WSO at Parliamentary screening of The Widow Colony

On Tuesday night, WSO legal counsel, Balpreet Singh spoke on a panel about 1984 after a screening of the documentary film “Widow Colony” on Parliament Hill.  The showing was sponsored by NDP MPs Jinny Sims and Jasbir Sandhu. 

After the showing of the documentary, Balpreet Singh joined the film’s director Harpreet Kaur and producer Manmeet Singh in reading statements in remembrance 1984.  Harpreet Kaur read the story of Gurdeep Kaur, a middle aged woman who was gang raped in front of her son who was then burnt alive. 

Balpreet Singh talked about how the violence in 1984 has periodically repeated itself in India because the underlying issues of impunity have never been addressed.  He also talked about the relevance of 1984 to Canadian Sikhs.

Both Jasbir Sandhu and Jinny Sims addressed the gathering.  Ms. Sims was in India on November 1, 1984 along with her family and saw firsthand some of the carnage which followed.  MPs Parm Gill from the Conservative Party and Rathika Sitsabaiesan of the NDP were also in attendance.

For more information about the Widow Colony please visit http://www.thewidowcolony.com/.

Harpreet Kaur and Manmeet Singh will be at WSO’s convention and intercommunity dinner on November 5^th in Kelowna BC to show their next documentary “A Little Revolution” about the issue of farmer suicides in Punjab.