A Canadian MP has introduced a motion in the country’s Parliament to recognize and prohibit caste-based discrimination in Canada. The motion M-128 was recently introduced by the New Democratic Party (NDP) MP Don Davies. It calls for changes in the Canadian Human Rights Act to add caste as a prohibited ground of discrimination.
“Caste based discrimination is a part of the lived experience of many Canadians and ought to be explicitly recognized and prohibited under the Canadian Human Rights Act. Due to the tireless efforts of advocates, some institutions have recognized caste-based discrimination as a human rights violation as an inferred group of discrimination. It is time we made this explicit and send a clear message that this is not tolerated in our society”, said Canadian MP Don Davies, as reported by Canada based media publication Voice of Online.
At a press conference last Friday where the motion was unveiled, Davies was also joined by Manoj Bhangu, who won the first case of caste discrimination at the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal. “Millions of people worldwide still face appalling and dehumanizing discrimination based on caste and similar systems of inherited status. Caste discrimination remains prevalent in Canada and would allow people to seek legal recourse if they faced discrimination”, said Bhangu, as reported by Voice of Online.
Hindus in the West are being increasingly singled out ostensibly in the name of banning caste discrimination. While a legislation seeking a ban on caste discrimination sounds excellent in theory, it has become a political instrument in the West being used by all sorts of anti-Hindu stakeholders – Islamists, Khalistanis, woke liberals, etc. Western countries are home to immigrants from all over the world. Furthermore, different kinds of discriminations exist in multiple communities; singling out Hindus and accusing so-called “upper caste” Hindus of practicing caste-based discrimination when no solid evidence of widespread caste-based discrimination in the West exists whatsoever, smacks of a vicious political agenda.
Seattle became the first city in the US to ban caste discrimination. Following Seattle, the State Assembly of California passed a bill exclusively banning caste discrimination. However, the Bill was vetoed by California Governor Gavin Newsom on the grounds that ample legal provisions already existed in California to prohibit “discrimination based on race, colour, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, and other characteristics”, and therefore, “this bill is unnecessary.
Hindus are a minuscule minority in countries like the US and Canada; thus passing legislations specifically defining caste in terms of this community, such bills and motions are essentially taking the liberty of labeling a minority community as harboring hierarchical and oppressive practices. It’s akin to implying that the religion practiced by the minority community is discriminatory and divisive and thus members of that community, that is Hindus, need racial profiling and vigilance.
Most importantly, countries like the US and Canada should be legally debating the premise if singling out a minority and forcefully defining their religion on their behalf ( the assumption that Hindus practice caste discrimination ) and passing specific laws targeting that minority, violates the constitutionally guaranteed rights to minorities in their countries and interferes with their right to a life of dignity.
Hindu organizations in Canada are raising their voice against the motion M-128 recognizing and prohibiting caste-based discrimination, introduced by Canadian MP Don Davies.
The Canada chapter of the Coalition of Hindus of North America ( CoHNA Canada) has been at the forefront of protesting this motion in Canada.
“MP Davies, introduced motion M-128 today, a bill that misuses Human Rights’s noble intent, to single out, profile, & target a specific groups of people based on their origin. CoHNA has repeatedly raised concerns about the use of “caste” to target Indians and Hindus specifically”, wrote CoHNA in an X post.
The X handle of CoHNA runs an entire thread refuting the Hinduphobic motion introduced by the Canadian MP. “Thanks to centuries of colonial propaganda, caste is not a neutral word. Check out how leading dictionaries and search engines define the word. Canadian Hindus know that they will be targeted as a result of these laws. Canadian state-funded media and textbooks targeting young middle school kids – ALL deliberately link caste to Hinduism. E.g. – a “caste explainer”video by Canadian govt funded news agency. Repeat after us – caste is not a neutral term! We’ve seen the malicious misuse of “caste” to target Indians & Hindus in a Cisco lawsuit brought by the State of California in 2020 – a case that has now completely collapsed. Yet laws and policies passed using Cisco as an excuse remain in place”, says the thread further.
CoHNA will also host a webinar soon where Hindu Canadians at the forefront of advocacy and education will share their views regarding the increasing caste profiling and targeting of Hindus in Canada.
