Canada’s PM Trudeau to apologise for rejection of Komagata Maru migrant ship, more than a century after it sailed from Hong Kong

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he will offer a full apology in Parliament next month for a government decision in 1914 to turn away a ship that sailed from Hong Kong carrying hundreds of South Asian immigrants.

The Komagata Maru arrived off Vancouver only to have almost all of its 376 passengers, nearly all Sikhs, denied entry due to immigration laws at the time.

The ship was eventually sent to Calcutta, and least 19 people were killed in a skirmish with British soldiers when they disembarked. Others were jailed.

“As a nation, we should never forget the prejudice suffered by the Sikh community at the hands of the Canadian government of the day. We should not and we will not,” said Trudeau, at an Ottawa Vaisakhi celebration, the Punjabi new year that is marked by Sikhs around the world.

“That is why, next month, on May 18, I will stand in the House of Commons and offer a full apology for the Komagata Maru incident,” he said.

The chartered Japanese ship sailed into Vancouver harbour on May 23, 1914, filled with passengers from the Punjab region of India. Most were Sikhs.

Because of the Canadian government’s refused to allow the passengers to disembark, the Komagata Maru sat in the harbour for two months. On July 23, 1914, the Komagata Maru was escorted out to sea by a Canadian naval cruiser and returned to India, only to be met with force by British troops.