June

Born in 1881 in the village of Lopoke, Punjab, Mewa Singh immigrated to Canada in 1906, with the same pursuit as his fellow countrymen but his life would come to a tragic ending. Upon arrival in Canada, he joined the community of Punjabi laborers on the green chains of the close-knit Fraser Mills community in New Westminster, BC.

The Canadian Government's exclusionist immigration laws ensured that no Indian men, women, or children could enter the country legally. In 1908, the government passed the Continuous Journey Legislation which prohibited people from entering Canada by sea if they did not make a "continuous journey" which was impossible to do from India given its distance from Canada.

Archival documentation supports that it was a dark time of extreme racism and anti-Asian sentiment in Canadian history. In the months following the aftermath of the Komagata Maru incident in April 1914, the racially charged tensions between the Canadian government officials and the Sikh community were escalating.

On September 5, 1914, a bloody episode emerged as Bela Singh Jian, entered the Sikh Temple in Vancouver, and opened fire. Bela Singh was considered a chief informant of Inspector W.E. Hopkinson of the Canadian Immigration Department. Hopkinson was perceived to be actively working against the Sikh immigrant community.

Bela Singh murdered two Sikh men who were deemed to be providing passengers on board the Komagata Maru with humanitarian aid. Mewa Singh was present at the temple and was peacefully performing prayers when the shooting occurred. In retaliation to these murders, Mewa Singh shot and killed Hopkinson on October 21, 1914, outside of the Provincial Court of British Columbia.

Mewa Singh confessed to his crime and willingly went to the gallows to accept his punishment. On January 11, 1915, Mewa Singh became the first and only Sikh to be executed on Canadian soil. Outside the New Westminster jail approximately 400 devastated Sikhs gathered in the rain to mourn his loss.

After he was hung, Mewa Singh's body was turned over to the Sikhs, where the somber procession carried his body for several miles back to Fraser Mills where he was cremated.

Every year since his death in 1915, Sikhs have continued to commemorate the tragic circumstances and the life and death of Mewa Singh with annual observations. Today, he is considered a martyr by the Sikh community for making the ultimate sacrifice of giving his life to fight for the dignity and rights of his people during highly tumultuous times.