Stop the Butcher of Gujarat from coming to Canada

Stop the Butcher of Gujarat from coming to Canada

We are appalled that the Canadian Friends of Gujarat supported by the Canada India Foundation have invited as their special guest and presenter, Mr. Narendra Modi, the Chief Minister of the state of Gujarat, India, due to speak at the Pearson Convention Centre, Brampton, Ontario on 19th September at 7pm.

Mr.Modi and his minister and government have been indicted by reputable Indian and international human rights organizations including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, National Human Rights Commission [of India] all extensively documented and easy to accesse.g. Human Rights Watch, We Have No Orders to Save You-- for their sponsorship of and complicity in the ethnic cleansing and massacres of Muslims in Gujarat during February - March 2002. Thousands of people were killed and made refugees, hundreds of women and young girls were brutally raped and tortured before being killed, and religious places of worship were defiled and destroyed. In addition, Mr.Modi's government targeted Muslims, Christians and secular Hindus before and after the 2002 Gujarat genocide.

By honoring Mr. Modi at their Brampton event on 19th September 2008, the Canadian Friends of Gujarat and the Canada India Foundation dishonor the victims of the Gujarat genocide, and insult the moral dignity of all. Furthermore, honouring him raises questions about their commitment to secularism and pluralism.

Mr. Modi's government has systematically prevented victims and survivors of the genocide from attaining redress from the state judiciary. Mr. Modi's tenure has had a chilling effect on the Christian and Muslim communities of Gujarat. Under his leadership, more than 2,000 of 4,000 cases filed by the victims of the violence were never investigated or dismissed, leading the Supreme Court of India to rebuke both the Gujarat judiciary and the Government of Gujarat for its handling of the cases, and transferring several cases out of the state for trial.

Mr. Modi is a long-standing member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), an organization modelled after and inspired by European fascist organizations. He is in close alliance with and promotes the extreme right-wing Hindutva movement that is supremacist and anti-minority and whose members were responsible for the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. This movement was modelled of Mussolini's Fascist Party in the 1920s and has been glorifying Hitler since the 1930s. It is an ultra-nationalist Hindu fundamentalist organization.

Mr. Modi is in violation of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, and other international laws, and there are currently two civil suits filed against him for crimes against humanity and genocide. Mr. Modi's entry into Canada violates Canadas stated position on Crimes Against Humanity, which sets out remedies including denial of visa to persons outside of Canada.

In 2005 the United States Department of State revoked Mr. Modis tourist visa under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), which prohibits foreign government officials who are responsible for or [have] directly carried out, at any time, particularly severe violations of religious freedom from obtaining U.S. visas. When Mr. Modi was invited to attend a cultural event organized by the Gujarat community in New Jersey in August this year, the same conditions applied.

Mr. Modis visit is deeply troubling and we believe that it is an attempt to whitewash his role in the Gujarat genocide.

In light of all of the above, we demand that:

The government of Canada take immediate steps to revoke the Canadian visa of Mr. Narendra Modi. If he is already in Canada we demand that he be removed immediately. And finally we urge the Canadian government to amend their records so that any future visa application by Mr. Modi is denied.

Signed: