Spice Radio’s initiative got a major boost from none other than the Former Green Party Leader on Tuesday, March 8.  

Member of Parliament for Saanich-Gulf Islands Elizabeth May described Hands Against Racism as “inspiring” in her tweet.  

May, who has previously served as the Leader of Green Party of Canada, has been vocal on environmental racism and climate justice. She was a dedicated activist before jumping into politics and has 326.6 K followers on Twitter.   

Started by Burnaby-based radio station on the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. in 2015, the anti-racism campaign continues to grow as it enters its eighth year. The annual event coincides with Holi, an Indian festival of colours. Participants are encouraged to dip their hands in wet colours and leave their palm prints alongside a message against bigotry on a white sheet of paper.  Due to COVID 19 restrictions, the annual event is being held online since 2020. The campaign runs through January 15 to March 21, the international day for the elimination of racial discrimination.     

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and BC Premier John Horgan have already endorsed it in the past, and New Democratic federal leader Jagmeet Singh has also participated.   

Gurpreet Singh  

Premier John Horgan and opposition leader Kevin Falcon might disagree on number of issues, but the recent developments in faraway Ukraine have brought them on the same page.  

In light of the Russian attack on an Eastern European nation, Falcon asked for banning Russian vodka from BC liquor stores. Horgan did not waste his time and promptly agreed. The two political rivals were then happy to pat themselves on their backs for scoring a point by standing up for the rights of Ukrainians.  

Canadian politicians of all stripes are almost unanimous in their criticism of “tyrant” Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Rallies after rallies are being held across Canada in solidarity with the people facing a Russian onslaught on the ground.  

However, such massive outrage remains missing whenever Palestinians come under attack from Israel. The Israeli occupation of Palestine has continued for years, while Canadian politicians have largely looked away. BC politicians are no exception. Even the NDP government, which has many members from labour backgrounds and from trade unions that often preach international solidarity chose to ignore their cause.  

The ongoing demand to ban Israeli wines from BC liquor stores has been conveniently overlooked. In fact, Palestine activist Hanna Kawas, who has been picketing outside liquor stores for years as part of the Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, was told by someone in the government that it was a question of “free choice”. Wow. That unwritten rule appears to have been thrown out of window in support of Ukraine.  For the record, the then BC Liberal government did not ban US liquor back in 2003 when our neighbours next door attacked Iraq. 

In contrast to Ukrainians, who are portrayed as heroes while packing off from Canada and traveling back to defend their homeland, BDS has mostly received hostile press. Palestinians trying to rise up against repression remain potential terrorsists in the eyes of many Canadians, whereas Ukrainians' resistance is being romanticised.  

If this doesn’t display the double-speak, then what does?  

Nevertheless, this shouldn’t surprise anyone. Most BC politicians of Indian origin have also remained silent on the repression of the Indian state against the people of Kashmir and other parts of that nation. Attacks on religious minorities, especially Muslims and Christians, have grown under a right wing Hindu nationalist government in New Delhi, but neither Horgan nor his Indo-Canadian colleagues have ever dared to stand up against brutes in India, The one exception was during the recently concluded farmers’ agitation, when thousands of farmers protested outside New Delhi against unjust farm laws which were finally revoked after their yearlong struggle in 2021.    

The only argument they offer is that it is a federal matter. Again, if that is the case, why jump the Ukrainian bandwagon when the federal government is already speaking about it? 

Why such selectivity? I have no answer. Is it racism as Ukrainians are Europeans, while Palestinians and India minorities are not? Or is it because Israel and India have well-oiled propaganda machines with tentacles spread in Canada? Only Horgan or Falcon can tell.  

Jennifer Sherif is among the two recipients of the annual Hands Against Racism campaign awards.   

Started by Burnaby-based Spice Radio, on the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. in 2015, the anti-racism initiative has entered its eighth year.    

As part of this campaign, the radio station honours individuals who have done anti-racism work, at the annual event which is often organized close to Holi, an Indian festival of colours that binds together people of different ethnic backgrounds.     

This year, Sherif is being given an award for making special pins in memory of the victims of Indian Residential Schools (IRS). With the recent findings of the unmarked graves of Indigenous children at the former sites of IRS, the issue has come into the limelight internationally.  

