By Dr. Bikkar Singh Lalli
“It is never too late to give up your prejudices”, (Henry Davis Thoreau).
On May 30 UBC, in one of its convocation ceremonies, recognized 76 Japanese Canadian students who suffered through blind injustice in the dark days of World War Two. “I will be acknowledging 76 students’ courage in the face of enormous hardship and loss; their willingness to give of their innate intelligence and wisdom to a community and country that denied them a formal university education,” said President Toope, and he further added that “UBC’s current leadership cannot right all the wrongs committed in the past, but it is not too late to redress them. In addition, to the awarding of degrees, UBC’s Faculty of Arts will establish an Asian Canadian Studies Program”.
The Stephen Harper’s Conservatives have blatantly insulted the Indo-Canadian community by refusing to give an official apology for the Komagata Maru incident, something which they did for the Chinese-Canadian community over the Head Tax policy. On May 23, 1914, the Komagata Maru, a ship carrying 376 passengers from India, was turned away when it tried to land in Vancouver harbour, many of them were veterans of the British Indian Army who had fought to defend and expand the empire. Harper and Kenny, may not be “treating Indo-Canadian-South Asians as second class citizens”, but they are certainly taking advantage of the obvious divisions and dissent within the Indo-Canadian community. One should not be surprised to find some Indo-Canadian MPs, whose inclusion in the party is simply to show-piece the multi-ethnic character of the conservative party, voting against the motion. To save their political career they had to toe the party line. Here is a message for the Indo-Canadian MPs who voted against the motion: “There are no true friends in politics. We are all sharks circling, and waiting, for traces of blood to appear in the water”. Your political masters, will discard you whenever they feel that you are a liability.
Indo-Canadian community must take some responsibility too, for the disdain and disrespect shown to it by the insensitive conservative leadership. The necessary “clout”, for example the unity, which is so essential for exerting pressure on vilely politicians, our community does not have. Late Dr. Hari Sharma tried to form an all inclusive group for dealing with the government with one voice. After many meetings, we could not find a common ground, and as it usually happens in our community, the consensus remained elusive. Our minds are hard-wired, and we have not learnt to keep the community interest uppermost in our mind.
The Prime Minister made an attempt at an informal apology in 2008 at an outdoor festival (Gadri Babian Da Mela) in Surrey on August 3, 2008, but it was immediately rejected by the community as insincere and opportunistic. Moreover, there is no written transcript of the statement which the Prime Minister made before that gathering. Without any record there is no proof of the occurrence of an event. An apology from the floor of the House of Commons, on behalf of the government, is the only way for recognizing the historical injustice. The Prime Minister is an educated man, and he should know that Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. The NDP motion read: “That, in the opinion of the House the government should officially apologize in the House of Commons to the South Asian community and to the individuals impacted in the 1914 Komagata Maru incident, in which passengers were prevented from landing in Canada”. In 2008 a similar motion, introduced by the Liberal Party , calling on the government to apologize to the Indo-Canadian community for the Komagata Maru incident, was passed unanimously by the House of Commons, but the Conservatives government has totally ignored it. Why the refusal of the government to act, is not considered as the “contempt of the Parliament”?
Why did Canada refuse to let those 376 Indo-Canadian land, when it had accepted more than 4000, 000 immigrants the previous year? “Why that ship was a threat to the mightiest empire the world had ever known” In Undesirable: White Canada and the Komagata Maru, award-winning filmmaker and author Ali Kazmi address these and other provocative questions. Ali had done a wonderful job in detailing the heart rending struggles, and the sufferings of the passengers in the ship. According to Ali, at the heart of the refusal was the desire to keep Canada white. How did Ali get interested in the search for facts regarding this tragic episode – it was a strange accident. With his story he kept us spell bound for almost two hours we spent together at SFU campus. In the preface to the Book “Undesirable”, Ali says that “even though I did not have relatives abroad the Komagata Maru, the story has become a part of my life. I spent eight years making a documentary film entitled Continuous Journey. The film gave me the opportunity to shed some light on the so-called ‘dark chapter’ in the Canadian History”.
I strongly suspect that the informal apology, in an open gathering, was a clever political gimmick-a lame excuse and a poor defensive step, which was intended to create further divisions and dissent in the already divided community. An apology in the House of Commons is the only dignified way of recognizing the past injustices. By recognizing the injustice done to Japanese students in 1942, the UBC senate, of which I am a proud member for the last thirteen years, has set a glorious example for the Canadian leadership to follow- it is never too late to do the right thing.
Bikkar Singh Lalli has the distinct honour of holding Doctor of Laws (Honoris Causa).
