Demonstration outside Canadian Hindu temple broken up after police spotted weapons

BRAMPTON, Ontario -- A Hindu temple near Toronto where violence erupted over the weekend was the site of another demonstration this week that police broke up after they say weapons were spotted in the crowd.

Peel Regional Police said in social media updates that the demonstration in Brampton, Ontario was declared an unlawful assembly shortly before 10 p.m. Monday, after officers saw weapons “within the demonstration.”

Pro-Hindu groups who shared details of Monday’s event suggested it came in response to Sikh separatists who protested a visit by Indian consular officials to the temple on Sunday.

Police say the demonstration converged at an intersection outside the Hindu Sabha Mandir temple, shutting down traffic along Gore Road in both directions, before crowds dispersed by 1 a.m.

Three people were arrested and a Peel police officer was suspended after Sunday’s protest. Videos on social media seemed to show fist fights and people striking each other with poles on what appeared to be grounds of the temple.

In response to Monday’s demonstration, Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown on Tuesday shared a video of a man he accused of trying to “direct violence against those of Sikh faith.”

“Agitators trying to incite violence need to be dealt with promptly and swiftly with the full extent of our hate laws,” Brown said in a Tuesday morning post on X.

Before Monday’s demonstration, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had condemned Sunday’s violence as a deliberate attack on a Hindu temple and an attempt to intimidate diplomats.

Canada expelled six Indian diplomats last month for allegations that they used their positions to collect information on Canadians in the Sikh separatist movement, and then passed the details on to criminal gangs who targeted the individuals directly.

India, which has rejected those allegations, has long accused Canada of harboring terrorists involved in a Sikh separatist movement calling for an independent country called Khalistan. Canadian officials have said related extradition requests from India often lack adequate proof.

Relations between the two countries soured after Trudeau said last year there was credible evidence the Indian government had links to the assassination of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada.

Canada is not the only country that has accused Indian officials of plotting an assassination on foreign soil. The United States Justice Department announced criminal charges in mid-October against an Indian government employee in connection with an alleged foiled plot to kill a Sikh separatist leader living in New York City.