The continuous journey regulation was a restriction placed by the Canadian government that (ostensibly) prevented those who, "in the opinion of the Minister of the Interior", did not "come from the country of their birth or citizenship by a continuous journey and or through tickets purchased before leaving the country of their birth or nationality" from being accepted as immigrants to Canada. However, in effect, the regulation affected only the immigration of persons from India.
Issued through an order-in-council on 8 January 1908, [1] the regulation was the first attempt by the Government of Canadian to restrict immigration. In practice, the regulation applied only to ships that began their voyage in India, as the great distance usually necessitated a stopover in Japan or Hawaii. These regulations came at a time when Canada was accepting massive numbers of immigrants (over 400,000 in 1913 alone – a figure that remains unsurpassed to this day), [2] almost all of whom came from Europe. [3]
During the first two decades of the 20th century, some provinces in Canada enacted laws limiting the civil rights of Indians, including the right to vote, [4] hold public office, [a] serve on juries, [b] obtain a liquor licence, [8] or practise as pharmacists, lawyers, and accountants. [9] [10] However, because India, like Canada, was part of the British Empire, Canadian authorities did not pass exclusion laws explicitly targeting those of Indian origin. The Imperial authorities in London had noted Indian resentment when Australia enacted immigration restrictions implicitly designed to restrict non-European immigration in 1901, based on similar legislation in South Africa. [c] New Zealand had passed similar restrictive legislation in 1899.
When Canada started making provisions to block immigration from India, London warned it to be cautious in its approach and to be aware that its actions might inflame nationalist fervour in India. With this in mind, Canadian immigration authorities decided to indirectly halt Indian immigration to the country.
The government's first attempt to restrict immigration from India was to issue an order-in-council on 8 January 1908 that prohibited the immigration of persons who "in the opinion of the Minister of the Interior" did not "come from the country of their birth or citizenship by a continuous journey and or through tickets purchased before leaving the country of their birth or nationality." [1] In practice, this applied only to ships that began their voyage in India, as the great distance usually necessitated a stopover in Japan or Hawaii. This was discriminatory to Indians who could not travel directly to Canada.
The new regulation was soon challenged with the arrival of the S.S. Monteagle in British Columbia in late February 1908. [12] The ship carried more than 200 passengers, 105 of whom had boarded in Calcutta. A number of the passengers were ordered deported as they did not comply with the new regulation. The orders were challenged in court. Justice Clement of the Supreme Court of B.C. quashed the deportation orders on 24 March 1908, after he found the regulation to be invalid, as the Immigration Act did not authorize the delegation of decision making to the Minister of the Interior, as stated in the regulation. [13] [14]
The government responded by introducing an amendment to the Immigration Act, which expressly authorized a regulation "to prohibit the landing of any specified class of immigrants or any immigrants who have come to Canada otherwise than by continuous journey from the country of which they are natives or citizens and upon through tickets purchased in that country."
The amendment was enacted on 10 April 1908. [15] The government issued an order-in-council under the amended act on 27 May 1908. [16] Further regulation was issued by an order-in-council on 3 June 1908, which stated that
No immigrant of Asiatic origin shall be permitted to enter Canada unless in actual and personal possession in his or her own right of two hundred dollars unless such person is a native or subject of an Asiatic country in regard to which special statutory regulations are in force or with which the Government of Canada has made a special treaty, agreement or convention. [17]
While neither regulation expressly referred to India, they effectively stopped immigration from India as the $200 cash requirement limit was a significant hurdle for most potential immigrants from India, and the continuous journey regulation was made effective by pressuring steamship companies not to provide direct service between Canada and India or to sell through tickets from Indian ports. [18]
Canadian Pacific did run a very lucrative shipping line between Vancouver and Calcutta. However, the Canadian government forced the company to stop this service. It was now impossible to come via a continuous journey to Canada.[ citation needed ]
