1914

On the 19th, 125 Vancouver police officers and 35 special immigration agents attempted to board the vessel but are beaten back. Four days later, on July 23, under the guns of the naval cruiser HMCS Rainbow, the Komagata Maru is escorted out to sea and begins the journey to Calcutta.

Bhai Mewa Singh, a witness embroiled in the politics surrounding the Komagata Maru, shoots Canadian immigration inspector and spy William Hopkinson at the Vancouver Courthouse on October 21, in an attempt to stop the injustices done to the Sikh community. After the assassination, Mewa surrenders and is put on trial and convicted to execution in one of Canada’s quickest juridical processes to date.