In recent years, reports of NRIs and people of Indian origin losing their jobs over provocative tweets, particularly with reference to Islam, have become common, especially in the Middle East.
Now, an Indian-origin man in Toronto is in trouble for tweeting in protest at the decision of a local government in Toronto to allow the evening call to prayer from mosques, during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
On April 30, Patrick Brown, the mayor of the city of Brampton, tweeted, "Our noise by law originally passed in 1984 only included an exemption for Church bells. It will now include all faiths within the permitted hours & decibel levels. The Muslim community can proceed with the sunset azan because it’s 2020 & we treat all faiths equally..."
Indian-origin realtor Ravi Hooda tweeted in protest at the decision, asking, "What's next? Separate lanes for camel & goat riders, allowing slaughter of animals at home in the name of sacrifice, bylaw requiring all women to cover themselves from head to toe in tents to appease the piece fools for votes." Ravi Hooda, who since deleted the tweet and changed his Twitter profile to private, is a real estate agent and immigration consultant.
Not surprisingly, all it took was one tweet for all hell to break loose. People complained about the tweet to the Peel District School Board as Hooda was the school council chair for the Macville Public School in Bolton City. The principal of the school uploaded a statement on the Peel schools website on Tuesday, notifying that Hooda had been removed from the school council.
"Today, we were made aware of a disturbing, Islamophobic tweet that was written and shared by a member of our parent community. We immediately conducted an investigation into the matter, as the content is a clear contravention of the Peel District School Board's Safe and Accepting Schools Policy 48. As a result, the individual is being removed from the role of School Council Chair and will not be able to participate on School Council, in any capacity," the Macville Public School principal informed.
The Canadian branch of RE/MAX, a real estate company, was dragged into the controversy as Hooda had indicated on his website he was associated with the company. Responding to a tweet from the Anti-Hate Network, RE/MAX tweeted, "We do not share nor support the views of Mr. Hooda. We can confirm he has been terminated and is no longer affiliated with RE/MAX..." However, it is not clear when Hooda was terminated from RE/MAX.
Hooda told CBC News his comment was "not directed towards any community or entity but just my attempt to state that we shouldn't be going back to the times where such means of communication was necessary". He claimed his tweet had been "misinterpreted" and claimed he had tweeted an "unconditional" apology.
Hooda told CBC News he was considering legal action over his removal from the school council as he was not given an opportunity to give his side of the story.
