Komagata Maru Apology- an essay

I was lucky enough to be in the gallery when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau finished the relay race of bipartisan morality with this apology. The efforst were started by Prime Minister Stephan Harper. It remains the only moment in Canadian history when i truly was proud to be Canandian. A mirage of a country I created in my ignorance. Today- i needed to remember a pleasant dream. A fantasy of a world, I have awoken from. Let us hope someday we remember the definition of nobility.

If you were in the viewing room at parliament hill at about 1400hrs on June 18, you would have thought there was a Punjabi wedding going on. The mood was jovial, old friends meeting, new friendships born, the loud laughs, big hugs and pats on backs. We were missing the scotch but all seemed happy and festive. I could not immediately place how I felt, so I turned to the aunty on my left and asked her, “What is the value of this to you? How does this matter?”

Komagata Maru is not a name I grew up knowing. It was not one taught to me in school, not one part of my history book. Our history books conveniently encompassed the mosaic of Canada into one chapter about multiculturalism. Canada ofcouse being the British experiment of a nation that began with Hudson’s bay company. As a student in high school this seemed normal to me. As an engineer working with DND, I had moved to BC years later. It is then that I first saw a black and white picture of Komagata Maru. I read the inscription, and felt nothing but shock that I had not known of this event.