Vancouver Komagata Maru memorial vandalized again

The Komagata Maru memorial in Vancouver’s Coal Harbour neighbourhood has been vandalized.

This is the second time the monument has been damaged in 14 months. According to police and images shared online, the glass on the memorial was shattered sometime over the past few days. The VPD says the damage appears to have been intentional.

“Detectives from a number of VPD specialized units are working together to collect evidence and identify the suspect(s) in this troubling incident,” said Const. Jason Doucette. “This investigation will take time, but we’ll leave no stone unturned in our attempts to solve this senseless crime.”

The damage to the Komagata Maru memorial comes just days after parts of the Vancouver Olympic Cauldron were shattered in another act of vandalism. Police say they are trying to determine whether the two incidents are connected.

Damage is seen on the Komagata Maru memorial in Vancouver on Wednesday October 5th, 2022.

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“We don’t just want to find the person who did this, but also understand why this cherished memorial was targeted,” Doucette said of the Komagata Maru monument.

The memorial is meant to acknowledge a grim chapter in Canada’s past.

In 1914, the Komagata Maru ship was barred from entering the country because of discriminatory and racist laws. The ship, which was carrying more than 370 passengers, including Sikhs, Muslims, and Hindus, from British India was turned away after arriving in the Burrard Inlet.

After the vessel returned to India, many of the passengers were shot and killed, while others were thrown in jail, being labelled as “political agitators.”

Spokesperson and vice president of the Descenants of the Komagata Maru Society, Raj Singh Toor, says he’s grateful the response to the crime has been swift.

“When these memorials are vandalized, the painful memories … come back,” he told CityNews. “But we do not wish to dwell on the pain of the past. Instead, we are grateful to the police for taking this vandalism very seriously.”

Toor says the city should do more to keep incidents like this from happening.

“The city should do something more to protect the historical memorial, and they should probably set up a camera there, or something else to stop this racism,” he urged.

Toor explained the vandalism represents how much further we have to go as a society.

“[It] is a reminder that we still have a lot of work to do. The diligent work of the Vancouver police does give us hope, and even in the dark days, they’re still making progress to building a more peaceful and tolerant Canada,” he said.

In August of last year, white paint was found splashed across the memorial, with words and handprints also covering the monument. The paint was splashed across names of the nearly 400 Sikh, Muslim, and Hindu people who were on the vessel.

One person was arrested and charged four months after the initial vandalism was reported.

With files from Kareem Gouda