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Komagata Maru: History repeating
The Canadian parliament has yet to make history by formally apologizing for the Komagata Maru episode. The vessel full of Indian passengers was turned away from the Vancouver coastline in 1914 under the discriminatory Continuous Journey Law, which was passed to discourage Indian immigrants from entering Canada.
It was a Conservative government that forced the Komagata Maru ship to leave after remaining stranded for two months in Burrard Inlet following its arrival May 23, 1914 with 376 passengers aboard.
Ironically, the secretary of state for multiculturalism in the present Conservative government, Jason Kenney, visited Surrey this past weekend to announce that his government intends to apologize for that incident.
When and where, he did not say.
While the Conservatives have yet to pick a date to apologize, it does credit the Tory government that its Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, has already apologized in parliament for the Chinese Head Tax.
The demand for a formal apology for the Maru episode has continued to grow in the Indo-Canadian community since that overture. A petition seeking an apology was first presented in the House of Commons by the former Indo-Canadian Conservative MP, Gurmant Grewal.
The Liberals now in opposition and asking the government to apologize were ruling the country at that time. Despite claiming to be immigrant friendly, the Liberals disregarded the petition.
Significantly, the Continuous Journey Law was passed by the Liberals to please the white majority of the past.
There is nothing uncommon about reconciliation measures governments often undertake to correct historical wrongs. However, what is more important is to learn lessons from history and not to repeat the mistakes of the past.
But the Conservatives are doing just the opposite. They are not only repeating old mistakes, but are also making the immigration process more complicated.
Having already annoyed the Indo-Canadian community by not granting entry to Canada to Laiber Singh, a paralyzed failed refugee claimant, on humanitarian grounds, the Conservatives’ move to tighten immigration rules may make family reunification difficult – as in the past.
The opposition Liberal Party has also failed to safeguard the interests of immigrants by refusing to bring the minority Conservative government down over the proposed changes.
Today’s Conservative government should learn from the past and its discrimatory laws instead of making hollow symbolic gestures to appease visible minorities. All the while diverting their attention from the real issues, like regressive immigration ammendments and mandatory language testing for English-speaking immigrants.
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