Canada is a multicultural society, and no one has the right to disrespect anyone’s faith, belief, or religion. This has been enacted in the Canadian Multiculturalism Act adopted in 1988 and clearly acknowledges multiculturalism as the fundamental characteristic of Canadian society.

The following petition is to oppose an individual and their business from using an objectionable image of the deity revered to the Hindu community. The use of their business logo/ picture of a Hindu God in conjunction with a derogatory business name has tremendously hurt the sentiments of the Hindu community.

The business has an operating name of "Big Dick Energy Coaching" and has a picture of a Hindu Deity (Ganesha) as the logo with the name of their company. 

Hindu community is upset over the use of the image of their deity Lord Ganesha with inappropriate words “big dick” by this business owner “Big Dick Energy with Jasmine” (A podcast show) https://anchor.fm/bigdickenergy, business website: https://bigdickenergycoaching.com/ The website domain has a registered address of Surrey, BC, Canada. 

The community members feel these words are disrespecting Lord Ganesha and the sentiments of the Hindu Community at large. The Hindu community feels it is inappropriate to use words “big dick” in conjunction to the image of the deity revered to Hindus.

It is believed that the use of derogatory words along with a religious symbol is purposely orchestrated by the business owner to incite hate among a particular section of the society. The business owner was approached on social media by a large number of individuals requesting to change the logo/symbol or remove the derogatory words; to no avail. The business owner clearly acknowledged about Lord Ganesha and has blatantly denied to make any changes. The person is not willing to remove the picture from her logo or change the wording beneath. 

Therefore, this is not an act of ignorance but a deliberate act of systemic racism by purposely using images or words that would incite hatred or disruption of peace among the multicultural society. This is a cultural appropriation and not acceptable.

The petition also wishes to state that the February 2018 Report of the “Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage” specifically enacted the inclusion of religious discrimination under the National Action Plan which is to be monitored by the Department of Canadian Heritage.

India Cultural Association (ICA) of Vancouver has started this petition in the interest of the community and requesting the appropriate provincial federal government agencies, specifically the Ministry of Canadian Heritage to intervene in this matter to ensure the sentiments of the Hindu Society in Canada are protected. 

Following Organizations are supporting this petition:

• Laxmi Narayan temple Surrey
• Hindu Temple Burnaby
• United Hindu Forum
• Bharataiya Kala Evam Sahitya Parishad
• Canadian Hindu foundation
• Abbotsford Hindu temple
• Hindi Literary Society of Canada, BC
• Namdhari Sangat Society
• Gurukul Canada