Ontario passes motion calling 1984 anti-Sikh riots ‘genocide’

TORONTO: Relations between Canada and India suffered a body blow on Thursday in the Ontario Assembly as it became the first legislature in Canada to carry a motion that described the 1984 anti-Sikh riots as “genocide”.

This came as a shock to New Delhi as the motion was moved by a Member of Provincial Parliament or MPP belonging to the ruling Liberal Party of Ontario, which had voted down a similar motion last summer.

The private members’ motion was moved by Harinder Malhi, the MPP from the riding (as constituencies are called in Canada) of Brampton-Springdale. After a debate, the motion was carried with 34 MPPs (the equivalent of MLAs) voting in favour and five against. Those present at a vote numbered just about a third of the assembly’s total strength of 107.

With the PMO aware of the gravity of this development, the Indian government is understood to have communicated its concern over the matter in advance of the motion to Canada’s Liberal Party government.

Similar concerns were also conveyed to the Ontario government. India’s Consul General in Toronto, Dinesh Bhatia, under whose jurisdiction this falls, had spent a frantic couple of days trying to prevent this occurrence.

Frustrated over the lack of action by Trudeau’s lieutenants, an official said, “If they can’t manage their own party… they have to own the responsibility.” That was for allowing the MPP to proceed with the motion, thereby creating a platform for attacks on India over its “intolerance”.

The Supreme Court on Friday said a plea seeking a Central Bureau of investigation (CBI) probe into a 1984 anti-Sikh riots incident in Kanpur in which 127 persons had died, will be heard along with a petition in which an SIT inquiry has been ordered.

A bench of justices Dipak Misra and AM Khanwilkar tagged the plea with another similar petition related to the 1984 riots which will come up for hearing on April 24. “Since an SIT inquiry is already going on, we are tagging this petition with the earlier one,” it said.

The plea filed by Manjit Singh GK, president of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee, said that even after 33 years, no constructive action has been taken by the Centre and the Uttar Pradesh government to provide justice and rehabilitate and compensate the victims of the 1984 riots in Kanpur.

The petition has claimed that the Centre and the UP governments have not taken any action to punish the accused persons despite having “clear and cogent data”.

“Looking at the gravity of the situation and apathetic attitude of the respondent (governments), it is expedient and in the interest of justice that likewise Delhi, in the inquiry and investigation with regard to deaths, disabilities, destruction of property and compensation, the investigation may be referred to either the CBI or the SIT, so that the truth could be unearthed and victims could be compensated.

“It is pertinent to mention here that the state police machinery is not in a position to do a fair, just and reasonable attempt to apprehend the accused and compensate the victims as per law,” the plea said.

It said that around 127 persons, belonging to the Sikh community, were “brutally murdered/burnt to death” in Kanpur’s different police station areas.

The apex court is already hearing another similar petition by S Gurlad Singh Kahlon, a member of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee, seeking direction for setting up an SIT to ensure speedy justice to riots victims.