COMMENTARY
Toolkit creator Mo Dhaliwal enrages India’s elites
M
by Charlie Smith
o Dhaliwal has been called many things over the years— a B.C. cultural navigator, arts aficionado, bhangra lover, PuSh festival supporter, and the founder of the Skyrocket digital branding agency in Vancouver. He could add the term antiracist media activist to the list in 2019 when he exposed how Global News B.C. covered up a blackface joke by one of its employees. But it wasn’t until this year that he was accused of being a “terrorist” in the Indian media—an allegation that he adamantly denies. And it arose over a couple of tweets by two of the most famous women in the world—Rihanna and Greta Thunberg—who questioned why there wasn’t more global attention on farmers’ protests in India. It’s been a painful ordeal for Dhaliwal, who shared his experiences with the Straight of repeatedly being defamed in his ancestral homeland after he delivered a short speech in January in front of the Indian consulate on Howe Street. In an hourlong phone interview in advance of Vaisakhi, Dhaliwal talked about how he and others in the Indian diaspora are being victimized by “psychological warfare” from India’s neoliberal government and its allies. It came as
When Vancouver arts entrepreneur and digital-branding expert Mo Dhaliwal applied his expertise to amplifying the voices of Indian farmers, he found himself at the centre of a media controversy.
a result of him publicly questioning why the country is oppressing farmers, journalists, women, minorities, Muslim refugees, and those from lower Hindu castes. “India is exacting a lot of violence against dissenters within its own borders,” Dhaliwal
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said. “But that violence actually extends beyond its borders now because they’ve got these kind of cybercells set up to engage in things like doxxing—and [engaging in] the degree of trolling that happens.” He also thinks that India mostly gets a free
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place, repeated and unwanted communications with them, and watching their house or workplace on an ongoing basis. In short, criminal harassment is behaviour that does not necessarily result in any actual physical harm or injury but is troubling enough to warrant legal intervention, as it could be a precursor to violence. Although most cases of criminal harassment are carried out over a long period of time, shorter bursts of behaviour—like the ones recently making the news—could also amount to harassment. Authorities are required to consider the totality of the circumstances in deciding whether to lay charges and whether to proceed. If it can be established that the person was engaging in conduct that could cause their victim to reasonably fear for their safety, then the foundation for criminal harassment could be established. However, each situation will be somewhat unique. One thing that is not unique, however, are the types of people who fall victim to criminal harassment. Statistics Canada reports that more than three-quarters of all victims in these cases are women. In comparison, women comprise only about half of the victims of violent crimes like robbery and assault. And although women are overwhelmingly more likely to be harassed, men are statistically more likely to do the harassing. In 2009, men accounted for 78 percent of
pass from the West, unlike China, because its government is democratically elected. Dhaliwal came to the Indian establishment’s attention when Thunberg tweeted a link to an online “toolkit”. It was created by the Vancouver-based Poetic Justice Foundation, which he cofounded with arts and nonprofit advocate Anita Lal. Dhaliwal described the toolkit as an “innocuous PowerPoint deck”. It showed how to contact politicians, sign petitions, and use hashtags—including #AskIndiaWhy—to condemn state violence and demand that the Indian government listen to protesters. “We had strategy documents,” Dhaliwal explained. “We had all sorts of stuff that was being worked on in plain sight. The encouragement to everybody working with us in the diaspora was, ‘Share this far and wide. Get this into the hands of whoever needs it.’ ” He felt that this was the best way to reduce the likelihood of security forces in India from using more violence against farmers, who’ve already faced some attacks. And he emphasized that this is a national movement taking place in many states, even though it appears to the world as mostly see next page
those who were accused of criminal harassment. Many of those who were accused were also known to the victim, whether they were an ex-partner or an acquaintance. Those who are convicted of criminal harassment could face a maximum penalty of not more than 10 years in jail. But more importantly, perhaps, are the protective conditions that can be ordered by the court. These conditions do not need to wait until there is a finding of guilt, which could take months or even years. They can be imposed upon the arrest of an individual, and they normally include a ban on contacting the victim either directly or indirectly or attending anywhere they are known to live, go to school, work, worship, or otherwise be. In cases of stranger harassment, they may include conditions not to be found in the area where the alleged stalking incident occurred or not to be in possession of weapons. These conditions can be specifically tailored to suit the alleged offence. They can have an important chilling effect on an accused while simultaneously making the victim and the community feel more at ease. And although these laws may offer little in the way of comfort to those who have already become stalking victims, it is somewhat reassuring to know that these offences will be investigated and that the perpetrators could be charged and brought to justice once identified. g Sarah Leamon is a Vancouver criminal lawyer.
