I was going to comment. I put my hand up when Mr. Calandra was filibustering and telling us stories. I was going to ask him to indulge us with his family story and the story of his mom being a single mother. But since we've moved on, I want to talk about the apologies. If Mr. Calandra speaks again, being the daughter of a single mother myself, I'll be more than happy to listen to his story of how his mom raised four of her children.
On May 20, 2008, I put forward a motion, after talking to numerous members of the Indo-Canadian community across the country, requesting the government to apologize for the Komagata Maru incident in 1914. We had 376 passengers who had come from India to Canada aboard the Komagata Maru. Upon arrival in Vancouver, they were not allowed to disembark. For two months, they were kept without food or water on the Komagata Maru. Then they were ordered to be returned to India. It was at that time, upon the return to India, that they were either jailed or killed.
This private member's motion that I put forward was passed May 20, 2008. The Prime Minister, on August 3, 2008, decided to deliver an apology, not in the House of Commons but at a cultural festival in Surrey, B.C. I can tell you, when the apology was given at a cultural festival, there were thousands of people from the Indo-Canadian community, in Canada and throughout the world, who felt insulted. They felt that the apology was neither dignified nor respectful.
There were people who wrote about the incident, who voiced their concerns. On August 4, there was an article printed in Vancouver, which read:
The Indo-Canadian community has refused to accept an apology by Prime Minister Stephen Harper for the 1914 Komagata Maru ship incident in which hundreds of Indian passengers were not allowed to enter Canada. The Komagata Maru was a Japanese ship hired by a Malaysia-based wealthy Sikh to bring 376 Indians from Hong Kong to Canada in 1914 to challenge its racist laws.
The Indians were not allowed to disembark in Vancouver and were forcibly sent back to India where many were shot on arrival in Calcutta, as it was then called.
Tendering the apology at the annual Mela Gadari Babian Da at the Bear Creek Park in Surrey on Sunday, Harper said Canada was sorry for the mistreatment of the passengers in 1914 and apologizes for it.
Since the government had promised to apologize only in the nation’s Parliament, the organizers of the festival immediately rejected it.
“We wanted the House of Commons to apologize, not the PM at this rally. We reject this apology.” This was shouted by the organizer Sahib Singh Thind even as security personnel whisked the prime minister away.
Thind, who was the organizer of the festival, said: “The government has betrayed us, as only yesterday it had promised us that the PM would announce only a date here for the apology, which would be made in Parliament later.
“Today, they have treated us like they did the Komagata passengers in 1914. It was the same racist Conservative government then as now. Racism is alive in Canada.”
He said the Indo-Canadian community would chalk out its plan to fight for an apology in Parliament.
However, Jason Kenney, secretary for multiculturalism and Canadian identity, ruled this out, saying: “The apology has been given and will not be repeated.”
An indignant Indo-Canadian MLA, Jagrup Brar, who was instrumental in getting the provincial British Columbia assembly to apologize for the Komagata Maru just last month, asked: “If our provincial assembly can apologize, why can’t the nation’s Parliament?
“It was the House of Commons which had passed a unanimous resolution proposing an apology. The apology should have been entered into the House records. I wonder who is advising this PM.”
Based on the sentiments expressed in this article in 2008, we can see that the amendment being discussed here is very important. We know that the hard work, the effort, of many immigrants across this country has ensured our nation's success. All ethnic communities deserve to be treated in a dignified and respectful manner. It is for this reason that I have also put forward a private member's motion once again requesting that this apology be made in a respectful and dignified manner in the House of Commons.
That particular private member's motion reads, and I quote:
That, in the opinion of the House, the government should officially apologize to the Indo-Canadian community and to the individuals impacted in the 1914 Komagata Maru incident....
It also goes one step further by requesting to officially designate May 23 as a day of commemoration. We have seen the sentiments among community members of what happens when an apology is given at cultural festivals. I think like the Chinese community, the Japanese community, individuals in the aboriginal community who have received apologies in a dignified and respectful and rightful manner in the House of Commons and Parliament...I also believe that the amendment we're discussing here today for the Italian community and also for the private member's motion that I've put forward for the Indo-Canadian community...the apologies should also be granted in the House of Commons and Parliament.
Thank you.