A new, revised Immigration Act was enacted on 4 May 1910. [19] It included provisions similar, though not the same as provisions in the 1906 act, which authorized the continuous journey and $200 cash requirement regulations. The two 1908 regulations were reissued on 9 May 1910, by orders-in-council P.C. 920, P.C. 924, and P.C. 926. [20] [21]
The continuous journey regulation came under judicial review in 1911, in a case before the Supreme Court of B.C. involving Hussain Rahim, a known revolutionary from Bengal, India. On 9 November 1911, Justice Morrison issued a writ of habeas corpus to quash a deportation order made against Rahim. In granting the order, the judge commented that the 1910 continuous journey regulation was invalid, as its wording (copied from the 1908 regulation) did not conform with the enacting provision of Paragraph 38(a) of the 1910 Immigration Act. [22] [23]
The judgement did not result in any significant increase in attempts at immigration from India. Both regulations underwent judicial scrutiny again in November 1913, in the course of two cases before the Supreme Court of B.C. The first involved Bhagwan Singh Jakh, a known revolutionary from Punjab, India, who had entered Canada by falsely representing that he was a returning resident of Canada. [24] The second case involved 39 passengers from India who arrived in Victoria, BC, on 17 October 1913, on the ship Panama Maru, [25] and who were detained and ordered deported under the Immigration Act. [26]
While court proceedings were still pending, Jakh was forcefully deported on 19 November 1913, in the face of a writ of habeas corpus issued by the Supreme Court of B.C. [27] [24] On 28 November 1913, Justice Hunter quashed the deportation orders made against 35 of the 39 passengers (applications concerning four passengers were withdrawn when the case was heard), by finding that: (a) the $200 cash requirement regulation was invalid as its reference to "Asiatic origin" did not conform with Section 37 of the 1910 Act, which authorized regulations in respect of persons of the "Asiatic race;" and (b) the continuous journey regulation was invalid for the reasons given by Justice Morrison in the Rahim case. [28]
Word of Justice Hunter's decision spread abroad, with Indian residents in Canada urging others to come to Canada before the rules were changed again. [29]
The federal government's continuous-journey provision remained law until 1947, as did most BC anti-South Asian legislation. Because of community pressure and representations by the government of India, Canada allowed the wives and dependent children of South Asian Canadian residents to immigrate in 1919, and by the mid-1920s a small flow of wives and children had been established. This did not counter the effect of migration by South Asian Canadians to India and the US, which by the mid-1920s had reduced the South Asian population in Canada to about 1300. [30]
As an appeal from Justice Hunter's decision was limited by law, the government responded quickly, by issuing new continuous journey and $200 cash requirement regulations on 7 January 1914, by orders-in-council P.C. 23 and P.C. 24. [31] [32] The new regulations conformed with the authorizing provisions in the 1910 act, in accordance with Justice Hunter's decision. [33] The new regulations appeared to be immune from any further legal challenge. P.C. 24 was repealed on 25 July 1921, with the approval of order-in-council P.C. 2668, while P.C. 23 was revoked much later on 26 November 1947. [34]
Gurdit Singh Sandhu, from Amritsar, was a well-to-do government contractor in Singapore who was aware of the problems that Indians were facing in getting to Canada due to exclusion laws. Though Singh was apparently aware of the January 1914 regulations when he chartered the SS Komagata Maru , [35] he continued with his purported goal of challenging the continuous journey regulation and opening the door for immigration from India to Canada. The passengers consisted of 340 Sikhs, 24 Muslims, and 12 Hindus, all British subjects.
When the Komagata Maru arrived in Canadian waters, it was not allowed to dock. The government mobilized HMCS Rainbow, a former Royal Navy ship under the command of Commander Hose, with troops from the 11th Regiment Irish Fusiliers of Canada, [36] 72nd Regiment "Seaforth Highlanders of Canada", and the 6th Regiment "The Duke of Connaught's Own Rifles". In the end, only 24 passengers were admitted to Canada, since the ship had violated the exclusion laws, the passengers did not have the required funds, and they had not sailed directly from India. The ship was turned around and forced to depart on July 23 for Asia.
The Komagata Maru incident was widely cited at the time by Indian groups to highlight discrepancies in Canadian immigration laws. Further, the inflamed passions in the wake of the incident were widely cultivated by the Indian revolutionary organization, the Ghadar Party, to rally support for its aims.
