Mr. Speaker, when the Komagata Maru arrived in Vancouver 102 years ago, it was not allowed to dock in the Burrard Inlet. The government forced the ship to depart under the discriminatory Continuous Passage Act. When the ship arrived back in India, 20 passengers were killed.
The descendants of those who were on the Komagata Maru deserve closure. The community, along with the NDP, have long called for a meaningful apology, to be made in Parliament. Successive governments have failed to do so.
In 2014, at an event in Surrey organized by the Prof. Mohan Singh Memorial Foundation of Canada, the now Prime Minister promised that he would make a formal apology in Parliament within the first 90 days of the Liberal government's mandate. It has now been more than 100 days, and we are still waiting.
My motion on the order paper calls for action. I call on the government to build on the hard work of the former NDP MP Jasbir Sandhu to finally bring justice and healing to the community.