I am one of the descendants of the Komagata Maru and the spokesperson for the Descendants of Komagata Maru Society. My grandfather came in this ship and his name was Baba Puran Singh Janetpura.
Before the federal election, I had a couple of meetings with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and I asked him, "If you form the government, would you apologize for the Komagata Maru incident?"He said, " Yes, Mr. Toor."
The Prime Minister's Office sent my brother Jaswinder Toor (below) and I the official invitation to witness the Komagata Maru apology in the House of Commons last week. We went there and sat in the speaker gallery front of the prime minister.
Trudeau stood up from his chair and he apologized to the descendants of the Komagata Maru and the South Asian community. He was facing us when he apologized. He gave us a respectful and a formal apology in the House of Commons.
After the apology, the descendants went to a separate room and we had pictures taken with the prime minister.
As the descendants of Komagata Maru, we are very happy, as during the tragedy, those 376 passengers suffered a lot and their struggle and sacrifice was recognized in the House of Commons. We are very happy and saying thank you to Trudeau and his whole team who kept their promise.
We also want to say thank you to the South Asian media, Canadian media, South Asian community and Canadian brothers and sisters for supporting us.
Raj Toor, spokesperson
Descendants of Komagata Maru Society