In response to calls for the government of Canada to address historic wrongs involving immigration and wartime measures, the Conservative government in 2006 created the community historical recognition program to provide grant and contribution funding for community projects linked to wartime measures and immigration restrictions and a national historical recognition program to fund federal initiatives, developed in partnership with various groups. The announcement was made on 23 June 2006, at the time Prime Minister Harper apologized in the House of Commons for the head tax against Chinese immigrants. [37]
On 23 May 2008, the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia unanimously passed a resolution that:
[The BC Legislature] apologizes for the events of May 23, 1914, when 376 passengers of the Komagata Maru, stationed off Vancouver harbour, were denied entry by Canada. The House deeply regrets that the passengers, who sought refuge in our country and our province, were turned away without the benefit of the fair and impartial treatment befitting a society where people of all cultures are welcomed and accepted. [38]
On 3 August 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper appeared at the 13th annual Ghadri Babiyan Da Mela (festival) in Surrey, BC, to issue an apology for the Komagata Maru incident. He said, in response to the House of Commons motion calling for an apology by the government, "On behalf of the government of Canada, I am officially conveying as prime minister that apology." [39]
Some members of the Sikh community were unsatisfied with the apology as they expected it to be made in Parliament. Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Jason Kenney said, "The apology has been given and it won't be repeated", thus settling the matter for the federal government. [40]
The dissatisfaction with Harper's 2008 apology was communicated to the federal government through individual members and groups of the Indo-Canadian community, such as The Descendants of the Komagata Maru Society. [41] Finally, on May 18, 2016, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gave a formal "full apology" for the incident in the House of Commons. [42] [43]
Further lobbying by Raj Singh Toor (whose grandfather Baba Puran Singh Janetpura was a passenger on the Komagata Maru) led to the 18 May 2021 apology from Vancouver City Council "...for the role the City played in the incident, especially supporting laws that prevented passengers from disembarking". [44] As well, Toor's lobbying brought about an apology from New Westminster City Council on 27 September 2021, with the council stating "The City of New Westminster formally apologizes to the South Asian community and the descendants of the survivors of the Komagata Maru for its past actions which resulted in discrimination and exclusion." [45]
Henry Herbert Stevens, was a Canadian politician and businessman. A member of R. B. Bennett's cabinet, he split with the Conservative Prime Minister to found the Reconstruction Party of Canada.
South Asian Canadians are Canadians who were either born in or can trace their ancestry to South Asia or the Indian subcontinent, which includes the nations of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives. The term also includes immigrants from South Asian communities in East and South Africa, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Fiji, Mauritius, and the rest of the world.
Canada Place, co-named Komagata Maru Place, is a building situated on the Burrard Inlet in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It is home to the Vancouver Convention Centre, the Pan Pacific Vancouver Hotel, the Vancouver World Trade Centre, and the virtual flight experience Flyover in Vancouver. The building's exterior is covered by fabric roofs resembling sails. It is also the main cruise ship passenger terminal for the region, where cruises to Alaska originate. The building was designed by architects Zeidler Roberts Partnership in joint venture with Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership and DA Architects + Planners.
The Komagata Maru incident involved the Japanese steamship Komagata Maru, on which a group of people from British India attempted to migrate to Canada in April 1914, but most were denied entry and forced to return to Budge Budge, near Calcutta. There, the Indian Imperial Police attempted to arrest the group leaders. A riot ensued, and they were fired upon by the police, resulting in some deaths.
The history of Vancouver, British Columbia, is one that extends back thousands of years, with its first inhabitants arriving in the area following the Last Glacial Period. With its location on the western coast of Canada near the mouth of the Fraser River and on the waterways of the Strait of Georgia, Howe Sound, Burrard Inlet, and their tributaries, Vancouver has – for thousands of years – been a place of meeting, trade, and settlement.
Guran Ditt Kumar, also known as G.D. Kumar Singh, was an Indian revolutionary associated with the pioneers of the Gadhar movement involved in the Indo-German conspiracy during the First World War.
Baba Gurdit Singh was the central figure in the Komagata Maru incident of 1914, one of several incidents in the history of early 20th century involving exclusion laws in both Canada and the United States designed to keep out immigrants of only Asian origin.
Sikhism is the fourth-largest religious group in Canada, with nearly 800,000 adherents, or 2.1% of Canada's population, as of 2021. The largest Sikh populations in Canada are found in Ontario, followed by British Columbia and Alberta. As of the 2021 Census, more than half of Canada's Sikhs can be found in one of four cities: Brampton (163,260), Surrey (154,415), Calgary (49,465), and Edmonton (41,385).
The history of immigration to Canada details the movement of people to modern-day Canada. The modern Canadian legal regime was founded in 1867, but Canada also has legal and cultural continuity with French and British colonies in North America that go back to the 17th century, and during the colonial era, immigration was a major political and economic issue with Britain and France competing to fill their colonies with loyal settlers. Until then, the land that now makes up Canada was inhabited by many distinct Indigenous peoples for thousands of years. Indigenous peoples contributed significantly to the culture and economy of the early European colonies to which was added several waves of European immigration. More recently, the source of migrants to Canada has shifted away from Europe and towards Asia and Africa. Canada's cultural identity has evolved constantly in tandem with changes in immigration patterns.
William Charles Hopkinson was an Indian police officer and later an immigration inspector in the Canadian Immigration Branch in Vancouver, British Columbia, who is noted for his role in infiltration and intelligence on the Ghadarite movement in North America in the early 1900s.
Indian Canadians are Canadians who have ancestry from India. The term East Indian is sometimes used to avoid confusion with Indigenous groups. Categorically, Indian Canadians comprise a subgroup of South Asian Canadians which is a further subgroup of Asian Canadians. As of the 2021 census, Indians are the second largest non-European ethnic group in the country group after Chinese Canadians and form the fastest growing national origin in Canada. Canada's census only counts citizens and permanent residents, and does not include non-permanent or temporary residents.
