The acceptance of payment for the Komagata Maru tragedy has been labeled “blood money”.
By R. Paul Dhillon
SURREY – At this year’s Mela Gadri Babayan Da festival in Surrey on Sunday, the large Indo-Canadian community gathering unanimously asked for an official parliamentary apology from Ottawa for Komagata Maru incident, the racist tragedy perpetrated by the Canadian government in 1914.
When the participants were asked if they still desired the apology, the more than 10,000 gathered raised their arms to loudly say yes that an apology is a must even those one Vancouver Sikh society had accepted from the Conservatives to what amounted to a traitorous bribe.
In 1914, the Komagata Maru ship with 354 passengers from India, who unsuccessfully attempted to immigrate to Canada, were denied entry and forced to starve in the Vancouver harbour before being sent back to India where, after disembarking from the ship, some of the passengers were killed by British authorities.
The Sikh Youth Vancouver, Professor Mohan Singh memorial foundation, the organizer of the Mela, Komagata Maru Foundation, Descendents of the Komagata Maru and the Sangat at large once again condemned the actions of the Ross St. executive, which agreed to accept money offered by Immigration Minister Jason Kenney to sweep the whole apology under the rug.
The acceptance of payment for the Komagata Maru tragedy has been labeled “blood money”.
Several important community issues were addressed at this year’s event but the main focus was on the Komagata Maru incident “payout” to the Khalsa Diwan Society in Vancouver. There has been speculation in the Indo-Canadian/Punjabi media in the past few weeks stating that the Khalsa Diwan Society has accepted $675,000 from the federal government. This was and is against the wishes of the general Sangat. It was stated that the sacrifices of the victims cannot be tagged with a price and must not be sold out.
The Sikh Youth Vancouver has been in logger heads over holding elections with the current executive of Ross Street temple, which was resolved on Friday with the announcement that elections will be held November 12 this year.
