Desecration of Gandhi statue in Toronto has hurt sentiments of Indian community: Envoy

The Indian Consulate in Toronto said Thursday that it was “dressed” at the vandalism of the Mahatma Gandhi statue at Vishnu temple in the Canadian city’s Richmond Hill neighbourhood.
“We are dressed at the desecration of Mahatma Gandhi statue at Vishnu temple in Richmond Hill. This criminal, hateful act of vandalism has deeply hurt the sentiments of the Indian community in Canada. We are in contact with Canadian authorities to investigate this hate crime,” it said in a statement on Twitter.

We are deeply anguished this hate crime that seeks to terrorize the Indian community. It has led to increased concern and insecurity in the Indian community here. We have approached the Canadian government to investigate and ensure perpetrators are brought to justice swiftly. https://t.co/wDe3BUpEWi
— India in Canada (@HCI_Ottawa) July 13, 2022
The 5-metre-tall statue at the Vishnu temple around Yonge Street and Garden Avenue in Toronto was found defaced at about 12.30 pm on Wednesday, Canada-based CBC News reported quoting York Regional Police.
The York police is treating it as a “hate bias motivated incident”, said the report. It added that the spokesperson for York Regional Police had said that the authorities “do not tolerate hate crime in any form”.
Dr Budhendra Doobay, chairman of the temple, told CBC News that in the 30 years that the statue has been in the peace park, such an incident has never occurred.

Shameful, shocking misdeed in #Canada.Gandhi Ji’s statue vandalised at Vishnu Mandir in Richmond Hill, Ontario. Police is investigating it as hate crime. 1 https://t.co/ZYIwIGQ0yS pic.twitter.com/inqgynd9eI
— Kanchan Gupta 🇮🇳 (@KanchanGupta) July 14, 2022
“Besides a feeling of a disgust, I was disappointed,” he told the media house, adding “We live so peacefully in Richmond Hill here for so many years and nothing, nothing, nothing has ever happened like this. The graffiti is in such big black letters. … We hope these things don’t happen. But what can you do?”
The High Commission of India in Ottawa province said it has approached the Canadian government to investigate the issue. It added that the incident has resulted in a feeling of “increased concern and insecurity” among the Indian community in the province and its capital city of Toronto.