No, it's not the officer training test that James Tiberius Kirk cheated at when he was a cadet at Starfleet. It was a ship of Sikh immigrants that, back in 1914, could not dock at Vancouver. Refused entry because its passengers were "Orientals," the Komagata Maru returned to India, where — ugh, let's just say that at the hands of the Raj, many of the unfortunates she carried met a bad end.
In Parliament today, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau formally apologized for the incident and the racism that inspired it. "Canada cannot solely be blamed for every tragic mistake that occurred with the Komagata Maru and its passengers," he said. "But Canada’s government was, without question, responsible for the laws that prevented these passengers from immigrating peacefully and securely. For that, and for every regrettable consequence that followed, we are sorry." Result: standing O.
Gee, it's good to know that even after so many years, there's someone to push back against statements like "We always have in mind the necessity of keeping this a white man’s country." In 1914, that KKK-like declaration came from the mouth of the Tory premier of British Columbia. Today, we hear it in Donald Trump's voice. May decent Americans not wait 100 years to tell him he's full of it. We cats HISS and PURR at the same time.
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