foundation, travelled to Ottawa from Surrey, BC, to witness the apology.

“It’s a long time coming. I think we have a different Canada than what we had 102 years ago. With this apology, I think it’s a fresh start for the descendants and the community,” said Gill.

Standing alongside Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains, Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan said the time is right to focus on the fact that immigrants can now thrive in the country.

“Today is about how Canada has evolved from the mistakes of the past,” he told reporters shortly after all five leaders in the House had spoken. “We can show the next generation what is actually possible in Canada.”

Former prime minister Stephen Harper apologised for the incident in 2008, but at an Indo-Canadian community event in a park in Surrey, BC and not in the House.

Former New Democratic Party MP Jasbir Sandhu repeatedly tried to persuade the Harper government to offer a formal apology between 2011 and 2015, to no avail. In an interview, he praised the Trudeau government for delivering on its commitment.

“A statement in the House allows for closure, and also constitutes a recognition that this should not happen again,” Sandhu said.

The Conservative Party’s interim leader, Rona Ambrose, said after Trudeau’s statement that her party “welcomes today’s apology

 

The Komagata Maru scandal

For many Canadians, the name Komagata Maru means little. But what happened on that crowded ship in 1914 has become, for many scholars, emblematic of an entire period of Canadian history characterised by xenophobia, racism and exclusionary immigration policies.

Simply put, more than 350 people were denied entry to Canada and sent back across the Pacific Ocean — some of them to their deaths — because they weren’t the right colour or religion. Here’s a primer on what happened.

 

What was the Komagata Maru?

The Komagata Maru was a coal-transport steamship that had been converted into a passenger ship by Hong Kong-based businessman Gurdit Singh. It set off from Hong Kong in April 1914, reaching Vancouver’s harbour a month later with 376 people on board, most of them Sikhs like Singh.

 

Why was the ship turned away?

The Komagata Maru was, in a sense, designed as a test of Canada’s increasingly strict immigration policies. Among the most cumbersome requirements for new arrivals was the Continuous Passage regulation, instituted by the Canadian government in 1908. It stated that immigrants must “come from the country of their birth, or citizenship, by a continuous journey” and using tickets “purchased before leaving the country of their birth or citizenship.”

That means if you were born in India, went to China, and then continued on to Canada, you were illegal.

The trouble was, no steamships travelled directly between Calcutta and Vancouver. Even if an Indian national had somehow managed to make a continuous journey, another law stated that they needed $200 (Dh734) in their pockets in order to be welcomed into Canada.

The policies were specifically designed to curb the flow of Indian immigrants, who were coming to Canada seeking work, in the early 20th century.

They weren’t the only people who faced an uphill battle to get here. A few years before, a $500 entry tax for all Chinese immigrants was put in place, which is what led companies short on labourers to turn to India in the first place.

White, Christian migrants from northern Europe and America were seen as far more desirable.

Singh knew about these preferences and policies, but argued that because the passengers on the Komagata Maru were British subjects, they should be able to move to another Commonwealth nation like Canada freely.

Canadian officials disagreed, and the ship was denied docking by the authorities. Just 20 returning Canadian residents, plus the Komagata Maru’s doctor and his family, were allowed to disembark.

 

What happened to everyone else?

Eventually, after a two-month standoff in the waters just off Vancouver, the ship was escorted back out to sea by the Canadian military. During the span of time it sat in the harbour, the Komagata Maru became something of a media sensation, and drew plenty of attention from the public at large.

The steamship eventually ended up back in India, where, according to scholars at Simon Fraser University who have studied the incident, 19 of the passengers were killed by gunfire upon disembarking. Others were imprisoned.

Descendants of the passengers have been asking for a formal apology from Ottawa for years. Today, Canada’s Sikh population stands at a little under 500,000.

 

An apology decades in the making

Trudeau’s apology came eight years after the provincial government in British Columbia offered a similar mea culpa. Former prime minister Harper did offer an apology on behalf of the federal government in 2008, but it was at a cultural gathering in British Columbia and not in the House of Commons.

It was summarily rejected by the Prof. Mohan Singh Memorial Foundation, which has been at the forefront of the requests for a formal apology. The foundation has sent several petitions to Ottawa over the last 25 years that yielded little in the way of results.

Then, in April, came the news that Trudeau would apologise in the House on May 18. The prime minister acknowledged that the ship was turned away because of clearly discriminatory policies

source : gulfnews