Toronto: Harinder Malhi, the Indo-Canadian member of the Ontario provincial parliament and the mover of the ‘1984 genocide motion’ in the House last April, has been given a berth in the Ontario cabinet.
The 38-year-old daughter of Canada’s first turbaned MP Gurbax Singh Malhi was sworn in as Minister of the Status of Women on Thursday. The decision by Premier Kathleen Wynne to elevate Malhi seems to have been taken with an eye on Sikh votes as Ontario goes to the polls in June. Critics have said that the motion, with obvious sanction from Wynne, was aimed at dividing or breaking up the strength of the Indo-Canadian community.
The old British ploy in India of ‘Divide and Rule’ seems to have been adopted wholeheartedly by Canadian Liberal politicians – who, analysts say, want to break up Indo-Canadians into various linguistic, religious and regional segments so that they can all serve as disparate vote banks for Liberal candidates.
Malhi represents the riding of Brampton-Springdale in the Ontario assembly. She joins another Indo-Canadian woman minister Dipika Damerla in the Ontario cabinet.
Interestingly, her elevation to the cabinet comes when two senior Indo-Canadian MPPs Amrit Mangat and Vic Dhillon have been ignored. It is being speculated that because of her 1984 genocide motion, Malhi could help her Liberal Party get the floating Sikhs votes which may drift to the New Democratic Party (NDP) which has just elected Jagmeet Singh as its national leader.
Interestingly, as a member of the Ontario assembly, Jagmeet Singh too had introduced a similar motion on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, but his motion failed. He was also denied a visa to India in 2013.
Malhi’s genocide motion in the Ontario assembly in April 2017 read: “That, in the opinion of this House… should reaffirm our commitment to the values we cherish — justice, human rights and fairness — and condemn all forms of communal violence, hatred, hostility, prejudice, racism and intolerance in India and anywhere else in the world, including the 1984 genocide perpetrated against the Sikhs throughout India, and call on all sides to embrace truth, justice and reconciliation.” The motion was rushed through in the provincial parliament by 34-5 votes in a House of 107 members. Most members were absent at the time and the Conservatives did not support the motion.
Reacting strongly to it, India had rejected it calling it a “misguided motion which is based on a limited understanding of India, its constitution, society, ethos, rule of law and the judicial process”. Several organizations of Indo-Canadians and community bodies have also criticized the motion by Harinder Malhi.