Toronto’s Bengali community joins global protests over rape and murder at Kolkata Medical College Hospital

Besides Toronto, similar protests in large and small groups were held in more than 100 major cities across all continents to demand justice for the family of the victim.

Toronto’s Queens’ Park reverberates to demand for justice for victim of RG Kar Medical College Hospital victim. / Prabhjot Paul Singh

Carrying placards and demanding justice for the victim of barbarous rape and murder of a trainee doctor at RG Kar Medical College Hospital in Kolkata, members of Bengali community in Toronto and those of Indian Diaspora held a protest at Queen Park in Toronto on Sept. 8.

The protest demonstration was held to convey anguish and dismay at the manner in which this heinous crime against a young woman doctor working to alleviate suffering of patients while on night duty had taken place on Aug. 9.

Besides Toronto, similar protests in large and small groups were held in more than 100 major cities across all continents to demand justice for the family of the victim. In the United States, peaceful demonstrations were held in more than 50 cities. Reports of similar protests in solidarity with the victim and her family were reported from across Japan, Australia, Taiwan,, Singapore, England, Canada, New Zealand, Sweden and Germany also.

In Toronto, members of the Bengali community were joined by members of other communities at Queens Park adjoining the Ontario’s Provincial Parliament. The protesters, carrying placards, lined up along the park while a musical group played some songs to eulogize the sacrifice of the slain doctor in the service of suffering humanity.

The protestors later moved inside the Park and raised slogans demanding justice for the victim, a student of chest medicine, and her family.

As the protests in India broke lose over the manner, the case was initially handled, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) moved in to take over the further investigations that led to several arrests, including the main suspect, besides the director-principal of the RG Kar Medical College Hospital. Even after a month of the shocking incident, there has been no let-up in protests and demonstrations in support of the victim and justice.

"The news of this heinous crime committed on a young trainee doctor while on duty numbed and shocked each of us at the sheer ruthlessness, brutality and disregard of human life," said Dipti Jain, an organiser of the global protests.