Harinder Malhi

Harinder Malhi is a former Liberal member of the Ontario legislature who moved the motion of April 2017 in which Ontario's Legislative Assembly named the 1984 Genocide against the Sikhs. She was born around 1981 and is the daughter of Gurbax Singh Malhi, a federal Liberal MP from 1993 to 2011. She studied public administration and governance at Ryerson University and was a trustee of the Peel District School Board for Brampton from 2010 to 2014.

She was elected for Brampton-Springdale in June 2014 and sat until 2018. The Legislative Assembly's record shows her as parliamentary assistant to the minister responsible for women's issues (June 2014 to June 2016), parliamentary assistant to the minister of tourism, culture and sport (June 2016 to January 2018) and Minister of the Status of Women from 17 January to 29 June 2018.

The 2017 motion. On Thursday 6 April 2017 the Assembly passed her private member's motion calling on it to condemn all forms of violence, hatred, prejudice and racism in India and elsewhere, "including the 1984 Genocide perpetrated against the Sikhs throughout India". Scroll and Tamil Guardian reported the vote as 34 to 5; The Tribune put the majority at 35. Tamil Guardian described it as the first such motion passed by a Canadian legislature. Malhi called it a "historic victory", The Tribune reported.

The reaction. India's foreign ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay called the motion "misguided". On 18 April 2017 Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told Canada's defence minister Harjit Sajjan in New Delhi that it was "a total exaggeration of facts"; Sajjan replied that it came from a private member and that the Canadian government did not agree with it (Scroll). The Tribune reported that part of the Ontario opposition called the Liberal move a "last-ditch effort" before elections.

Key moments

• 2010 to 2014: school trustee in Brampton.
• June 2014: elected MPP for Brampton-Springdale.
• 6 April 2017: her motion on the 1984 Genocide passes.
• 17 January 2018: becomes Minister of the Status of Women.
• 2018 and 2022: stands in Brampton North and is not elected (third in 2018 with about 21 percent, second in 2022 with about 29 percent, according to Wikipedia citing Elections Ontario).

What she is known for. Her motion is remembered as the first of its kind passed by a Canadian legislature, and for the open objection it drew from India's government.