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¶ … ship called the MV Sun Sea carrying 490 asylum seekers from Sri Lanka, was intercepted off the B.C. coast. The arrival of these Tamil migrants sparked a controversy as to how Canada should receive Tamil and other potential refugees fleeing Southeast Asia. On one side of the controversy, Canadian officials voiced concern that the migrants could be criminals and terrorists, and should not be allowed to enter Canadian borders. On the other hand, these accusations could have been utterly baseless, originally espoused by the Sri Lankan government for the purpose of deflecting international attention from their human rights abuses. Indeed, screenings of 76 Tamil migrants who arrived from Sri Lanka in October 2009 revealed that all were eligible to claim political refugee status, despite rumors that they might have had criminal ties. The recent debate regarding whether to accept the Tamil migrants on the MV Sun Sea was reminiscent of similar controversies that have taken place throughout Canadian history, dating back as early as the 1914 arrival of 376 Indians at Vancouver on the Komagata...
The similarities between Canada's rejection of the migrant Southeast Asian population aboard the Komagata Maru in 1914, and the aversion to the Southeast Asian migrants aboard the MV Sun Sea in 2010, raises questions as to whether Canadian border policies are grounded in racism and xenophobia, or legitimate security interests.
Tamils of Sri Lanka have justifiable reason to seek refuge in other nations. Since as early as the 1950s, the majority Sinhalese-dominated government has systematically oppressed the Tamil minority, infringing on religious and linguistic freedoms, as well as restricting the people's freedom of movement and educational advancement. Over the years, the government's escalating efforts to stigmatize and marginalize the Tamil population led to growing resistance by the Tamils, and eventually erupted into a brutal civil war in 1983. At that time, the Sri Lankan military initiated a massive killing expedition that left an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 Tamils dead, and tens of thousands displaced from their homes.
Human rights organizations have…
Human rights organizations have reported that in spite of official denials throughout the 1980s through the present, the government has initiated political killings, abductions, and armed clashes with the Tamils. Currently, the UN is investigating thousands of unresolved disappearances of innocent civilians there. The separatist resistance group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which formed in opposition to government repression, have also violated human rights and engaged in terrorist acts, mostly within Sri Lankan territory. Nonetheless, it is dangerous and irresponsible for the Canadian government and media to espouse speculative rhetoric that Tamil migrants are terrorist or have links to al-Qaeda.
Like the Tamils of Sri Lanka, the Ghadar was an organization founded by Punjabi Indians in Canada with the aim to liberate India from oppressive British colonial rule. The movement began with a group of immigrants who settled in Canada. It is important to note that migrants and migrants from Southeast Asia have been an integral part of Canada's culture and history for over a century, although they have faced long-standing resentment and prejudice from our white majority. For example, around the time of the 1914 arrival of the Komagata Maru at Vancouver, which carried Indians escaping the oppression of British colonial rule, British Columbia passed stringent laws discouraging Indians from immigrating to Canada. Indians were also denied the right to vote, prohibited to run for public office, serve on juries, and were not permitted to become professionals. Many race-based laws were enacted against Japanese and Chinese nationalities, who were also immigrating in large numbers to abandon challenging circumstances at home. At the same time, however, massive numbers of white European immigrants were welcomed into Canada. White Canadians seemed to specifically fear that darker-skinned people would take their jobs, a fear that may remain today.
However, there is one example of white refugees who were refused entrance into Canada pursuant to anti-Semitic fear in the years leading up to World War II. Approximately 900 German Jews fleeing persecution on 1939 the ship, St. Louis, were forced to return to Europe, where most of the passengers were later killed in Nazi concentration camps.