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Remove reference to Sikh extremism from terrorism report, urges Liberal MP Randeep Sarai

by Tom Blackwell

A Liberal MP has taken the unusual step of demanding that a reference to Sikh terrorism be excised from a government report, saying there is no evidence that such a threat exists in Canada and the mention of it unfairly tarnishes a peaceful, 600,000-strong community.

Randeep Sarai, the member for B.C.’s Surrey Centre riding, made the request in a letter to Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale that follows two days of emotional reaction to the report from the politically important Sikh community.Sikhs through the country.

The opposition Conservatives and NDP have also called into question the reference.

Sarai says he reviewed the document in detail and could find no evidence to justify the inclusion of Sikh extremism as one of the terrorist menaces facing this country.

The citation merely references the Air India bombing of 1985 – Canada’s worst terrorist attack – and resurrects a dark period for the community, he writes to Goodale.

“Since 1985, when I was 10 years old, I have seen how Sikhs in Canada have had to wear the stigma of ‘Sikh extremist’,” Sarai says. “Students were taunted, people were refused employment.… Finally, after 30 years, these words stopped being headlines on our newspapers, and Sikh Canadians were seen simply as Canadians, regardless of what was on their heads.”

He calls on Goodale to “immediately” remove the heading “Sikh (Khalistani) Extremism” from the report, and goes on to say that changes should be made to ensure that no group, Sikh or otherwise, is mentioned in future by their religious or ethnic background in such a sensitive report.

The document in question is Public Safety Canada’s annual report on the country’s terrorism threats. A section on current dangers lists “Sunni Islamist extremism” and “right-wing extremism” followed by “Sikh (Khalistani) extremism.” There had been no mention of Sikh extremism in previous years.

The 2018 report notes that while violent activities in support of an independent Sikh homeland (Khalistan) in India have fallen since the 1980s when terrorists carried out the bombing of an Air India flight, killing 331 people, “support for the extreme ideologies of such groups remains. For example, in Canada, two key Sikh organizations, Babbar Khalsa International and the International Sikh Youth Federation, have been identified as being associated with terrorism and remain listed terrorist entities under the Criminal Code.”

But Sarai added his voice to that of many Sikh leaders this week, who said lawful activism in support of the separatist cause is in no way a threat or a sign of incipient terrorism.

“If that does not spill over to hate or violence, people have every right to believe in different ideologies or movements,” wrote the MP.

“We must call out terrorism wherever it occurs, including recent attacks from the far right targeting women in Toronto & Muslims in QC,” said Sarai.

New Democrat Leader Jagmeet Singh, of Sikh background himself, said in a Tweet Thursday that terrorism of all sorts, including the far right targeting of women in Toronto and Muslims in Quebec City.

“The Liberal’s public safety report fails to do this – but does stoke fear w/o any evidence about the Sikh community, which is dangerous & wrong,” he Tweeted, referring to the report’s lack of mention of the Toronto van attack and Quebec mosque murders.

The government should quickly offer a detailed explanation of why it included Sikh extremism as a possible threat, or modify the report, said Matthew Dube, the NDP’s public-safety critic.

“When something comes out of nowhere, when there hasn’t been a specific act of violence that has led to this identification, it certainly does cause some issues, and I think the government needs to be sensitive to that,” he said in an interview.

Conservative MP Garnett Genuis also urged the government to provide more information to justify the report.

“References to ‘Sikh extremism’ or other “extremisms” without context or evidence is an irresponsible way for the government to communicate about a sensitive issue,” he said on Twitter.

(Story updated 12:10 to include NDP and Conservative comments.)

Remove reference to Sikh extremism from terrorism report, urges Liberal MP Randeep Sarai

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