Sherif’s pins represent the orange shirt taken away from Phyllis Webstad, an indigenous child who went to the IRS. Following the discoveries of unmarked graves, people in Canada began sporting orange shirts to show their solidarity with the First Nations.    

An indigenous educator, Sherif was also instrumental behind an online petition asking for a statutory holiday on the National Aboriginal Day.  It has received more than 36,000 signatures.  

In a virtual event to be held at 12 pm on Saturday, March 19, a day after Holi, Sherif will receive the award by Spice Radio CEO Shushma Datt.   (Those who want to watch the entire program can go to the radio station’s Facebook page.)   

Datt separately wore the pin and thanked Sherif’s community of Tsalagi Nation on social media.  

Sherry Duggal, a prominent performing artist, will read a poem dedicated to the children of IRS on the occasion.  

The second recipient is Annie Ohana, a renowned anti-racism educator and social justice activist.  

Ohana has been a part of many grassroots level movements and is a strong defender of human rights. She has been a tireless ally of indigenous communities, immigrants and refugees, and other marginalised groups.  

Datt’s interviews with the two recipients will be major highlights of the annual event, which will be joined by several other distinguished personalities, such as BC Parliamentary Secretary for anti-racism initiatives Rachna Singh, climate justice activist Donna Clark, Hijab-wearing Muslim feminist Dr. Nazia Niazi, and students associated with Ohana’s Mustang Justice movement. 

This year’s campaign went global, as well known participants from faraway places like England and India sent in pictures with their hands up in the air. Among them were Ravi Singh, the CEO of Khalsa Aid, an international humanitarian organization, award winning Punjabi author Balbir Madhopuri, filmmaker Rajeev Kumar, and much acclaimed differently-abled youth role model and champions in various fields Yashveer Goyal.  

India-based social justice activist Ranjit Kaur has lent her support to the anti-racism initiative started by Spice Radio.  

Launched in 2015 on the birth anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr. by a Burnaby-based radio station, Hands Against Racism has entered its eighth year.   

The campaign went global when Kaur stepped forward to post her picture on social media, with a hand up in the air, holding a “Stop Racism” sign in the other.   

Kaur had lost her father in a racist attack on the Guru Nanak Singh Gurdwara in Surrey in January, 1998.  

Nirmal Singh Gill was a caretaker, who died in the line of duty when white supremacists invaded the temple.  

Kaur was in India when the incident happened and has been living there since.  

She is socially active in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, Punjab and has been vocal against injustice and repression of women and marginalized people.  

On the birth anniversary of King Jr. on Saturday, she took to social media to show support to Hands Against Racism, which has been widely endorsed in Canada by people including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and BC Premier John Horgan, besides many prominent anti-racist activists.  

On the night of Sunday, January 16, members of the Indian Diaspora came together to denounce draconian laws of the world’s so-called largest democracy.   

To mark the 93rd birth anniversary of the towering US civil rights movement leader Martin Luther King Jr., they burnt copies of the contentious Indian laws, such as Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) right outside the Indian visa and passport office in Surrey. These laws give police and security forces sweeping powers to suppress any voice of dissent.  

Since King had advocated for defying unjust laws while fighting against racial segregation, Radical Desi, an online magazine that covers alternate politics, gave a call to the public to come and burn copies of the UAPA and AFSPA that are widely being used to silence political opponents and torment religious minorities under a right wing Hindu nationalist regime.  

The participants raised slogans against the Indian government and asked for the release of political prisoners and rolling back of the repressive acts.   

They also held out signs bearing the pictures of prominent scholars being incarcerated in the Indian jails.  

Those in attendance were Radical Desi director Gurpret Singh, a renowned Punjabi poet Amrit Diwana, and independent social justice activist Tejinder Sharma.  

Close to the 24th anniversary of the murder of a temple keeper who died in the line of duty while defending the place of worship, his portrait was installed during a brief ceremony held on Saturday, January 8.

Nirmal Singh Gill was killed in a violent attack by white supremacists on January 4, 1998 at the Surrey-Delta Gurdwara.

On Saturday, anti racist activists came together for the unveiling of his picture right inside the senior centre located in the temple premises.

Among those present were former Neo Nazi and anti-hate educator Tony McAleer, and the first turbaned Sikh RCMP officer Baltej Singh Dhillon. Dhillon not only endured racism both within and outside the force, but had also investigated Gill’s murder.

