How Was 2022 for Canadian Hindus? — Part 1
As we put 2022 behind and look forward to 2023, I thought it’d be a good time to see how the 2022 fared for the Hindu community in Canada.
As per the recent Canada population census, Hindus are a 830,000+ strong community across Canada, majority of them calling Ontario their home. If we include other Dharmic groups (Jains, Sikhs and Buddhists), the number will exceed 1.5 million. Hindus have contributed to the success and prosperity of Canada for decades across various fields. They are your doctors, your lawyers, your dentists, your healthcare worker, your pharmacist, your realtor, your software engineer and what not. Hindus have shared their rich cultural heritage as well — dance forms, food, music, architecture, festivals and so on — with this country (and we have something to cheer about regarding that in 2022), taking the concept of multiculturalism to the next step.
However, in spite of such rich contributions, the year brought various challenges for the community from across the spectrum — anti-social elements, media, school boards and above all, the government itself. While the community responded well too in almost all instances, in this blog, I’d rather focus on the nature of the beast and not so much on how the beast was faced. And what learnings we carry to 2023 based on all this?
I’ve categorized the aggression in five different categories and we’ll take a look at each one of them with the help of some examples in this two-part blog. This blog has the first three categories while the next one will have the other two, plus the community response and way forward.
1. Attack on Temples
A Series of Hindu Temples Vandalized (incl. sacred spaces and deities) or Burgled Within Weeks
The year started rather bad for Hindu temples in Canada, especially in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), with series of break-ins, thefts and vandalization of property including sacred spaces and deities. All this within the first two months of the year starting. While about 20 odd temples suffered overall, the estimate, if the minor and unreported ones are included, runs into dozens.
Some of the incidents include Shri Hanuman Mandir in Brampton (unsuccessful break-in), Sri Gauri Shankar Mandir in Brampton (>$4K-$5K cash stolen), Mata Chintapurni Mandir in Brampton (>$30,000 cash stolen), Hindu Heritage Centre in Mississauga (rummaging of donation box, ransacking main office and multiple statues of Hindu Gods and Goddesses broken), Ram Mandir in Mississauga (unsuccessful break-in), Bharat Mata Mandir in Brampton (donation box stolen).
Pandit Yadu Nath Sharma of the HHC said,
“I turn on all the lights and make sure to look out the windows before opening the temple,”
Mahatma Gandhi Statue Vandalized at Vishnu Temple
The attack on temples didn’t stop for the rest of the year but only intensified.
In July 13, 2022, on the auspicious day of Guru Purnima, the iconic Vishnu Temple of Richmond Hill (northern suburb of Toronto) was targeted with the statue of Mahatma Gandhi vandalised and defaced with graphic words such as “Rapist” and “Khalistan”.
Dr. Budhendra Doobay, chairman of the temple, said the statue has been at its current location, a peace park, for more than 30 years. It has never been vandalized in any way, he said.
“Besides a feeling of a disgust, I was disappointed,” he said.
“We live so peacefully in Richmond Hill here for so many years and nothing, nothing, nothing has ever happened like this. The graffiti is in such big black letters. We hope these things don’t happen. But what can you do?” he added.
Khalistanis Vandalize BAPS Temple with Anti-Hindu Graffiti
On 14th September, 2022, one of the most iconic temples in North America, the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Temple in the Etobicoke (Toronto) area was targeted.
A video showing the graffiti of “Hindustan Murdabad” (with “Hindu” written in big letters), essentially meaning “Death to Hindus” (considering “Hindu” was the word they wanted to highlight), and “Khalistan Zindabaad” on the entrance gate of BAPS Swaminarayan Temple in Toronto (Etobicoke) was circulated in social media.
It should be noted that this is not the first time this temple has been targeted. On April 14th, 2021, ex-liberal MP, Carolyn Parrish, in response to BAPS temple being turned into a vaccination center, tweeted: “Etobicoke’s pop up clinic which is proposing to accept Malton L4T “hottest spot” residents using some Peel allocation of vaccine which is in very short supply. THERE IS NO PUBLIC TRANSIT! It’s an institution which many Malton residents will not attend for religious reasons.” This was followed by a thumbs down sign. The tweet, mysteriously, has a different, more weighed in text now.
2. Attack on our Festivals and Deities
North America, just like India but in a different way, has witnessed increasing attacks on Hindu festivals and Deities. We definitely see this in the United States, especially in the university campuses, how Hindu festivals are depicted in the most perverse manner, often amounting to calls for complete boycott of the festivals.
Canada wasn’t left behind. However, there was one difference. While in the US, it is the non-state actors that engage in such Hinduphobia, Canadian Hindus witnessed, to their utter shock, the government agencies getting involved in vilifying Hindu festivals.
Leena Manimekalani Insults Maa Kaali Showing Her Smoking Cigarette, Drinking
On July 2, 2022, Leena Manimekalai, a poet and a film maker based in Toronto, tweeted, “Super thrilled to share the launch of my recent film — today at @AgaKhanMuseum as part of its “Rhythms of Canada”
Link: https://torontomu.ca/cerc-migration/events/2022/07/under-the-tent-launch/
I made this performance doc as a cohort of https://torontomu.ca/cerc-migration/under-the-tent/
@YorkuAMPD @TorontoMet @YorkUFGS
Feeling pumped with my CREW❤️”
The tweet also tagged York U AMPD (York University School of Arts, Media, Performance & Design), Aga Khan Museum, Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University), and York University’s Faculty of Graduate Studies.
The poster showed a women dressed as Goddess ‘Kaali’ smoking, depicting her as a “smoking women”, while holding Trishul in the left hand and LGBTQ flag in the second right hand.
Leena Manimekalai was also a speaker at the infamous Dismantling Global Hindutva conference in September 2021 that called for annihilation of Hindu faith.
Khalistanis Disrupt the Diwali Celebrations, Make Obscene Gestures
On October 24, 2022, as the Hindu community was gearing up for their biggest festival of the year, Diwali, celebrating the return of Prabhu Shree Ram to Ayodhya and the victory of good over evil, some eternally sad and desperate people couldn’t bear the celebratory vibes.
As the Canadian Hindu community gathered at the Westwood Mall parking area in Mississauga with food, music and firecrackers, a Khalistani Group descended onto the parking lot as well to disrupt the Diwali celebration.
While the Hindu community was seen waving the Indian flag, enjoyinh food, playing music and bursting firecrackers — just having a good time, basically — the Khalistani group engaged in sloganeering and making obscene gestures to the Hindu community. One person was injured during the stand-off that lasted for about 1.5 hours.
Unfortunately, the Canadian media reports tried to mischaracterize it as a “war zone” or “street brawl”, both-siding when it wasn’t the case. In reality it was just one group of Hinduphobes trying to spoil and prevent the celebration of a Hindu festivals — which is how it should have been reported.
Ontario’s Ministry of the Environment and Environment Canada Singles Out Diwali for Air Quality Warning
However, the biggest shock, the first of the day of the Diwali, was the one given by Environment Canada and the Ontario’s Ministry of Environment.
On October 24, 2022, Environment Canada issued an air quality alert for Toronto and the surrounding areas, stating, “A SPECIAL AIR QUALITY STATEMENT is in place due to the possibility of deteriorating air quality as a result of fireworks for Diwali”. A joint statement released by the federal agency and Ontario’s Ministry of the Environment warned “high levels of air pollution” were anticipated across parts of Toronto and surrounding areas Monday night due to expected fireworks for Diwali combining with light winds and stagnating weather conditions.
It’s not new for Environment Canada to issue quality statements. However, whenever such statements have been issued in the past, like the ones related to the fireworks of New Year’s Eve, Canada Day, Victoria Day etc, the cause has never been mentioned, as pointed out by even prominent personalities, in addition to the common people. This one is believed to be the first air quality statement that targeted a particular festival, and in this case, the biggest Hindu festival of Diwali.
What was particularly concerning about this, and also mentioned earlier, was that while other Hinduphobia episodes discussed earlier have been by non-state actors, this was the first time the state got involved in Hinduphobia.
Khalistanis Falsify Facts and Insinuate Hindus As Violent Mob Killing Children
In September 2022, a historic event happened when the House of Commons in Canada, unanimously passed the Private Members Motion, presented by a Liberal MP Chandra Arya, to proclaim every year November as the national Hindu Heritage Month in Canada. This meant that, across Canada, the month of November, every year, will be celebrated as Hindu Heritage Month, which becomes an opportunity for the Hindu community to organize events and let the Canadian brothers and sisters know about the rich Hindu culture, history, philosophy and more.
However, in November 2022, as Canada was celebrating the first country-wide Hindu Heritage Month, Khalistanis placed posters across Mississauga and Brampton insinuating that Hindus killed an 8 days old Sikh infant, misrepresenting the entire Hindu community as violent children-killing mob.
The banners, along with the appeal for the political campaign of Khalistan referendum, were placed on public road-side lawns across the neighborhood including many Gurdwaras.
3. Government Support to Hinduphobia
While the community was emerging from the shock of December 2021 when the Toronto Public Library hosted the highly notorious Hinduphobe, Christophe Jaffrelot (a speaker at the 2021 Dismantling Global Hindutva conference that called for annihilation of Hindu faith and singled out five Hindu last names, deeming them as purveyors of violence and hate — never condemned or distanced by Jaffrelot), the year 2022 saw many other agencies and politicians join in.
Puslinch Township Demonizes Swastika by Removing the Street Named “Swastika Trail”
On September 28, 2022, the five-member council of the Township of Puslinch changed the name of “Swastika Trail” to “Holly Trail”. The township of Puslinch is near the Kitchener area — about an hour away from Toronto. The “Swastika Trail” is a private road which, based on earlier rules of the township, couldn’t be renamed. The proposal went up for a vote and was voted “Yes” by all the members, except the Township Mayor James Seeley.
The name change occurred in spite of full knowledge of the council about the history of Swastika and how the name of the trail got associated with it, and the fact that the name had nothing to do with antisemitism. While the earlier council members had successfully resisted the name change attempts, the current council failed to do so.
Edmonton MP Blake Desjarlais Decides to Participate in a Conference Attacking Hinduism
In October 2022, Justice for All Canada, released a poster of a conference titled, “Exporting Hindutva Threats and Violence into the West” which featured many speakers, including Blake Desjarlais, Member of Parliament from Edmonton Griesbach and a member of Hagmeet Singh’s New Democratic Party (NDP).
The introduction of the conference mentioned, “Help us make a difference by learning and promoting awareness about this issue. Join an expert roundtable on the rise in violence perpetrated by RSS wings and its affiliates in Canada and Western nations.”
The description on the registration page mentioned, “In recent years, professors, lawmakers, filmmakers, and historians have faced unprecedented backlash from Hindutva followers in Canada and other western nations.”
Among other speakers also included Leena Manimekalai, who also spoke at the Dismantling Global Hindutva conference in September 2021.
Even the Dismantling Global Hindutva, just like this conference has stated in its banner, started by stating that they are not Anti-Hindu but Anti-Hindutva but the speakers ended up asserting, every single day of the conference, that Hindutva is same as Hinduism and the two cannot be separated.
MP Blake Desjarlais Dog Whistles Genocide
On October 21, 2022, Blake Desjarlais, Member of Parliament from Edmonton Griesbach, presented a petition e-3981, saying, “Thank you very much Speaker, and I have two petitions to present on behalf of Canadians. One petition is in regards to ensuring that we acknowledge that the Indian government’s discriminatory anti-minority laws, the rising threat of genocide against Muslims, and the prosecution of Christians, Dalits and other minorities in India. Additionally, they want to include human rights experts in all trade and bilateral agreements with India to safeguard the freedom, justice and human rights of prosecuted minorities there”.
The petition furthered the misinformation campaign that a supposedly majoritarian (Hindu) government is being anti-minority. The MP did not provide any facts to support his statements. In addition, the MP also claimed to speak “on behalf of Canadians”, suggesting that Canadians want this — of course, no proof provided.
Mississauga City Allows Public Space for Khalistan Referendum
On 6th November 2022, Mississauga City allowed the Khalistan Referendum in Paul Coffey Arena in Mississauga, a government-owned facility.
The publicity material for the referendum also targeted the Hindu community as infant-killers.
Continued to Part 2…
References:
https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/hindu-community-in-canada-concerned-as-two-more-temple-break-ins-reported-101644746462835.html
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/hindu-temples-peel-break-in-1.6346570
https://twitter.com/CoHNAOfficial/status/1491628907790942210
https://www.facebook.com/hinduheritagecentremississauga/posts/pfbid032pjQ1a2PEAGnrQS9F1zH9Mu2UJwAyR3ibzG3bnCFGKEtRRj4sNxrnkRR2eJE48THl
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/gandhi-statue-defaced-richmond-hill-1.6519873
https://globalnews.ca/news/8988849/vishnu-temple-richmond-hill-vandalism-york-regional-police/
https://twitter.com/DebashishHiTs/status/1570417190649864193
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/hindu-temple-toronto-khalistan-graffiti-anti-india-1.6584478
https://twitter.com/LeenaManimekali/status/1543200394477805568
https://www.wionews.com/entertainment/what-is-kali-movie-poster-controversy-outrage-against-leena-manimekalai-for-maa-kaali-smoking-poster-494896
https://torontosun.com/news/local-news/warmington-rowdy-diwali-celebration-in-mississauga-under-scrutiny
https://ca.style.yahoo.com/environment-canada-diwali-air-alert-fireworks-racism-225723027.html
https://www.cp24.com/news/environment-canada-removes-reference-to-diwali-in-gta-air-quality-statement-1.6121909
https://twitter.com/DeepakAnandMPP/status/1587458551118798848
https://www.thestar.com/politics/2022/09/30/ontario-township-to-rename-swastika-trail-after-years-of-controversy-over-street.html
https://twitter.com/justiceforallcn/status/1582540367261761536
https://twitter.com/TazeenHasan/status/1585500548153081856
https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/sikh-secessionist-referendum-continues-in-canada-871731672.html
https://hindutimescanada.ca/peel-school-removes-politically-sensitive-assignment-given-to-grade-7-after-hindu-group-registers-complaint/
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/star-columnists/2022/04/01/anti-muslim-film-the-kashmir-files-a-dangerous-step-in-indias-descent-into-hate.html
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/academics-harassed-criticism-india-politics-1.6402486
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/caste-india-canada-students-1.6450484
https://thepointer.com/article/2022-12-16/us-canadians-are-not-a-threat-to-you-are-old-world-conflicts-behind-the-ugly-outcry-against-a-new-mosque-proposal-in-brampton
