International Law

Canada's Immigration Past...

By immlawyer

This blog entry was originally posted on October 23, 2006.

[Update: It seems that PM Harper has recently apologized for the incident in Surrey, BC - an apology that was apparently deemed inadequate by the attendees at the event. See also the article at the Canadian Press.]

I found the above picture on the Canadawiki.org site on Komagata Maru. Gurdit Singh (I believe the one in white, near the top of the picture), organized the ill-fated voyage of the KM.

The Vancouver Province labeled it the "Hindu Invasion of Canada" (the passengers were mostly Sikh, but I imagine this distinction was lost on the local populace).

Here's a picture of the 'unimpressed' spectators at Harper's speech.

After more than 2 months in dock, the KM was escorted at gunpoint to make the long trip back to Asia.

The racism and differential treatment of the Punjabi's was apparent:

The handling of the Komagata Maru affair proved embarrassing for the Laurier government. While accepting massive numbers of European immigrants - over 400,000 in 1913 alone - Canada had turned away only 376 Punjabis. The inequality of Canada's immigration system, demonstrated by the voyage of the Komagata Maru, took decades to be redressed.

Full post as published by Canadian Immigration Blawg on August 04, 2008 (boomark / email).