Toronto to host India Day Parade amid heightened security

The India Day Parade attracts a significant crowd and is held on the first Sunday following August 15. In 2023, it drew nearly 150,000 visitors, according to Vaidehi Bhagat, chair of Panorama India, the umbrella group of Indo-Canadian cultural outfits, which organises the annual event.

Among the highlights of this year’s celebration will be displaying the “largest Indian flag outside India”, she said, as well as the tricolour being hoisted at the City Hall podium. The parade will feature 20 floats, including those from several Indian states. The venue for the main celebration is the Nathan Philips Square in downtown Toronto. Major attractions include food stalls featuring a variety of Indian cuisine as well as cultural performances.

The celebration on Sunday will be special for Panorama India, a non-profit, as it will also mark the silver anniversary of the Parade. Bhagat expected the venue to be full despite the forecast of rain on the day.

But pro-Khalistan groups will also be gathering in the vicinity and will raise the so-called flag of Khalistan. Flyers circulated for that ‘Khalistan rally’ have called for a “Face-off” between “Khalistan Sikhs” and “Canadian Hindus”, giving a communal colour to a celebration that is secular in nature.

However, as the Parade is co-hosted along with India’s consulate in Toronto, a heightened security presence is expected at the venue.

Pro-Khalistan elements have staged protests near the India Day venue for several years, including last year, when they were kept apart by Toronto Police officers who patrolled the area.

However, what has changed since then is that separatist groups have been emboldened since Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s statement in the House of Commons on September 18 last year that there were “credible allegations” of a potential link between Indian agents and the killing of pro-Khalistan figure Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, British Columbia, three months earlier.