A Toronto filmmaker is angry after a Tory campaign ad targeting Southeast Asian voters co-opted a copyrighted image from one of his documentaries, and then took a week to respond to his demands for its removal.

But Ali Kazimi is even more baffled as to why the Conservative party chose his image in the first place, given that it depicts one of the lowest moments in Canada’s relationship with Southeast Asian immigrants.

Kazimi, a film professor at York University and a Gemini-winning filmmaker, is the creator of Continuous Journey, a film about the 1914 Komagata Maru incident, in which a ship carrying 376 immigrants from India was detained in the Vancouver harbour and threatened by a battleship before being turned back to Asia.

The film’s promotional image is a montage Kazimi created of an Indian man and his son superimposed in front of the ship full of passengers.

So Kazimi was surprised when he stumbled on a campaign ad for Alberta MP Tim Uppal, which opens with Kazimi’s montage and then cuts to Uppal sitting in a chair beside a projector, as if Uppal is watching it on a home theatre screen. The ad then cuts to Stephen Harper in a head covering in front of a Sikh temple.

A voice-over in Punjabi states: “For more than a hundred years, our (people) also worked very hard to make Canada strong. It was not always easy for our community.” The voice-over then extols Harper’s promotion of business and immigration ties with India.

Kazimi is upset his work was used without his consent — something he says he never would have given. “I will not participate in anything that either romanticizes, distorts, or glosses over the horrific realities of that period,” he said.

Kazimi said he emailed Uppal with his complaints more than a week ago, but the commercial wasn’t removed from the Conservative party’s website and YouTube channel until Friday — soon after Kazimi was interviewed on CBC Radio about the flap.

Kazimi said he wants the Tories to acknowledge they made a mistake and apologize.

A staffer for Uppal said the candidate was not available for comment because he was at a campaign event, and directed the Star to the party’s spokespeople.

Party spokesman Chris Day, asked why the party chose this image and whether they would apologize to Mr. Kazimi, said, “we are not running that particular ad right now. We do not discuss campaign strategy in the media.”