Ottawa: An anti-hate law passed by Canada’s House of Commons will help curb the display of violent pro-Khalistan imagery, the Indian-origin community in that country believes.
At the same time, Bill C-9 – an Act to amend the criminal code that addresses hate propaganda, hate crime and access to religious or cultural places, delinks the sacred swastika from the Nazi hate symbol, bringing relief to Hindus.
The Bill creates a new hate propaganda offence “of wilfully promoting hatred against any identifiable group by displaying, in a public place, certain terrorism or hate symbols” and a hate crime offence “motivated by hatred based on race, national or ethnic origin, language, colour, religion, sex, age, mental or physical disability, sexual orientation, or gender identity or expression.”
“Protest bubbles” or areas will also be created near places of worship within which demonstrations cannot be held, as reported by Hindustan Times.
Most Indian-origin Canadian have welcomed this on the grounds that they may help address the problem of pro-Khalistan groups protesting outside temples in recent years and displaying overt symbols of the movement, including images of terrorists.
“After this bill becomes law, Khalistani terrorists woul
d not be able to depict gory terror propaganda like terrorists killing (late Prime Minister) Indira Gandhi, General (Arun Shridhar) Vaidya and anti-Hindu insignia on the streets of Canada,” Maninder Gill, managing director of the Surrey, British Columbia-based Radio India, said.
A few months ago, pro-Khalistani groups has brought out a float that had depicted the assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984 and that of General Vaidya, former chief of the Army Staff, in 1986.
Once the Bill gets passed by the Senate, it will ban the public use of genuine hatred symbols and the glorification of terrorism, the Hindu Canadian Foundation or HCF said in a statement.
The organisation will be “watching closely Khalistani groups who use symbols of designated terrorist entities like Babbar Khalsa etc. to target and threaten Hindu Canadians, and those who threaten Jewish communities and other faith groups,” the HCF added.
The organisation also welcomed the removal of the term swastika from the list of prohibited Nazi hate symbols and its replacement with the historically accurate term ‘Nazi Hakenkreuz’, describing it as a “landmark victory”.
While describing it as an “important piece of legislation”, the Canadian chapter of the Coalition of Hindus of North America or CoHNA asked Parliament to “take cognisance of the growing Hinduphobia in Canada, particularly the attacks on dozens of Hindu temples in the last few years and the targeted hate and violence by CBKEs (Canada-based Khalistani Extremists) against Canadian Hindus.”
These groups have resorted to violent rhetoric and targeted threats preceding the actual acts of violence, it has said.