Cars honked their horns in support as they drove by the demonstrators who had gathered at the intersection of No. 5 and Cambie roads Tuesday afternoon in solidarity with farmers in India.
“The concern that the South Asian community has, the majority of us come from farming backgrounds, and the ones who immigrated here or to the U.S. or anywhere else around the world, have families back home who rely on farming to live,” said Sonia Panda, who organized Tuesday’s rally.
At issue is a trio of new agricultural laws, passed by India’s government earlier this year, which the country’s farmers say could cause the government to stop buying grain at minimum prices, and lead to exploitation by corporations who will push down prices.
The new rules also eliminate agents who act as middlemen between the farmers and the government-regulated wholesale markets.
The Indian government claims the laws bring about needed reform, allowing farmers the freedom to market their crops.
“No big companies are going to deal with small farmers that have little land and make few crops, so they all get nothing,” said Panda, whose family owns land in Punjab. “The minimum support price that they usually would get to make money and make a livelihood, that’s gone.”
Nearly 60 per cent of the Indian population depends on agriculture for their livelihoods. Many of the protesting farmers in India — who have been met with tear gas and water cannons as they speak out against the new laws, including camping out on key highways — hail from northern Punjab and Haryana, two of the largest agricultural states in that country.
Talks between the farmers and the Indian government have so far failed to yield any breakthroughs.
Tuesday’s rally is the second that Panda has organized in Richmond. The first, on Saturday, was held at the intersection of No. 5 Road and Steveston Highway.
Panda, who lives in Delta, said she hopes to raise awareness about the situation in India and that more people can become educated about it.
“A lot of people are like, how does this affect us, we’re in Canada, they’re in India,” she said. “We get a lot of imports from India, especially spices and cotton and shoes and towels, et cetera.”
Other protests supporting the farmers have also taken place in the Lower Mainland. Two major rallies were held last week, where convoys travelled from Surrey to the Indian Consulate in Vancouver.
In her own city of Delta, said Panda, there’s a nightly rally on Scott Road.
Canada’s three major party leaders have also spoken in support of India’s farmers.
Trudeau has said that Canada “will always stand up for the right of peaceful protest anywhere around the world.” Conservative leader Erin O’Toole shared a similar message in a video posted to Twitter, while federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, also in a video statement, said “We stand in solidarity with farmers and call for respect and peaceful dialogue as farmers call for their rights.”
- With files from The Canadian Press
