A motion in a Canadian provincial legislature in British Columbia to label the 1984 anti-Sikh riots as a “genocide” failed to pass on Thursday.
The motion was moved by Mandeep Dhaliwal, an MLA from the provincial Conservative Party for the riding (as constituencies are called in Canada) of Surrey North.
The motion said, “That this House honours the memory of those who were killed, survivors and families whose lives were permanently altered, with resilience and dignity, in 1984.”
The motion sought the legislature’s recognition of the “importance of education, remembrance and vigilance in confronting anti-Sikh hate, religious persecution, genocide denial and all forms of targeted violence” along with acknowledgement “that the crime and violence against Sikhs across India in 1984 constitute a genocide.”
However, the motion was moved with short notice and did not receive unanimous consent from the Legislative Assembly allowing it to bypass normal procedure and, as a result, failed.
In a post on X, Dhaliwal said, “I brought forward a motion today calling for the formal recognition of the 1984 anti-Sikh genocide. The motion did not proceed.”
He was accused by Ravi Parmar, an MLA from the ruling New Democratic Party (NDP) of trying to use the anti-Sikh violence as “a topic for scoring political points.” “He did it in a way that he knew would fail and that’s disappointing,” Parmar said.
MLA Dallas Brodie, leader of OneBC, said her party “will always oppose foreign separatist propaganda motions being brought into the BC Legislature”. “Shame on the BC Conservatives for pandering to extremism,” she added.
The violence in 1984 followed the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her bodyguards. Thousands of Sikhs were killed across the country in the riots. In 2005, India’s then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh issued an apology in Parliament.
India has been sensitive to foreign legislatures considering such motions. In April 2017, then Ontario Liberal Party Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) Harinder Malhi moved a private member’s motion in this regard and it was carried. That Parliament motion led to the beginning of the rupture in relations between India and the Canadian government under then prime minister Justin Trudeau.
India-Canada relations have now renewed under Mark Carney, who replaced Trudeau as PM in March last year.
