Toronto: A Canadian court has granted an injunction to a temple in Toronto, preventing protesters from gathering within 100 metre of its premises on Saturday, as it hosts a consular camp that day.
The restraining order was passed on Thursday by a judge of the Superior Court of Justice in Ontario on the basis of an application filed before it by the management of the Lakshmi Narayan Mandir located in the Scarborough locality of Toronto.
In the order, the judge stated, “On the balance of probabilities, the applicant has satisfied the elevated requirements of a motion for an injunction restraining the protesters from encroaching the 100-metre perimeter of the applicant’s temple.”
A copy of the order was shared with the Hindustan Times.
The ruling alluded to the possibility there may be no violence at the protest, but the document added that “harm does not end with violence. Intimidation of elderly persons attending the temple for administrative consular services and for worship is harm to them and to the community the temple represents.”
The court concluded that “there is a high probability of at least some harm if the court refused to grant the injunction”.
The consular camp at the Mandir has already been targeted by pro-Khalistan groups, including the secessionist Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), which have called for protests against India’s Consulate in Toronto holding the consular camp there. These camps are organised annually to provide pensioners with life certificates.
The court directed Toronto Police Service, the Ontario Provincial Police and other relevant law enforcement agencies to “arrest and remove persons, objects and structures violating” its order which includes physically “preventing, impeding, restricting, or interfering with access to the temple premises” and “intimidating” those seeking to visit the temple.
In addition, the court said strictures would apply against those “entering or gathering” on the temple premises without its management’s consent. The prohibitions will be in place from 8am to 6pm on Saturday.
It referred to a similar injunction granted earlier in November to the Khalsa Diwan Society’s Ross Street gurdwara in Vancouver, which later hosted two camps without reports of disruption.
India’s missions in Canada are holding the last batch of scheduled consular camps at various locations in the country over the coming weekend.
Other than the one at the Lakshmi Narayan Mandir, others are scheduled in Surrey, British Columbia as well as one in the town of London in the province of Ontario.
Camps were also held last weekend, in the town of Kitchener in Ontario, Montreal in Quebec and Prince George, British Columbia, on Sunday. However, security concerns did cause the camp to be hosted by the Vaishno Devi Mandir in Oakville, Ontario, to be cancelled.
The targeting of these camps resulted in the violent invasion of the Hindu Sabha Mandir in Brampton on November 3 by pro-Khalistan radicals, and its aftermath led to multiple arrests being carried out by local law enforcement.