Police broke up a second day of protests outside a Brampton, Ont., Hindu temple where violent weekend clashes led to arrests and added fuel to already fiery Canada-India diplomatic relations.
Groups who backed Monday’s demonstration suggested it was held in response to the previous day’s protests at the temple by Sikh separatists who seek an independent nation called Khalistan.
Peel Regional Police said the demonstration converged at an intersection outside the Hindu Sabha Mandir temple, shutting down traffic along Gore Road in both directions.
It ended late Monday night after weapons were spotted and the crowd was ordered to disperse, police said in social-media updates.
The World Sikh Organization of Canada condemned the protest.
“What occurred last night was deeply troubling and rooted in deliberate incitement,” the organization’s Ontario president, Jaspreet Kaur, said in a statement Tuesday, urging law enforcement to prosecute those who were involved.
Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown also denounced alleged calls for anti-Sikh violence at Monday’s demonstration.
“Agitators trying to incite violence need to be dealt with promptly and swiftly with the full extent of our hate laws,” he wrote in a Tuesday morning post on X.
Brown’s latest comments came after he urged pro-India and Sikh separatist demonstrators to “de-escalate” in the aftermath of Sunday’s protest outside the temple.
Three people were arrested and a Peel police officer was suspended after that demonstration, with social-media videos seeming to show fist fights and people striking each other with poles on what appeared to be grounds of the temple.
Both Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi condemned Sunday’s violence.
Modi said he expected Canada to “ensure justice,” while calling it a deliberate attack on a Hindu temple and an attempt to intimidate diplomats.
The group Sikhs for Justice said that Khalistan supporters had been protesting Indian consulate officials who made an announced a visit to the Brampton temple to provide administrative services such as helping seniors access their pensions.
Canada expelled six Indian diplomats last month over 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 harbouring terrorists involved in the Sikh separatist movement. Canadian officials have said related extradition requests from India often lack adequate proof.
Meanwhile, Brown has said he plans to bring a motion to city council to look at prohibiting protests at places of worship.
Similar bylaws have been considered in other regions in Ontario.
In the neighbouring municipality of Vaughan, city council unanimously approved a bylaw in June to prohibit “organizing or participating in a nuisance demonstration” within 100 metres of “vulnerable social infrastructure” such as places of worship, schools, child-care centres or hospitals.
Last week, Ottawa city council voted to study the feasibility of a similar bylaw, with plans for staff to report their findings by early next year.