Canadian MP condemns growing Hinduophobia in country | World News

Pierre Poilievre, leader of Canada’s main opposition Conservative Party, has condemned growing Hinduophobia in the country.

Poilievre is the first leader of Canada’s major federal political party to address the phenomenon. In an interview with local network Prime Asia, he said: “We must stop the fear of Hinduism and lewd comments about Hindus, as well as vandalism and other acts of violence against Hindu Canadians. This is totally unacceptable.”

He also called for increased security in places of worship, with matching government funding for guards and cameras and other protections against religious violence.

There have been at least five incidents of desecration of Hindu temples in Canada since last July, the latest of which occurred this month at the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Windsor, Ontario. At the time, the Windsor Police Department said it was “investigating vandalism at a local Hindu temple as a hate-motivated incident.” While investigators recovered security camera images of the two individuals, there were no further updates on the matter. There were also no reports of arrests in the previous four incidents.

Senior members of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet, including Foreign Minister Melanie Jolly and Defense Minister Anita Anand, condemned the attacks. In fact, after Anand visited the BAPS temple in Windsor on April 13, she later tweeted that she had “reiterated” to Mandir leaders and the community that such “hate and discrimination” had no place in Canada place. “The repeated vandalism of Canadian Hindu temples must stop,” Jolly tweeted in February. However, Trudeau himself has yet to address the crisis.

Speaking in the House of Commons in January, Liberal MP Chandra Arya asked Canadian authorities to “take serious note of this worrying trend and respond appropriately”.

“Just as Islamophobia and anti-Semitism cause hate crimes against our mosques and synagogues to cause pain for our Muslim and Jewish brothers and sisters, Hindu Canadians are suffering the same pain from growing Hinduophobia ,” he said in his speech. house.

On February 14, the target was Shri Ram Mandir in Mississauga Township, GTA.

The Gauri Shankar Mandir in Brampton was similarly desecrated on 30 January. This follows the defacement of the Mahatma Gandhi statue at the Vishnu Shrine in Richmond Hill last July. The 20-foot-tall bronze statue is located in the temple’s Peace Park. A few weeks later, in September, vandalism occurred at the main entrance of BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Toronto.