The Komagata Maru incident happened back in April 1914, the same year my mother was born. She would have been eight months old at this time.
Anyone born in 1914 and still living would be 102 years old by now. Does it make any sense for me to apologize, or have Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologize on my behalf, for a historical isolated incident that happened long before I was born, and long before Justin Trudeau or most Canadians were born?
I think not.
It probably makes as much sense as Canada apologizing for the South African Boer war that went from 1899 to 1902, in which there were 244 Canadian casualties, over half of them victims of diseases, principally enteric fever. This war divided Canada, since many Canadians considered it a British war and not Canada’s business.
My great, great, grandparents on my mother’s side did not arrive in Canada until 1903, as Barr Colonists, the founders of Lloydminster, Saskatchewan/Alberta.
A provincial border ran through it in 1905 when Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces. My wife and I were honoured to represent the arrival of the Barr Colonists in 1903 when we appeared on the TV series Past Lives in 2005, marking the centennial of Alberta and Saskatchewan becoming provinces of Canada. My father was born in England.
Fred Perry
Surrey