[BCMA] CMA Clip Serv: Ottawa funds Komagata Maru memorial

Tue Dec 14 23:39:40 PST 2010

No quarrel with the efficacy of commemorating historical ethnic or racial grievance through public memorials (pronouncements, apologies, monuments, events, documentaries, etc.), but do wonder about the wisdom of expecting the Federal Government to spearhead the action and bear the costs, viz.
  a.. Making a red letter day in Parliament by apologizing to Aboriginals for the Residential Schools system while that minority's present day social and economic disadvantages are so grievous in themselves, largely due to mishandling federal laws and policies - seems hypocritical to me..
  b.. Trumpeting the work and sacrifices of Chinese labour in constructing the CPR through part of BC to the point where various ignorant members of that ethnic community recently have come to claim that the Chinese actually built the whole transcontinental railway - serious unintended consequence here..
  c.. Compensating financially surviving members of the Canadian Chinese fraternity who were obliged to pay the onerous and mounting "Head Tax" before allowing to immigrate - even descendents of dead folks wanted money.
  d.. Taking over the planning, construction, and operation of the upcoming "Canadian Museum of Human Rights" which is aimed neither at the Canadian historical experience nor human rights at large, insofar as the inspiration was a Winnipeg Jewish family's impulse to permanently memorialize the horrors of the Holocaust in their own backyard with literally a shrine encased within the walls of a federal "museum". 
  e.. Responding to Japanese Canadian calls for redress on their community's wholesale expulsion from coastal BC during WW2 by making both a formal apology in Parliament and providing financial compensation - thanks largley to Art Miki, president NAJC, this one worked-out very well.
  f.. Declaring in Parliament that French Canada (primarily Quebec) is a "Nation", presumably to correct centuries of condescension by non-French Canadians - seen as a purely political and cynical move.
  g.. And there are others awaiting their turns  - Acadians, Doukoubours, US draft resisters, etc., etc.
Among the most shrill are certain descendants of German and Austro-Hungarian inhabitants of Canada who were carted off into concentration camps as "enemy aliens" during WW1. Various leaders of today's Ukrainian community in this country are outraged at the CMHR (see above) refusal to give this episode sufficient attention, and even more distressed that this now federal institution, not even yet open, is not planning to have a permanent gallery depicting the Soviet Union-caused 1930s Ukrainian "famine and genocide". The planners say that there are going to be only two such galleries - one for the Jewish Holocaust, the second for Aboriginal wretchedness. The other "50 cases" of genocide or systemic human rights violations are expected to be treated in the temporary displays - this is going to be a "museum"? Instead, why not call it the Canadian Centre of Human Rights given that its nature will be manic and divisive, not calm and certitude.

On the other hand, in this day and age it is silly to be critical of various minority groups demanding their place in the sun, either now or in the past. And its equally foolish to expect our advanced secular liberal democracy to deny those voices the challenges they raise, despite the myth-making and hyperbole that often arises with claims for redress or justice. There is too much truth in what is said, and too great a need to expose and heal old socio-cultural or socio-economic wounds for us to permit complacency and inaction.

But we take the easy way out by demanding our Federal Government lead the way. Somehow it lacks a sense of proportion; treating each historical grievance with equal gravity; by elevating them all to equal rhetorical height, it really raises none to a level that truly convinces.

I truly do not know what the best avenue is for the Feds. It will be hard now for the Government to separate wheat from chaff as revealed in this instance of elevating the Komagata Maru incident to the same cumulus of attention as, say, the Japanese Expulsion which was a much more dreadful occurrence.

Putting our tax dollars into building a museum based upon a single two month long event involving  less than 400 people no matter the human rights optics, doesn't make sense when the same Government is pouring nearly $200 million into the CMHR. In short, erect a monument in Stanley Park, but do the "museum" work on this story in Winnipeg, if at all.

Dan Gallacher.

From: Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv. 
  To: bcma at lists.vvv.com 
  Sent: Tuesday, December 14, 2010 4:28 PM
  Subject: Re: [BCMA] CMA Clip Serv: Ottawa funds Komagata Maru memorial

  This memorial is long overdue.  

  Kathleen Trayner

  Alizarin Consulting

  Victoria BC

  250-595-4349

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  From: bcma-bounces at lists.vvv.com [mailto:bcma-bounces at lists.vvv.com] On Behalf Of Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv.
  Sent: December-14-10 10:49 AM
  To: bcma at lists.vvv.com
  Subject: [BCMA] CMA Clip Serv: Ottawa funds Komagata Maru memorial

  Ottawa funds Komagata Maru memorial 

  CBC News, Sunday, December 12, 2010 

  The federal government has promised to fund two Vancouver projects, including a memorial monument, to commemorate the Komagata Maru incident. 

  Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney made the announcement in a written statement on Sunday. 

  "The story of the Komagata Maru is an event in our history that did not do us proud," he said in the release. 

  "Prime Minister Harper was the first prime minister in Canadian history to recognize the tragic nature of the Komagata Maru incident. He is also the first prime minister to apologize to the Indo-Canadian community for it." 

  In 1914, the Komagata Maru arrived in Vancouver harbour carrying 376 passengers of Indian descent. The ship was prevented from docking and, after a two-month standoff, sailed back to India where about 20 passengers died in an altercation with British soldiers. 

  On Sunday, Kenney pledged $82,500 to Vancouver's Khalsa Diwan Society to work with the Vancouver Parks Board for a monument to commemorate the incident. 

  The organization will also receive $104,000 to develop the first phase of a museum dedicated to the Komagata Maru. 

  "Canadians of South Asian origin have made enormous contributions to building Canada," Kenney said. 

  "The government of Canada is committed to recognizing the experiences of the Indo-Canadian community and other communities affected by immigration restrictions applied in Canada's past." 

  The monument to the Komagata Maru will be a replica of the ship and will include the names of all the passengers, as well as photographs and a descriptive plaque. Its proposed location is in a public park near where the ship was anchored in 1914. 

  The museum, located on the grounds of the Khalsa Diwan Society in Vancouver, will also be accessible to the public. 

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