NDP wants boycott of G20 events in India’s Kashmir region, citing human-rights issues

By Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press on December 1, 2022.

OTTAWA – The federal NDP is calling on the Liberal government to ban certain Indian officials from travelling to Canada and to boycott G20 events in India’s Kashmir region, citing the country’s treatment of minorities.

India started its term Thursday in the rotating presidency of the G20, a forum for the world’s largest economies.

The hosting role involves convening meetings throughout the year, which will culminate in a leaders’ summit planned for next September in New Delhi.

The NDP said in a press release that it wanted a boycott of India’s presidency of the G20, but later narrowed it down to a request that Canada avoid meetings that occur in the region of Kashmir, the site of a protracted conflict with Pakistan.

“The growing number of anti-Muslim and Islamophobic hate crimes, and those toward minorities including Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, LGBTQ+ community, women and Indigenous peoples is appalling,” NDP foreign affairs critic Heather McPherson told reporters.

“New Democrats are calling on the government to strongly condemn India’s discriminatory anti-minority laws, its threats of ethnic cleansing, the persecution of minorities and the arrests of journalists and human-right activists,” she said.

The High Commission of India in Ottawa and the office of Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

McPherson was joined at a news conference by representatives of the World Sikh Organization and the National Council of Canadian Muslims, who said the government of Narendra Modi is espousing Hindu nationalism that puts others at risk.

Jaspreet Kaur Bal, the Ontario vice president of the Sikh group, called India a fascist state.

McPherson said members of Modi’s political party “have called for racist and genocidal violence against Muslims and other minorities in India” but did not name examples of individuals. She said Ottawa should ban such officials from entering Canada.

Last month, the Trudeau government unveiled plans to form closer ties with India as a key component of its Indo-Pacific Strategy.

“We believe that Canada has an important role to play in ensuring that states with which we engage, and with which we hope to further develop relationships with, have similar human-rights values,” McPherson said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 1, 2022.

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