Remembering Officer Hopkinson: The Forgotten 1914 Courthouse Assassination

Officer William C. Hopkinson was not a soldier, but he was assassinated in the line of duty while enforcing Canada’s immigration law in 1914, which is now viewed as racist.

The movie Guru Nanak Jahaz, funded by the Canadian government, depicts how he was assassinated by Mewa Singh Lopoke to avenge his Sikh brothers who were denied entry into Canada during the Komagata Maru incident.

Today, some regard Mewa Singh as a hero and an inspiration, despite his conviction and execution for assassinating Officer Hopkinson inside a courthouse while he was unarmed. Singh continued to shoot him after he was already dead, using two pistols until both were emptied.

"No, Mewa Singh was a criminal of the highest order," says Bob Rai, a former Sikh who left the religion and describes it as a cult, shares his insights into why the leadership of Canada’s Sikh community views murderers and terrorists like Mewa Singh as heroes, while simultaneously reshaping history to portray the community as prominent military servicemen in the world wars.