Apology Rant

Now Harper is speaking of apologising for the Komagata Maru incident. Another cheap ploy to get the brown vote. What’s the point? What will an apology achieve? Does that change anything? Does it change atitudes? Does it change the fact that almost a century later, successive governments of all stripes succesfully ensure that immigrants are under-employed or unemployed and create this highly educated underclass, clinging onto this great hope that Canada will remain a land of freedom and opportunity?

Forget the apology – ensure that immigrants are employed in the field of their training not working with Group Four Security and Diamond Taxi. Deal with the systemic racism that shuts out pigmented MBAs from upper management. Then apologise.

Some background - in 1914 the Komagata Maru, a ship sailed from Calcutta via HK to Canada. The Canadian government did not want South Asian immigrants bringing their wives into this country because my god they would over breed and over populate the West Coast. It would be fine if they just came in to work and died child-less. Already the white Canadian population was terrified about Chinese immigrants daring to employ vestal white girls, and the dangerous possibilities of miscegenation would only be compounded by libidinous Hindoos (sic) coming into the country.

So they kept the ship in the harbour while disease swept through the passengers. Then they hurriedly changed their laws to say that immigrants had to travel non-stop to this country. And finally sent the ship back to India.

This was just before World War I, when the Globe and Mail lauded the brave Indian soldiers sent in as cannon fodder to protect imperial lands. Strictly speaking Indian soldiers were dying for the British Empire; but Canadian newspapers of the time spoke with the voice of the Empire. Bleed for the country but don’t breed in the country!!!

by: Isaac Thomas