Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown held a press conference on Wednesday denouncing a number of recent incidents of vandalism at Hindu temples in Peel Region and across the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).
Dating back to July 2022, there have been four major incidents of vandalism at Hindu temples in the GTA, the most recent coming last week at Mississauga’s Ram Mandir, which had one of its outside walls defaced with graffiti.
Brown was joined by Hindu leaders from across the GTA and Deputy Chief Mark Dapat of the Peel Regional Police (PRP).
“Any act of intimidation, vandalism or hate in a place of worship is despicable,” said Brown.
“And what I’ve seen across the GTA has been very cowardly, disappointing hate towards the Hindu community.”
All of the reported instances of vandalism involved spray-painted graffiti on the exterior walls of temples, and in one instance, on a Mahatma Gandhi statue.
“I think it's important as leaders that we stand up and say to any community that is facing hate, that there is zero tolerance for that,” Brown said.
“I'm grateful that [PRP Chief Nishan Duraiappah] has been very clear that there is zero tolerance for hate crimes and that he has taken and assigned resources to make sure those that committed acts of hate in a place of worship will be found, they will be prosecuted and they will be held accountable.”
Ram Mandir founder and spiritual leader Pandit Roopnauth Sharma said the recent act of vandalism at his temple and other similar incidents in the region are blatant displays of anti-Hinduism.
“It is becoming a point whereby we cannot just say we’ll let it go, we have to take a stand. The police department is doing an excellent job; as of this morning they were still in our temple, downloading footage to try to find the culprits,” Sharma said.
“But across the board, we have to tell our political leaders or politicians, the government taking the normal stance on this issue is not enough, we need to go beyond. We need to establish tribunals to investigate these groups, to seek them out and to prosecute them.”
Dr. Budhendranauth Doobay heads the Vishnu Mandir in Richmond Hill, which had its Gandhi statue defaced with graffiti last summer.
“It is despicable to wake up in the morning and see your temple, or whatever place of worship, with all this graffiti on it. We have left our countries to come to Canada, where it has been very safe. Canada was so safe, you’d leave your door shut but unlocked, but now today we see all these things happening at places of worship,” Doobay said.
Deputy Chief Dapat did not confirm whether police believe any of the incidents are linked, however he said it’s a possibility investigators are considering.
“As far as a connection goes, we've had incidents that have occurred at two Hindu temples, one in Mississauga and one in Brampton, so certainly we can explore whether that's the only connection,” Dapat said.
“But there are other working theories that the investigators are exploring at this time.”
The spray-painted messages in all four of the incidents contained anti-India sentiment, and two mentioned “Khalistan,” a name created by Sikh separatists for the concept of an independent Sikh homeland in the state of Punjab.
Brown said that people should be careful not to jump to any conclusions about who is responsible for the vandalism, saying the investigation is still in its early stages.
“The one thing that the chief said to me is not to make presumptions on where this originated, and so I would just say, let the investigation unfold, and I think we'll get a full picture of who is responsible and what the motivation for that hate was,” he said.
Dapat said police continue to investigate last week’s incident at Ram Mandir, examining evidence left at the scene and working with the local community.
He urged community members to take proactive action and contact police if they have any information.
“Somebody knows who was responsible for this crime and if you know who that is, please contact the police or contact Crime Stoppers,” Dapat said.
