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Movies Under Attack: Hate Escalates in Canada

Canada is witnessing an alarming escalation of attacks on Hindu cultural expression. From repeated vandalism of Hindu temples, intimidation around community festivals, to the most recent arson and gunfire directed at cinemas in Canadian cities showing Indian films. These are not isolated incidents. They are a pattern meant to frighten families, silence and push a visible micro-minority’s culture out of public life.

Just take a look at the attacks against the theatres showing Indian language movies, which show a disturbing continuity over the past decade:

  • April 2016, Brampton, Mississauga, Scarborough, ON: Coordinated pepper-spray attacks during Tamil film Theri screenings forced Cineplex to cancel all shows.
  • July 2016, Canada wide: Cineplex withdrew movie Kabali from its theatres, citing security risks after the April incidents; a de facto “ban” on Tamil films.
  • 2016–2019: Wave of sporadic incidents of intimidation, vandalism, and screen-slashing at South Asian movie screenings across the GTA.
  • Feb 23, 2022, Halton & Waterloo, ON: Screens slashed at three cinemas showing Telugu film Bheemla Nayak. Halton Police confirmed deliberate targeting.
  • Sept 2022, Calgary, AB: Pepper spray attack during Tamil film Vendhu Thanindhathu Kaadu screening at Landmark Cinemas. 
  • Sep 2022, Hamilton, Kitchener, London, ON: KW talkies reported the threat, “We will tear up all your screens and release toxic…. your employees will end up in the hospital.” Cineplex withdrew the showings. 
  • March 25, 2023, Surrey, BC: More than 20 people including children pepper sprayed in Landmark Cinemas theatre in Guildford, during Sinhalese film Gajanan. 
  • March 31, 2025, Kanata, ON: Screens vandalized second time in a month at the Landmark Cinemas.
  • Dec 5, 2023, Toronto, Vaughan, Brampton: Coordinated “stink bomb” attacks disrupted Hindi film screenings at three packed cinemas, with hundreds evacuated.
  • Jan 24, 2024, Canada wide: Four cinemas screening Malayalam film Malaikottai Vaaliban were riddled with bullets in overnight drive-by shootings. Cineplex pulled the film entirely from all across Canada. 
  • Nov 3, 2024, Richmond Hill: Molotov cocktail arson at York Cinemas, previously targeted by shootings tied to South Indian films.
  • Sept 25, 2025, Oakville: Arson at Film.ca Cinemas, timed with the release of Telugu film They Call Him OG.
  • Oct 2, 2025, Oakville: One week later, the same cinema was shot at, forcing the theatre to cancel all showings of Kantara: Chapter 1, and OG.

This sequence, from chemical attacks to screen-slashing, to arson and live gunfire, represents an escalating campaign of intimidation spanning nearly a decade and a half. The common denominator: Indian films, Indigenous Indian language speaking audiences, and their cultural expression. 

Authorities have pointed to competing business interests and gang turf wars behind some of the attacks, particularly around South Indian film distribution. But to the families who hesitate to take their children to a Diwali film, or the temple volunteers cleaning hate graffiti, the effect is indistinguishable, the slow silencing of a community’s culture. 

Just a day after the Oakville arson and shooting, Khalistani extremist group Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) publicly called for a ban on all “Made in India” films in Canada. This comes as no surprise; SFJ’s full-time project has long been the chilling escalation of hate speech dressed up as political activism. From celebrating the perpetrators of Canada’s worst terror attacks to alleged links with vandalism of Hindu temples, and now labeling Indian cinema, and by extension, Hindu cultural expression, as “Hindutva supremacy,” SFJ has effectively confessed what these arsons, shootings, and threats were meant to achieve: the silencing of an entire community’s art, faith, and identity. Free societies do not permit extremists to decide which cultures are allowed to exist in public. 

This is not the first time theatres have been forced into silence. Over the past decade, multiple Canadian cinemas have suspended Indian film screenings following coordinated attacks, vandalism, or threats. On October 2, York Cinemas in Richmond Hill announced it would “not be screening Indian movies until further notice” after a series of violent incidents. The theatre has since resiliently reopened with additional security staff. Each closure under duress sends a dangerous message: that violence and intimidation can dictate which cultures are allowed to exist in Canada’s public square.

Indian cinema, Hindu festivals, and temple life are not niche entertainment; they are living traditions of one of the world’s oldest indigenous cultures. When a theatre is set on fire or shot at for screening films, when temples are defaced and devotees intimidated, the message is the same: don’t bring Hindu culture into Canadian public space. That is unacceptable. 

This is cultural intimidation directed at a protected community: by targeting venues because they host indigenous Hindu cultural content, these attacks aim to suppress the cultural and spiritual practices of Hindu and broader Indian-origin Canadians. It is also a strike on fundamental freedoms, chilling both freedom of expression and freedom of religion as guaranteed under Charter sections 2(b) and 2(a), while undermining Canada’s constitutional commitment to multiculturalism under section 27. Most urgently, it is a threat to public safety. 

No family in Canada should have to weigh the risk of arson or gunfire before deciding to watch a film tied to their heritage or attend Navratri and Diwali celebrations.