The Vancouver Police are investigating after photos were posted online of someone apparently peeing on the Komagata Maru monument in Harbour Green Park at Coal Harbour.
Const. Brian Montague with the Vancouver Police says after they received the photos they canvassed for additional video and witnesses, and they are confident they will be able to identify the man in the photos.
“Once identified, it will give us the opportunity to interview him and determine his condition at the time this occurred,” says Montague.
The monument to the Komagata Maru commemorates the incident in 1914, where a Japanese steamship, named the Komagata Maru, arrived in Vancouver carrying 376 passengers. Twenty were allowed into Canada, but 356 others were not allowed and the ship had to return to India.
It is viewed as one of the examples of the exclusion laws that existed in the early 20th century, designed to keep out immigrants of Asian descent.
The Vancouver Park Board is angry someone would deface the memorial.
“On behalf of my fellow Commissioners, we are saddened and deeply offended by this disgraceful act,” says Park Board chair Sarah Blyth. “The monument was created in partnership with the Khalsa Diwan Society to embrace multiculturalism and remind people about the devastating impact that racial intolerance and discrimination have had upon our community.”
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