Ontario legislature passes Motion 46 on the 1984 Sikh genocide

Who: Harinder Malhi, Liberal member for Brampton-Springdale, who moved Private Member's Motion 46; Jagmeet Singh, then an NDP member of the Ontario legislature, who spoke for it; Progressive Conservative member Todd Smith, who questioned the wording; the World Sikh Organization, which welcomed it; and India's external affairs ministry and some Indo-Canadian groups, which opposed it.

What: On 6 April 2017 the Legislative Assembly of Ontario passed Motion 46 by 34 votes to 5. The motion asked the House to condemn communal violence, hatred and racism in India and anywhere else, "including the 1984 genocide perpetrated against the Sikhs throughout India", and called on all sides to embrace truth, justice and reconciliation. Malhi argued that the attacks fit the UN Genocide Convention, which covers destroying a group "in part", and noted that India's home minister Rajnath Singh had called 1984 a genocide in December 2014. Jagmeet Singh said the violence was planned and organised with the involvement of elected officials, and that Hindu and Muslim neighbours risked their lives to shelter Sikhs. Smith said that calling something genocide implies intent on the part of those who committed it, and asked why the Liberal government had changed its position within a year.

The change was real. A motion brought by Jagmeet Singh was voted down in June 2016, when Liberal members said the Assembly was not the right forum. Singh credited Sikh community leaders who pressed the government after that vote. The five votes against in 2017 came from Dipika Damerla, Joe Dickson, Han Dong, Tracy MacCharles and Liz Sandals.

India's external affairs spokesperson Gopal Baglay rejected the motion as "misguided", saying it rested on a limited understanding of India. Indo-Canadian groups wrote to Premier Kathleen Wynne asking her to oppose it, and the World Sikh Organization welcomed it as a step towards justice, accountability and reconciliation.

Where: The Legislative Assembly of Ontario, Canada.

Why it mattered: Tamil Guardian described Ontario as the first Canadian legislature to pass a motion calling the 1984 killings a genocide. It was a private member's motion expressing the opinion of the House and has no legal force, but it moved a government's vote from defeat to victory within ten months, and drew a formal rejection from the Indian government.