Western Canada

Hate-Motivated Violence

The walls outside the Khalsa Diwan Society Gurdwara on Ross Street in Vancouver were spray-painted with graffiti in English and Punjabi on the morning of 19 April 2025; the society said the slogans were pro-Khalistan and called the vandalism part of a campaign to instil fear and division within the Canadian Sikh community. Vancouver police released images of a vehicle and two people seen outside the gurdwara and said they were looking at the incident as a potential hate crime.

Hate-Motivated Violence

Two people spray-painted the outside of the Lakshmi Narayan Mandir in Surrey, B.C., at around 3 a.m. on 19 April 2025, scrawling the word 'Khalistan' across the sign at the front gate, the temple's organizers said. They described it as an attempt to spread fear in Surrey's South Asian community and to divide people of different faiths, and shared photos and video with Surrey police, who are investigating.

Hate-Motivated Violence

A young Sikh international student was attacked after getting off a bus in Kelowna, B.C., on the evening of 17 March 2023. RCMP said a group who had been taunting him on the bus struck him from behind and assaulted him; he was taken to hospital with minor injuries. Members of the local Sikh community said his turban was knocked off and taken and he was dragged by the hair, and called for the assault to be investigated as a hate crime. RCMP said the investigation was at an early stage.