Imtiaz Popat, the cofounder of Coalition Against Bigotry, who has made a documentary on Gill, was also in attendance. All three individuals paid tributes to Gill and emphasized that it was important to keep his story alive to fight back against racism that refuses to die. They also urged the senior centre to be renamed after Gill, who laid down his life while resisting a racist attack on the temple.

The Gurdwara President Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who did the unveiling amidst Sikh religious slogans of victory, also spoke on the occasion. The ceremony took place on the sidelines of celebrations of the birth anniversary of the tenth master of Sikhism, Guru Gobind Singh, who had denounced bigotry and called for the entire humankind to be treated as one race. The picture was sent from Toronto by Gill’s grandson, Paramjit Singh Sandhu, who couldn’t make it to the event due to a death in his family.

Gurpreet Singh  

As soon as the news came of an Indian model bagging the Miss Universe title, many of my media colleagues and Facebook friends of Indian origin began congratulating her.  

Being born in India and deeply attached to that country, I too would have been happy for 21-year-old Harnaaz Sandhu who won the title on December 13, but preferred to remain indifferent.  

Though I have nothing against her, as she must be a deserving candidate, the very fact that she was crowned at a beauty pageant in Israel was too difficult to ignore.  

The event was held in a country known for occupying Palestine and committing grave atrocities against the original inhabitants of the land. Even so, the calls for a boycott against the pageant for this reason were completely overlooked. This was in sharp contrast to the recent decision of a few nations, such as Canada, to have a "diplomatic boycott" of the upcoming Olympics in China for its "dismal human rights record". What can be more illustrating to see the selectivity and double standards of the big powers when it comes to social justice? While China continues to be portrayed as a villain, the crimes of Israel were conveniently pushed under the rug.  

So much so, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, under whose watch the attacks on religious minorities and political dissidents have spiked, congratulated Sandhu. Notably, the repression of non-Hindus under his right wing Hindu nationalist government rarely raises red flags in the western democracies who are obsessed with China.  

It’s a pity that India, which remained under British occupation for years until 1947 and traditionally supported Palestine in its liberation movement, is now celebrating its growing cozy relations with Israel. Modi became the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Israel in 2017. Ironically, he belongs to the ultra Hindu supremacist group RSS, whose founders glorified Hitler and justified the Jewish holocaust, and yet the state of Israel was happy to take him into its embrace.  

Welcome to the new world order, where human rights have taken a back seat. Sorry Harnaaz Sandhu, I cannot be happy for your achievement in these circumstances. Maybe another time. 

An anti-racism campaigner and trailblazer in the South Asian media industry has now taken the lead to encourage her listeners to shop local, for boosting the provincial economy that is struggling to recover from the pandemic.  

Wearing a Buy BC apron in her video message to the public, Spice Radio CEO Shushma Datt has urged them to avoid cross-border shopping during the holiday season, and rather buy goods and services locally to help Canadian business.  

Ravi Kahlon, the minister for jobs and economic recovery, applauded Datt on social media, calling her a “champion” for Buy BC, which is the provincial government initiative.  

In the video posted on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, Datt can be seen laying out juices and dairy products and a bag of fruits grown in BC to make the point.  

“I was thinking we live in this country, work here and we spend all our money outside of Canada. Why do we do that and how does it affect us? If we shop locally, we would support the local businesses. If we shopped outside of Canada, we would be hurting our economy,” she can be heard saying in the footage.   

Datt also emphasised that it was important to save jobs that are going to be lost.  

Datt had previously launched a Hands Against Racism campaign in 2015 that continues to grow. She has also received a provincial award for that initiative. In order to the encourage local economy, she is currently offering special advertisement packages for small businesses that are fighting to recover from the financial crisis caused by COVID 19. 

In spite of rain and cold weather, South Asian activists gathered outside the Indian Visa and Passport Application Center in Surrey on Friday, December 10 to raise their voices for political prisoners being incarcerated by the world’s so-called largest democracy.  

Organized by Radical Desi, the rally started with a moment of silence for 14 civilians killed by the Indian army in Nagaland on December 4, and renowned journalist Vinod Dua, who passed away recently.  

Dua was a known critic of the current right wing Hindu nationalist government in New Delhi under which attacks on religious minorities and political dissidents have grown sharply.   

