Vancouver MP motions to prohibit caste-based discrimination in Canada
Posted June 14, 2024 1:27 pm.
Last Updated July 29, 2024 7:20 pm.
A member of parliament from Vancouver filed a motion Friday calling for an end to caste-based discrimination in Canada.
Vancouver Kingsway MP Don Davies hopes to change the Canada Human Rights Act, adding caste as an official form of discrimination.
“I think it’s time that the federal government sends a strong message across this country that caste is explicitly to be prohibited, and we can make everybody more equal as a result,” said Davies at a press event, Friday morning.
He says Motion 128 will demand that the House of Commons recognize what other governments — the BC Human Rights Tribunal, the Ontario Human Rights Commission, the Toronto District School Board, and Burnaby City Council — already have: that caste-based discrimination is a violation of human rights.
“Caste-based discrimination can affect all aspects of life and result in social and economic exclusion and the inequality for persons perceived to be of a quote, lower caste. Millions of people worldwide still face appalling and dehumanizing discrimination based on caste and similar systems of inherited status,” he said.
Candidate for MP of Vancouver South Manoj Bhangu addressed the press in support of the motion, sharing his own experience of discrimination.
Bhangu said he was told there were questions he wasn’t allowed to ask his colleagues, based on his caste, at a staff Christmas party in 2018. He said he was then physically attacked by his colleagues.
“When I remember the incident, I really start shaking myself, because it was a horrible incident, because I have to explain all the things to my family. My kids, they are not aware of this kind of discrimination. And when I got home with my torn shirts and bruises on my face, my kids, they were really scared,” said Bhangu.
He endorsed the motion, saying, “We are all Canadians here in our multicultural society.”
Jai Birdi, executive director of the Chetna Association of Canada, said he’s excited by the motion because he’s been watching how caste-based discrimination presents itself in the country.
He said many people who experience it have told him that they struggle to come forward or take action without legal backing.
“I look forward to working with [the motion], with our parliamentarians, and our community organizations to take some concrete actions. And I wanted to express our gratitude to community organizations and educational organizations, because they have also told us that in absence of having having legal structures in place — legal policies in place — it makes it really hard for them,” said Birdi.
Birdi added that the motion will likely help reduce stigma and encourage people to come forward about their incidents of discrimination.
Jyotika Jasuja, cultural events coordinator with Chetna, said she recognized that casteism was prevalent in India, but she was “lucky to grow up in an environment where I was taught the right values of humanity and how to treat everybody.”
She says it feels like her responsibility to ensure that her children inherit the same values.
“I trust the House of Commons will recognize this as a concern and pass the motion, and why it is important is because this is an action step to create awareness and clarity on the subject that concerns many people across Canada.”
