Out Loud: Politics of apology

published by Asianpost on Wed, 04/02/2008 - 11:09

by Gurpreet Singh

 




Carole James


With an eye on next year’s provincial election — and tens of thousands of potential votes from within B.C.’s Indo-Canadian community — B.C. opposition leader Carole James announced at a Surrey press conference with ethnic media last week that if elected the NDP will have the B.C. assembly formally apologize for that injustice.

 

 









Raj Chouhan

In fact, her party colleague Raj Chouhan, who is also a human rights critic in the NDP shadow cabinet, moved a private member’s bill last year in the legislature seeking an apology on the centenary of the disfranchisement. Since the government has not apologized so far, James said in the presence of Chouhan and other Indo-Canadian MLAs that her party is committed to that apology if elected.


The right to vote was restored after years of struggle on April 2, 1947, the same year India won its independence from the British. The anniversary of the restoration of the right to vote falls this week.


Although the NDP accuses the Liberals of displaying arrogance over this issue, the NDP has also governed B.C. in the past. Ironically, the last NDP government in B.C. was headed by an Indo-Canadian premier, Ujjal Dosanjh, yet the party ignored the call for an apology.


Even last year, the NDP was forced to issue statements acknowledging the contributions made by different participants in the struggle for Indians’ right to vote following harsh criticism from the ethnic media.


Both the Liberals and the NDP were blasted for ignoring the heroes of the struggle. Among them was Maher Singh Sandhu, who passed away last year. He was one of a few surviving participants of that historic struggle.


Although there are eight MLAs, three MPs and over a dozen city councilors of Indian origin in B.C., none showed up at Sandhu’s funeral.


Apart from this apology, an apology for the Komagata Maru episode of 1914 is still awaited while a new demand for an apology for the bad handling of the Air India bombing investigation is gaining ground.


Let’s admit that the Canadian establishment has discriminated against  people of colour, women and aboriginals in the past. All parties should stop politicizing these matters and instead focus on lessons learned from history and find ways not to repeat the mistakes of the past. 

 

South Asian Post columnist Gurpreet Singh is a talk show host with Radio India (1600 AM). His program airs each weekday from 10 am-noon and every Sunday’s from 8:30 am-10am.
 

 

 

 
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