Brampton Mayor Linda Jeffrey (in white jacket) at the candlelight vigil to mark the 33rd anniversary of the 1984 riots in the suburb of Toronto. 

OTTAWA – The federal NDP again marked the 1984 Massacre of Sikhs in New Delhi following the assassination of then India's PM Indira Gandhi with 

a declaration of the mass murder being Genocide.

NDP's Parliamentary Leader, Guy Caron made the following statement in the House of Commons

“‘It was not riot, it was genocide.’

Mr. Speaker, these are the words of Rajnath Singh, India’s Home Minister. Today and for the next three days, Sikh Canadians and Human Rights Advocates will mark the 33rd anniversary of the 1984 Sikh Genocide.

Sikh men were burned alive. Women were subject to unthinkable sexual violence and children were murdered in gruesome fashion.

Many, including, Former Indian Supreme Court Justice, GT Nanavati have pointed out that state resources were instrumental in these pre-meditated killings.

I am reminded that thousands of Canadians live with this pain as survivors and bearers of intergenerational trauma.

Both the Delhi Assembly and the Ontario Legislature have recognized these atrocities as genocide.

I stand in this place in hopes that someday soon, the House of Commons and this government will do the same.

The path to reconciliation will not be easy, but for the victims and survivors, today we remember.”