24^th September 2021 – In a letter written to Hindu Forum Canada, the City of Burnaby has regretted the language it has used in its proclamation to commemorate ‘Gauri Lankesh Day’.

City of Burnaby commemorated 5^th September 2021 as ‘Gauri Lankesh Day’ citing various reasons such as the deceased journalist fought for human rights and against superstitions in the society. The South-India based journalist was killed by unknown assailants on 5^th September 2017 and her murder trial is still pending with the provincial court in India.

To City’s proclamation, Hindu Forum Canada (HFC) had written a letter to Mayor Mike Hurley and asked the City to withdraw its support to the event. HFC claimed that the proclamation is an attempt to defame Hindus and Hinduism and the controversial proclamation would set a wrong precedent in the country.

Yesterday, a letter, in response to HFC’s request, from the mayor’s office said that City would be revising its process to review and approve proclamations and suggestions from HFC would be incorporated. The letter read that ‘we regret that our language was not sufficiently precise in this case’. The letter acknowledged that this is a ‘sensitive and complicated’ matter.

The High Court of Karnataka has recently dropped the charges against the main accused during the murder trial.