108 years ago in 1914 the Komagata Maru ( a Japanese ship with 376 South Asians. Note: India was a part of the British Empire at that time.) were denied entry to Vancouver. In 2008, the Anniversaries of Change, a collective of community cultural groups, Indigenous, academia and labour groups, commemorated the racist incident & racist Continuous Passage Act targeting those from India. In 1908 the federal government set into law, the Continuous Passage Act which required all immigrants to travel directly to Canada from their country of origin. Since there were no ships that travelled directly from India to Canada, it restricted immigration from India.
