The City of Burnaby has declared September 5 as a day to honour a slain Indian journalist.  

Daring editor Gauri Lankesh was allegedly murdered by right wing extremists in Bengaluru, on the ill-fated date in 2017.   

She consistently wrote against superstition and growing fanaticism under the current Hindu nationalist BJP government in New Delhi. Attacks on religious minorities and political dissidents have spiked ever since the BJP came to power with a brute majority in 2014.  

Through her writings, Lankesh had also challenged and questioned those in power, and raised her voice against state violence.

Her death was rejoiced by some of the supporters of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.  

On Friday, August 27, the City of Burnaby proclaimed September 5 as Gauri Lankesh Day.  

Mayor Mike Hurley made the proclamation, which describes Lankesh as a “courageous Indian journalist who stood up for truth and justice” and “laid down her life… in her fight against repression and for human rights”.  

Last year, the City of Burnaby had proclaimed a day to honour Jaswant Singh Khalra. The towering human rights activist was killed by the Indian police for documenting the cases of those kidnapped and eliminated in an extra-judicial manner in the name of ending Sikh militancy in Punjab.  

Khalra was abducted on September 6, 1995 from his home in Amritsar, and later murdered.   

Burnaby City Councillor Sav Dhaliwal and former Burnaby School Trustee Baljinder Kaur Narang have been instrumental behind these proclamations, which were requested by Radical Desi and other members of the South Asian community.