New Delhi: Days after Canada’s opposition leader Pierre Poilievre cancelled a Diwali event that was to take place at Parliament Hill, a number of Indian groups have decided to skip a rescheduled celebration, while others said they haven’t been invited to the 5 November event.
The event, to be hosted by Conservative Member of Parliament Todd Doherty, was originally scheduled for 30 October, but was cancelled with no reasons given amid the diplomatic standoff with India.
“Diwali has already passed. The spirit of Diwali was lost. Most of the temples are not participating in this event. I believe the cancellation of the Diwali event was the tipping point. The Indo-Canadians are tired of the Canadian politicians ignoring their issues,” Overseas Friends of India Canada (OFIC) president Shiv Bhasker told ThePrint Sunday.
Bhasker added that the OFIC, which has been involved in hosting the event alongside Doherty in the last few years, has not been invited to the event on 5 November. The OFIC was co-hosts for the original event scheduled on 30 October, which was cancelled by the office of Poilievre.
The Diwali celebrations on Parliament Hill in Canada, were first hosted by Deepak Obhrai, a former Conservative party member, who died in 2019. Doherty, is the most recent member of parliament to continue this tradition, last hosting the event in 2023, along with OFIC.
The event has seen a number of political leaders attend in the past. In 2023 Poilievre was one amongst the 540 odd guests, along with the former High Commissioner of India to Canada Sanjay Kumar Verma in attendance at the celebration, which was co-hosted by Doherty and the OFIC.
The Canadian Leader of Opposition, has however, been attending multiple individual Diwali events hosted across the country at different temples including in Scarborough, Ontario and a Tamil concert in Whitby.
Huge turnout at the Diwali Tamil concert in Whitby to celebrate the victory of light over darkness.
Let’s bring home Canada’s promise: that anyone who works hard gets a nice home on a safe street under our proud flag. pic.twitter.com/TIuW5Lk0mo
— Pierre Poilievre (@PierrePoilievre) November 2, 2024
Celebrated the festival of lights with patriotic Canadians at Scarborough's Aisha’s Textiles Store & Pickering's Rajdhani Sweets. Shubh Diwali. pic.twitter.com/S4VTA5p7m8
— Pierre Poilievre (@PierrePoilievre) November 2, 2024
The cancellation of the celebrations on 30 October left the Indian community in Canada “feeling betrayed and unjustly singled out,” Bhasker wrote to Poilievre on 29 October.
Bhasker at the time had sought an apology from the Canadian leader of opposition, a demand which has still not been responded to.
Since the OFIC’s letter last week, a number of community groups including the Hindu Federation and the Voice of the Vedas Cultural Sabha have written letters to Poilievre, underlining their disappointment in the cancellation of the celebrations at Parliament Hill.
In November 2023, the Diwali celebration on Parliament Hill occurred about six weeks after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau first alleged Indian government officials of having links with the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar—a Sikh separatist and an Indian designated terrorist—which set off the chill in diplomatic ties.
Nijjar, was killed outside a gurdwara in Surrey, British Columbia on 18 June 2023. India denied any involvement in the killing, calling the allegations “absurd and motivated” at the time. In October the diplomatic tiff escalated, with the Canadian government requesting India to waive diplomatic immunity on six diplomats, including Verma, the then high commissioner.
New Delhi rejected the request, withdrew the diplomats and expelled six Canadian diplomats including acting high commissioner Stewart Wheeler and deputy high commissioner Patrick Hebert.
Since then, the Canadian government has also alleged that Union Home Minister Amit Shah authorised the surveillance and violence against Sikh separatists in Canada, through leaks to the American newspaper The Washington Post.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), in response, handed over a diplomatic note to a Canadian representative, protesting in the strongest terms “absurd and baseless claims” made against Shah.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
Also Read: India slams Canada’s claim that Amit Shah behind attacks on Sikh separatists. ‘Absurd, baseless’