The Indian community in Canada has renewed a decades-old demand for an official apology from the government here for the 1914 'Komagata Maru incident'.
TORONTO: The Indian community in Canada has renewed a decades-old demand for an official apology from the government here for the 1914 'Komagata Maru incident', in which hundreds of Indian migrants were prevented from entering the country and sent back.
The Komagata Maru was a passenger ship that arrived in Vancouver in May 1914 carrying 376 migrants from Punjab. The passengers were not allowed to disembark and were eventually sent back to India.
The Indian community has for decades been demanding an apology from the government. And hopes were raised last fall when the Conservative party launched a series of consultations within the community to establish what sort of recognition could be offered on the incident.
But after consultations were concluded, a report by Conservative MP Jim Abbott in March said "there was no consensus or agreement on this issue either in the meetings or the town halls".
That statement shocked many of the key participants in the consultations. "Pretty well the whole community did say that an apology was a must," said Harbhajan Gill of the Komagata Maru Heritage Foundation. "There was no mention (in the report) of apology, the government is not serious about doing anything."
Popular radio host Harjinder Thind said the issue came up frequently on his show and there is certainly a consensus.
"Unfortunately we don't have a particular committee or group of individuals who can be unanimously supported and say they are our representatives," Thind said.
Jasbir Sandhu of the Professor Mohan Singh Foundation said the community has organised a march in Vancouver's Stanley Park this Sunday to commemorate the arrival of the ship 93 years ago and to protest the government's inaction.
"The community has never asked for money. It's not a matter of money, it's about closing a dark chapter in our history," Sandhu said.
"I'm puzzled why they would not be apologising when the community came out in full force and clearly state in the consultations that first and foremost let's start the healing process with an apology."
Abbott in his report said there was a consensus that a memorial project be undertaken to recognise the incident. Some of the suggestions forwarded by the community included a physical memorial in Stanley Park, a commemorative stamp, or a research chair at one of the universities.
Abbott said an ad hoc committee of community members should be formed immediately to come up with a shortlist of projects for funding.
On Wednesday, he said that committee was just one of his recommendations under consideration, and that any project would have to wait until a new historic redress programme was finalised within the next few weeks.
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