Mewa Singh Lopoke (1881 - January 11, 1915) was a Sikh activist in Canada who was a member of the Vancouver branch of the Ghadar Party, which called for the overthrow of British rule in India.

[3] Singh was one of over 5000 Punjabi men who arrived in Canada in the three years before 1908, the date when the Canadian government passed the Continuous Journey Regulation to prohibit further immigration from India.

[3] Once Singh arrived, he joined the community of Punjabi labourers in British Columbia, finding employment working on the green chain of Fraser Mills in New Westminster near Vancouver.

[3] As a member of the small Punjabi community in Vancouver, Mewa Singh became familiar with people on both sides of the political barrier dividing local Sikhs.

[6] Formed by Indians living in North America, the Ghadar Party was a movement founded in April 1913 that sought to undertake an armed struggle to gain India independence from British rule.

[11] While the ship was still in the harbour, three of the aforementioned men entered a hardware store in Sumas and purchased several firearms (two semi-automatic pistols and two revolvers) along with ammunition.

[3] Shortly after, Mewa Singh, who had crossed the border ahead of his group, was apprehended by a provincial constable for avoiding the regular check point by attempting to go through the woods.

[12] As the only one arrested by Canadian authorities, Mewa Singh was facing up to ten years in prison on the charges of trafficking weapons and carrying concealed firearms.

[14] Although Hopkinson and Reid deemed his statement unsatisfactory, Mewa Singh was not considered a major player and was released on August 7, 1914, after paying a $50 fine with the help of the Vancouver Sikh Gurdwara.

[3] In the months following the return of the Komagata Maru to India in April 1914, the immigration officers in Vancouver faced backlash from the local Sikh community, whose members made headlines both as victims and as perpetrators.

[15] During this time, Bela Singh Jian - one of W.C. Hopkinson's chief informants - became convinced that the Sikh Ghadarites in Vancouver would target him for being a spy within the community.

As the historian Hugh M. Johnston writes, the speed at which the BC legal system processed the case of Mewa Singh had no precedent in modern Canada.

According to Singh, Hopkinson had pressured him to provide evidence to implicate the Shore Committee - a group of Vancouver Sikhs offering provisions and support to the Komagata Maru passengers.

[21] Mewa Singh's sentiments can be summed up in this excerpt from his translated court statement: "You, as Christians, would you think there was any more good left in your church if you saw people shot down, and killed in it?

[27] For the Sikh community of Vancouver, Mewa Singh is a martyr and his martyrdom is celebrated every year in the Khalsa Diwan Society's Gurdwara on Ross Street.

[29] In 2019, SAF International, a Canadian NGO that provides aid to individuals across India, visited Mewa Singh's ancestral village of Lopoke.

Once completed, the school will feature brand new SMART[clarification needed] classrooms, a water reservoir, access to solar power, and a plaque that honours Mewa Singh's legacy and tells his story.

A petition for this cause appeared on Change.org following Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's exoneration of six Chilcotin chiefs who were executed by the colonial government of Canada over 150 years ago.