It’s not the first time that motions seeking specific prohibition of caste discrimination as a category have been introduced in Canada. Motions recognizing caste-based discrimination were reportedly passed by the town of Burnaby in BC and Brampton in Ontario as well as the Toronto District School Board in Canada last year.
In March 2023, the Toronto School Board became the first in Canada to recognize caste-based discrimination in the city’s schools and asked a provincial rights body to help create a framework to address the issue.
This motion also specifically targeted the area’s South Asian diaspora, particularly, the Bharatiya and Hindu communities. One wonders if the intent of such motions singling out Hindus at educational institutions is to prevent caste discrimination or stereotype and demonize Hindus. Educational institutions are supposed to be value-neutral; if a school board is passing laws recognizing caste discrimination, then it should also pass separate laws recognizing racism, Xenophobia, antisemitism, etc. There exist multiple levels of discrimination within Islamic and Christian societies as well. Why not tackle all these prejudices together? Why single out Hindus?
To kids from different backgrounds studying at a school, such blatant targeting sends very wrong and disturbing messages. It’s a sure-shot recipe for harassing Hindu kids and sanctioning Hinduphobia if anything. One can thus argue that if such motions explicitly recognizing and prohibiting caste discrimination were to be introduced at multiple levels in Canada, similar resolutions should be introduced to condemn Hinduphobia as well to give a more level playing field to Hindus.
Forcefully defining someone else’s religion for them isn’t exactly altruism. It is motivated propaganda, akin to running a systematic smear campaign against a particular community. Just imagine schools in Canada giving workshops to kids on the dangers of radical Islam, or on the derogatory condition of women in Islam, or alerting them to the rigidity of various divisions within Christianity. Could you even imagine such workshops being given in the West? Then, how is it completely normal to defame and demonize 21st-century Hindus and accuse them of caste discrimination without a shred of solid evidence?
One doesn’t deny the fact that there might be incidents of caste discrimination reported in Western countries here and there, like in the case of Canada where a case has been reported and judgment delivered. But one or two cases here and there shouldn’t become a pretext to target a community; rather existing mechanisms should be strengthened to strictly prohibit all kinds of discrimination prevailing in society.
When it comes to Hindus in Canada, the most important issues affecting their immediate existence seem to be temple attacks and the alarming rise in anti-Hindu hate crimes. Hate speech from Khalistanis targeting Canadian Hindus has become a commonplace occurrence in Canada. This hate speech doesn’t see the caste or creed of Hindus, it targets Hindus at all levels.
Thus, it is strange that instead of protecting the life and liberty of Hindus in Canada and safeguarding their right to practice their religion, the political establishment seems more interested in creating faultlines within Hindus in Canada by introducing motions alleging caste discrimination is rampant in Canadian society.
If it is indeed so rampant, where is the evidence? There is a plethora of evidence regarding anti-Hindu hate speech, temple attacks, and Khalistanis in Canada threatening Hindus and Bharatiyas. But one hardly comes across even a single news report giving evidence of widespread “caste discrimination” in Canada.
Then, why are the political stakeholders in Canada hyperboling the “caste discrimination” narrative? Or is the real purpose to deflect the attention from real issues affecting Hindus and by extension, prevent them from uniting as a homogenous community to safeguard their collective interests.
Why not target US and Canada, for the genocide of natives, which is occuring continuously and the legacy of residential schools whereby natives were force fully removed from their parents, last of which “officially” closed only in 2008, but still continue, also a campaign against White racism and fascism which exists in the white countries, the targetting of blacks and browns should be condemned in Bharat and Indian parliament and assemblies target the white racism. Bharat and Hindus are targets now, after Russian and Chinese, whites the low born dogs are good at demonizing others, while themselves biggest genociders, barbaric, bloodthirsty race. Not long ago under George WMD Bush, Muslims were targetted and words like “islamic terror”, “Islamofascism” were deliberatly used We shd target these Apartheidists. Its CIA war as these White pigs are fecal nematodes o, also Corona was spread by Fauci and the genocide of 25 million as well as around 15 million muslims killed in Bush Obama wars should be called for answer. India shd become a full member of SCO Now, Russia China India Iran Indonesia, axis all Asia and Africa will fall in line and NATO US white nazis will meet a total match