The centennial of the Titanic has received wide coverage in the Canadian media. Yet, another ship, the Komagata Maru, which had left a stain in Canadian history, has received almost no mainstream media coverage. The occasion was the opening of the world’s first museum commemorating the journey of the ship, two years before the centennial of its fateful voyage.

RMS Titanic collided with an iceberg and sank in the Atlantic Ocean a century ago. The accident cost the lives of over 1,500 passengers, mostly white people.

Two years later, in 1914, a Japanese steamship, the Komagata Maru, sailed from India, via Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Yokohama to Vancouver. The ship carried 376 passengers from Punjab, India. Like other passengers traveling to Canada at that time, those were migrants seeking a new life in the New World.

It is unfortunate that even though the Asian Indian migrants were British subjects (India was under British occupation), they did not receive the same treatment as migrants from Europe. The Indian migrants were simply forbidden to land. In order to block Indian migration to Canada, the Conservative government prohibited the immigration of persons who did not “come from the country of their birth or citizenship by a continuous journey”.

The exclusion law was specifically targeted at Indians because Europe and the Canadian east coast were close enough for a ship to sail and reach its destination without stopping, whereas a voyage from India to the west coast had to stop over at some port due to the greater distance. Since Indian migrants were British subjects, the Canadian government could not apply the head tax to them.

Coincidentally, the Chinese head tax and the exclusion acts against the Indian migrants were legislated by the then Conservative governments. These exclusion measures were brought in at a time when Canada was accepting a great many immigrants (over 400,000 in 1913 alone, a figure that remains unsurpassed to this day), almost all of whom from Europe.

After two months of holdup while the ship was forbidden to disembark, the Komagata Maru returned to India. When it arrived in Calcutta, there was a conflict with the British military and passengers were killed, wounded, and imprisoned.

Like the Chinese head tax and the persecution of Japanese Canadians in the Second World War, the Komagata Maru incident has left a stain of injustice in Canada’s history. The Chinese, the Japanese, and the Indo-Canadians have been fighting generation after generation for the redressing of the historical wrongs inflicted on them and their ancestors.

It is interesting to note that whether it be the redress of the internment of Japanese Canadians, the apology to the Chinese community, or the apology to the aboriginal community, such redresses took place under the Conservative government.

Nevertheless, there are visible differences in terms of how the Conservatives dealt with the three different communities. Conservative prime ministers have apologized to the Japanese, Chinese, and aboriginal community in Parliament, whereas as prime minister, Stephen Harper decided to deliver the apology to Indo-Canadians in August 2008 in a community event in Surrey.

When the prime minister and the secretary of state for multiculturalism, Jason Kenney, were asked whether the government would apologize in Parliament, Kenney bluntly said, “The apology has been given and it won’t be repeated.”

As the minister who has been responsible for redressing the Chinese head tax, Kenney’s words are quite incredible and inconceivable. If the Conservative government could apologize to Japanese Canadians, Chinese Canadians, and aboriginal people in Parliament for past wrongs, why would they refuse to apologize for the Komagata Maru incident in Parliament?

There is a huge difference in meaning between the prime minister apologizing in an ethnic community event with few or no mainstream media reporters present, and his apologizing in Parliament. The former is an address to the participants of a community event, whereas the latter is an address to the country and would be duly recorded into history.

Since the exclusion acts against the Indians were legislated in Parliament, so if today’s government has the courage to admit past wrongs, the proper way is to have the matter settled in Parliament.

Former prime minister Paul Martin attempted to redress the Chinese head tax in 2005 but failed because the Liberals initially refused to apologize in Parliament. Announced prior to the federal election, Martin’s so-called “historic” redress did not include an apology. During the election campaign, Martin felt the heat of the Chinese community and apologized in a Chinese-language radio show. His half-hearted act was not well-received; thus, Martin vowed a week later that after the election he would apologize to the Chinese community in Parliament. As things turned out, it was Prime Minister Harper who made the official apology in Ottawa five months after the election.

Perhaps next time when the media meet with the prime minister or minister Kenney, they could ask them specifically why it is not necessary to apologize in Parliament. The public could also ask their Conservative MP the same question.

I believe that with solidarity among the ethnic groups, there is hope that a dignified apology could be issued before the centennial of the Komagata Maru incident.

Located at the Khalsa Diwan Society’s Sikh temple (8000 Ross Street, Vancouver), the Komagata Maru museum is now open to the public, admission free.

Gabriel Yiu is a small-business owner and the B.C. NDP candidate in Vancouver-Fraserview.