Komagata Maru was a cargo steamship that was built in Scotland in 1890, was in German ownership until 1913, and then had a succession of Japanese owners until she was wrecked in 1926. She was launched as Stubbenhuk, renamed Sicilia in 1894, Komagata Maru in 1913 and Heian Maru in 1924.
Jasbir Sandhu is a former Canadian politician. He was a Member of Parliament in the 41st Parliament. He was elected to the House of Commons in the 2011 federal election and represented the electoral district of Surrey North for the New Democratic Party. He served as the Official Opposition's critic on Public Safety and for the Asia-Pacific Gateway project. He sought re-election in 2015 but lost to Randeep Sarai of the Liberal Party.
Racism in Canada traces both historical and contemporary racist community attitudes, as well as governmental negligence and political non-compliance with United Nations human rights standards and incidents in Canada. Contemporary Canada is the product of indigenous First Nations combined with multiple waves of immigration, predominantly from Europe and in modern times, from Asia.
Joseph Edward Bird was a Canadian legal figure. Bird was the primary lawyer, hired by the Khalsa Diwan Society to represent the passengers on board the Komagata Maru in Vancouver, 1914. Bird fought actively against the threat of his clients' eventual deportation, and he made great effort to challenge Canada's highly restrictive immigration laws. Bird was an advocate for equality, and sought to reform the race-based exclusion laws in Canada. Bird attempted to prove that the passengers of the Komagata Maru should have been able to settle in Canada as British subjects, though he was ultimately unsuccessful; public and political sentiments and policies at the time were overtly racist, and the BC Court of Appeal ordered the Komagata Maru to return to India.
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Continuous Journey is a 2004 documentary film directed by Indian-Canadian film-maker Ali Kazimi. The film chronicles the events that took place during the 1914 voyage of the Komagata Maru.
Mewa Singh Lopoke was a Sikh activist in Canada who was a member of the Vancouver branch of the Ghadar Party, which called for the overthrow of British rule in India. On October 21, 1914, Mewa Singh murdered a Canadian immigration inspector, W. C. Hopkinson, a political act of violence for which he was executed by the Canadian government. In the eyes of Sikh Canadians, Mewa Singh's assassination of Hopkinson was a display of martyrdom, one which they commemorate annually.
The Q to Q Ferry is a passenger ferry in New Westminster, British Columbia. It crosses the north arm of the Fraser River to carry people between the New Westminster Quay and Queensborough, a neighbourhood of the city located on Lulu Island. It was first established in 2017 as a pilot project to provide a more efficient and pedestrian-friendly method of transportation between Queensborough and the New Westminster mainland, which at the time was only connected by the Queensborough Bridge.
Within Canada, anti-Sikh sentiment has included hostility, prejudice, or discrimination against Canadian Sikhs as a religious and ethnic group. This form of racism has affected Sikhs in the country since Canada's Sikh community was established in 1897.
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: CS1 maint: date and year (link)Record numbers of immigrants were admitted in the early 1900s when Canada was promoting the settlement of Western Canada. The highest number ever recorded was in 1913, when more than 400,000 immigrants arrived in the country.
No Chinaman, Japanese or Indian shall be entitled to vote at any municipal election for the election of Mayor or Alderman.
Unless exempted, every person who is registered as a voter under the provisions of the laws of the Province for the time being regulating the Qualification and Registration of Voters at elections for members of the Legislative Assembly, and who is in the possession of his natural faculties and not infirm or decrepit, shall be qualified and liable to serve as a Juror
No Chinaman or Indian shall have his name placed on the register of Voters for any Electoral District, or be entitled to vote at any election of a Member to serve in the Legislative Assembly of this Province.
No licence under this Act shall be issued or transferred to any person of the Indian race, or to any person who is not on the list of voters for the Legislature of the Province of British Columbia.
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)The Canadian government tried to stop the Indian influx with a continuous passage order-in-council issued 8 Jan. 1908, but it was loosely drafted and successfully challenged in court
P.C. 920, 8 January 1908, which prohibited immigrants who did not arrive in Canada by continuous journey from the land of their birth or citizenship, and P.C. 926, 3 June 1908, which effectively added a two-hundred-dollar requirement to all Asians except Chinese and Japanese.
Subsequent to the act, orders-in-council were passed regulating and amplifying its provisions. One of these (P.C. 924, May 9, 1910) levied a tax on all immigrants, the figure varying according to the season of the year.
After the failure on the part of the police to enforce the orders to depart, a Government vessel, the Rainbow, was requisitioned with an armed force to compel compliance with these orders
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