Last week, the House of Commons moved in support of the second reading for Bill C-376, a Bill that would pronounce April Sikh Heritage Month. This is the likely to be the first bill recognizing Sikh heritage at a federal level in the world and the second time in Canada. Given that the NDP is Canada's first federal party to have a leader of Sikh heritage who tabled a similar piece of legislation at a different level of government that was passed with unanimous consent, I was proud to support this Bill on behalf of the NDP government. The positive social, economic, and cultural contributions of the roughly 470,000 Sikh Canadians to Canada's multicultural mosaic can be felt across the country and passing this bill will provide Canadians from all walks of life the opportunity to learn more about the Sikh community. In my statement, I reflected upon the Komagata Maru incident. In 1914, the Government of Canada had put in place a law that prohibited passengers from disembarking in Canada if the vessel they were on had stopped at any point during its journey here. Canada denied entry to nearly 400 Sikh refugees, costing 19 of them their lives upon their return back to India. We as Canadians, have the opportunity to learn from this incident by recognizing the mistakes of our past and building toward a brighter future. The Safe Third Country Agreement aims to prevent people seeking asylum from entering Canada if they stopped in the United States during their journey here. It appears that we have still not learned from the mistakes of our past. We are continuing to turn people away, not on the basis of their claim, but on the basis of the path they took to arrive here, as they search for safety and a better life:
