On SFJ video threatening Hindus, Canadian Liberal Party MP declares: “Fear is real.”
Since last summer, there has been an increase in anti-Hindu sentiment in Canada, with at least a dozen temples being vandalized with anti-India graffiti or banners. The police have not yet reported any arrests in this relation.
Chandra Arya, an MP for the ruling Liberal Party, emphasized once more that the “fear” that Hindus in Canada experience is “real” following a video from the secessionist group Sikhs for Justice or SFJ calling them to leave the nation even as he was coming under assault from pro-Khalistan elements.
In an interview with CBC News, he made reference to pundit Andrew Coyne’s editorial from Tuesday’s Globe and Mail, in which he stated, “The risk of ethnic and sectarian bloodshed in Canada is real.”
The violence Coyne mentioned, according to Arya, “is going to Hindu Canadians’ blood.” In a speech in the House of Commons, Arya became the first well-known Canadian politician to bring up the issue of the threat to the community.
Since then, he has come under attack on social media by pro-Khalistan individuals, some of whom are either pro-Pakistan or based in Pakistan, as has become customary. “They have grown more bold because nothing is being done to stop the celebration of terrorism or the praising of terrorists,” Arya claimed.
Gurpatwant Pannun, the general counsel for SFJ, made the video public shortly after Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada, said in the House on Monday that there were “credible allegations” linking Indian agents to the murder of Nijjar, SFJ’s key figure in British Columbia.
Since then, the video has been denounced by numerous Canadian politicians, including Pierre Poilievre, the leader of the Conservative Party, and Dominic LeBlanc, the minister of public safety. Trudeau has not yet addressed the issue, and no steps have been made to combat what has been referred to as “hate crime.”
Melissa Lantsman, a member of the Conservative Party, went to some Hindu temples in the GTA on Friday. We heard your message loud and clear, she wrote in a tweet on Saturday. Conservatives support you and denounce the harsh remarks made towards you.
She also urged Canadians to support a petition that was being considered by the House to add the term “Hinduphobia” to the Human Rights Code’s lexicon of terms to define anti-Hindu prejudice and discrimination. In the last 72 hours, the number of signatures on the petition she sponsored, e-4507, has doubled from 9000 to over 18,000 by Saturday night.
Since last summer, there has been an increase in anti-Hindu sentiment in Canada, with at least a dozen temples being vandalized with anti-India graffiti or banners. The police have not yet reported any arrests in this relation.
Arya said that it was “absolutely unacceptable” that Nijjar was killed extrajudicially on Canadian territory.
He continued, “I anticipate the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) apprehending the perpetrators and filing charges.
The Ontario Gurdwaras Committee and the British Columbia Gurdwaras Council have meanwhile urged all Canadian parties to “be unequivocally clear” in their rejection to any suggestion that India was involved in the murder of Nijjar. He was shot and killed in the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara’s parking lot.