The demonstrators held out signs asking for the release of jailed journalists and scholars, including former Delhi University Lecturer Professor G.N. Saibaba, who is disabled below the waist, as well as prominent columnists Gautam Navlakha and Anand Teltumbde. All these people were held under trumped up charges for standing up against repression and state violence.  

Teltumbde’s brother Milind, who was a Maoist insurgent, recently died in an alleged faked encounter with the police. He was not even allowed to visit his grief stricken mother on bereavement leave.  

Those in attendance raised slogans against draconian laws, and asked for the repeal of repressive acts that are being used to muzzle the voices of resistance.  

The speakers at the rally included prominent Punjabi writer Amrit Diwana, who recited a poem dedicated to Milind Teltumbde. Others who addressed the gathering were Sikh activists Kesar Singh Baghi and Kulwinder Singh, leftist activist Tejinder Sharma and cofounder of Radical Desi Gurpreet Singh.  

Among the politicians who came out to show their support were BC Liberal Party leadership candidate Ellis Ross, Liberal MLA John Rustad, and anti-racism campaigner and city councillor from Mission, Ken Herar.  

An event for the launch of “From Nazneen to Naina”, based on the work of the Bollywood diva, held in Surrey on Sunday, November 28 was an eye opener for many who are unaware of the spill over effect of right wing politics of New Delhi on the Indian cinema.  

Authored by Canada-based author Gurpreet Singh, the book tries to situate the story of Indian actress Kareena Kapoor Khan in the broader context of growing attacks on minorities, especially Muslims, in the world’s so called largest democracy since 2014, when the Hindu Right government under controversial Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power with a brute majority.  

Khan has faced a constant backlash for marrying a Muslim man, adopting Khan as her last name, and naming her two sons Taimur and Jeh. These actions are being interpreted as an assault on the Hindu faith by the religious chauvinists, who have become emboldened under Modi.  

Most speakers at the Sunday event, who have already read the book, agreed that it helps in comprehending the current political environment in India and its effect on Bollywood. They were unanimous in their views that the Indian cinema, a cultural space that was once respected for its secularism, has become vitiated because of the trickledown effect of the policies and ideology of the present government.   

At least two prominent scholars, Puran Singh Gill and Raghbir Singh Sirjana, emphasized that the Punjabi Hindu family Kareena was born into has strong secular and progressive values, which have come under attack from the supporters of Modi, and that being a woman she remains highly vulnerable.  

Others who spoke on the occasion included the publisher Satish Gulati and Surrey-Greentimbers MLA Rachna Singh. The latter is the wife of the author. Gulati revealed that another publisher had refused to publish the book because of political references, which explains the atmosphere of fear in India; Singh acknowledged that the author has tried to highlight the ugly reality of Indian politics under Modi. Incidentally, her maternal grandfather, Tera Singh Chann, and the great grandfather of Kareena, Prithviraj Kapoor, were cofounders of the Indian People’s Theatre Association, which was established in British occupied India to educate working people of their rights.  

Renowned story writer Harpreet Sekha said that it takes some courage to write about such issues especially under a fascist regime.  

The editor of the book, Kimball Cariou, who is also associated with the Communist movement, said that it was an important read to understand the real challenges before the flag bearers of pluralism  in today’s India.  

Two other prominent speakers included progressive Punjabi poet Amrit Diwana, and actress and poet Sherry Duggal. Diwana expressed his apprehensions over growing violence against minorities in India, while Duggal extended her solidarity with the author. 

Earlier, the book was unveiled by famous radio star Gaurav Shah, who has been following the Indian cinema very closely. He admitted that the book is written from a very different angle, and is not about movie gossip, and should be read by everyone.  

Well known media personality Gurvinder Singh Dhaliwal, who was the Master of Ceremonies, called the book a political statement that can’t be ignored in these challenging times.  

Later, Gurpreet Singh said that he wanted to draw the attention of the world to the problems faced by minorities and celebrities like Kareena, who try to stand up for them against majoritarian extremists in India. He added that his book is a small attempt to enlighten people in the diaspora about that.   

Held at the Punjabi book exhibition being run by Gulati at # 111-8312, 128 Surrey, BC (open from 10 am to 7 pm seven days a week until January 2022), the event started with a moment of silence for more than 700 famers who laid down their lives during a year-long agitation in India since November 26, 2020.