VISIT CANADA 4

Victoria is British and has remained so since Kipling visited it at the turn of the twentieth century. Men from our generation speak with a clearly discernible British accent although the younger generation seems to be under the influence of the American brand of the language. Victoria is a small town with none –too- broad streets. Its main street called Government, is the main shopping mall that runs for a kilometer before ending into a China Town that all North American cities seem to have. China Town in Victoria is the second oldest in North America presumably after its counterpart in San Francisco. Victoria has a beautiful waterfront and just walking along it, is a pleasurable experience. Many hotels including the Empress and Legislature Building (also called Parliament; probably a hangover from the days when British Columbia was self-governing and had not yet joined the Canadian Confederation) are located along the waterfront. We also saw roadside booking counters for horse-drawn carriage tours. (See above). We looked around for an Indian restaurant as I had had enough of Raviolis, Tacos, Quesadillas and Tortillas while staying for last two months in California. Unfortunately, the restaurant had closed for the day since it was already past nine. Canada being in the Northern Hemisphere has a long day (16-17 hours) during Summer and we had to get used to that for the next few days.

We returned to the hotel after ten but the darkness had not yet set in. I tried fiddling with the table radio and was a little taken aback when Lata Mangeshkar blared out. The song was followed by a commentary in Punjabi and then it was Punjabi all the way. Yes, I had stumbled on a 24 hour Punjabi Radio channel broadcasting from the City of Vancouver.

The first Sikhs who visited Canada (Vancouver) were the soldiers of the British Army (the Sikh Lancers and Infantry). They passed through Canada on their way back to India, after participating in the Diamond Jubilee celebration of Queen Victoria in London, in 1897. On their way back from Canada to India, they met other British Army Sikh soldiers in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore and told them about the opportunities in Canada, before going back to Punjab. Significantly, 1899 saw the first batch of Sikh immigrants into North America, both at Vancouver and at Victoria in Canada and at San Francisco in the United States, and most of them had served in the Indian Army in Far East. More than 5000 South Asians, over 90% of them Sikhs, came to British Columbia before their immigration was banned in 1908. The Canadian Government even conceived a scheme to deport all Sikhs to British Honduras in the same year. After the 1960s, Canada's immigration laws were liberalized, allowing far more Sikhs to immigrate to Canada. The Sikh population has rapidly increased in the decades since. Presently, Sikhs numbering over 300,000 constitute a visible minority in Canada. Today almost half of Canada's Sikh population live in British Columbia. Ujjal Dosanjh, a Sikh, served as the Premier (Chief Minister) of British Columbia from 2000 to 2001 before moving out as Federal Health Minister. He had arrived as a teenager in Canada. Barely able to speak English, he worked in the sawmills of British Columbia, before moving on to a career in law. Canadian Government released a postal stamp in April 1999, commemorating the 100^th anniversary of the Sikhs in Canada and to quote Tarik Ali Khan, “From the lumberyard to the postage stamp, the Sikhs of Canada seem to have made it”.

We planned to visit the star attraction of Victoria on the following day – the Butchart Gardens. But before that, I would like you all to see a picture that was hung in the corridor of our Hotel. Mukul took its snap, with and without flash since he wanted to avoid the glare appearing in the photo.

I find the theme of the picture particularly interesting. His Holiness as he sits (?) for the portrait, looks a little younger than God but notice the transformation on the canvas.