A major feature of this years parade which began at the Guru Nanak Sikh Centre was the remembrance of the 1984 slaughter of Sikhs by Indian troops. Loudspeakers mounted on the floats played tribute songs punctuated by sounds of machine gun fire.
On May 25th 1984 Indian Army troops surround the Golden Temple in Punjab India. On June 1st several thousand devotees convene at the Temple, considered a holy place, by Sikhs, to commemorate the June 3rd anniversary of the martyrdom of Guru Arjun Dev . A seven hour barrage of shooting occurs during the night, killing 11 and wounding 25.
On June 3rd Indian Army troupes impose a curfew shooting dead any who violate it. Ten thousand Sikh devotees are A major trapped within the Golden Temple complex .
On June 4th the Indian Army fires on the Golden Temple with machine guns and mortars. A five hour battle ensues resulting in 100 deaths.
On June 5th the Indian Government sends tanks to surround and invade the temple complex. Heavy crossfire results in many casualties.
June 6th Armored vehicles and tanks break through and pummel the Akal Takhat resulting in the massacre of thousands of innocent worshipers and damage to the entire complex, defacing the temple, destroying the Akal Takhat, and desecrating holy scriptures and sacred texts.
On June 7th Indian army soldiers trample the grounds without removing their boots, swaggering through the temple complex drinking and smoking. The Golden Temple complex is looted and ancient scriptures are burnt. The sarovar is filled with thousands floating corpses. Relatives are refused the rights to claim their dead. The Bodies of dead devotees are collected, stripped of valuables, loaded onto garbage trucks and cremated without ceremonial rites, before an official count can be made.
Last year days before the annual Khalsa Parade, the event celebrating the founding of the Khalsa order of Sikhism , an armed brawl broke out at the Guru Nanak Sikh Centre in Brampton . Combatants wielded hammers, knives and small axes .
A well-known Sikh lawyer was stabbed with a kirpan - a ceremonial dagger - at the nearby Sikh Lehar Centre in Brampton. He survived the attack.
