Before a crowd of 8,000 last Sunday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper lamented over the Komagata Maru incident, when 376 immigrants from India were effectively kept prisoner on board the Japanese steamer for two months before being turned away.

But his pseudo apology, made at the Sikh festival of Mela Gadri Babian Da in Surrey, has angered the Indo-Canadian community, who say it wasn’t nearly good enough. Insulted that Harper merely expressed regret at the cultural event, MP Ruby Dhalla and NDP Leader Jack Layton are calling on the Prime Minister to issue a complete and sincere apology once and for all.

For years, Members of Parliament and the Indo-Canadian community have been pressuring the Conservative government to formally apologize in the House of Commons. In May, B.C.’s own politicians gathered in the legislature and apologized for the racism that forced all but 22 of the passengers to travel the harrowing voyage all the way back to India in 1914.