22^nd November 2024 – On Wednesday, Brampton City Council unanimously passed a new By-law to protect places of worship against nuisance demonstrations.  Though, this by-law has received the usual fanfare from the mainstream media and city council patted its own back, it is far from bringing the desired results.

Firstly, the ambiguous definition of ‘nuisance demonstration’ may give the law enforcement agencies an opportunity to be biased against a group of protestors.

As is, Peel Regional Police has come under heavy criticism for their failure to act against the attackers on Hindu devotees. One of its own Police officers was found attacking the Hindu devotees and was later suspended. To add to it, even after three weeks of the temple attack, Peel Police has denied several requests from Hindu community leaders to meet them in-person.

Secondly, Part III of the By-Law raises some even serious concerns. As per Section 6 (b), “section 5 does not prevent persons from peacefully protesting against foreign governments at a Place of Worship”.

Now this is something which is almost to the extent farcical. The reason this By-Law came into existence at the first place is because a pro-Khalistan group which attacked devotees of Hindu Sabha temple without provocation had claimed that they were protesting against the Indian Consular staff which was running consular camp inside the temple premises. They had claimed that the attack was not against the Hindu temple per se. So, is the Brampton City Council giving such groups a free run again to protest outside Hindu temples under the guise of protesting against foreign government? The By-Law is bound to fail its core objective with this caveat.

Thirdly, it also came under criticism from the Canadian Civil Liberties Association which wrote a letter to the Brampton City Council and stated that “As currently drafted, the proposed by-law is likely to chill free speech and lawful, peaceful protests. This by-law uses vague and open-ended definitions that leave it to police officers to make subjective and unpredictable determinations. Any person guilty of an offence under the proposed by-law is subject to a maximum fine of $100,000—which is irrational and disproportionate”

To read the complete by-law, click here – https://www.brampton.ca/EN/City-Hall/Bylaws/All%20Bylaws/Protecting%20Places%20of%20Worship%20from%20Public%20Nuisance%20Demonstrations%20By-law%20173-2024.pdf