Explained: How Khalistanis are sabotaging the liberal Canadian society

The recent resignation of Canadian Cabinet Minister Navdeep Bains has revealed dark secrets behind the Khalistani nexus operating in Canada as it is believed that Bains had to resign over charges of corruption, ties with extremists, and maneuvering  gurdwara committees to gain profits. The series of truths that have uncovered as an outcome of inspection behind the resignation are highlighting the sinister designs of the Khalistanis based in Canada.

Bains was involved in floating a pseudo gurdwara, only on papers, and getting visas for illegal immigrants under the cover of inviting religious preachers from India to the non-existent gurdwara. This has been a dominant trend amongst the Khalistanis spread all-over Canada, wherein these elements use their hold over the community to bring in illegal immigrants from India, in return for huge amounts of money. These elements have indeed turned places of worship into centers of business.

Along with turning places of worship as places of business, Khalistanis have also turned them into political sites. Besides politicising the gurdwara management committees and using the religious sites for inciting violence, the lust of power and dominance amongst the Khalistanis have also led to a fragmented Sikh community. Almost every Sikh now in Canada is compelled to choose sides of groups that he could align to.

Living under great standards of human development and enjoying neoliberal rights, the Canadian Khalistanis have themselves been attacking the freedom of expression of other fellow citizens and attacking empirical research pieces. After the release of the report “Khalistan: A Project of Pakistan” by veteran journalist Terry Milewski and the MacDonald-Laurier Institute (MLI), Khalistani operatives attacked Milewski and MLI and filed a lawsuit against them in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. However, the damage was already done as the report went on to uncover the deadly nexus between Pakistan and Khalistanis and was received with much fanfare as more than 2 million copies of the report were downloaded within a few weeks.

Similarly, a group of Khalistanis are ever ready to reach the Indian High Commission or Consulate offices across Canada to protest even for internal policy issues of India. In the most recent series of developments, Khalistanis are launching regular protests in front of Indian diplomatic offices in Canada on the farm laws and organising rallies to oppose India, not the Indian government. Such rallies are characterised by abusive anti-India sloganeering and sometimes even joined by members of the Pakistani diaspora on directions of the ISI.

The roots of the recent campaign of banning the entry of Indian diplomats lie in Canada. In 2017, an Indian diplomat was opposed to entry for the first time in any gurdwara as the Indian consul general Dinesh Bhatia arrived at the Dixie Gurdwara, a centre of Khalistanis, to attend a ceremony of a senior member of the community who had recently expired. This triggered a series of incidents and threatening letters were issued all across Khalistani hotspots across the world. SFJ was again leveraging on the issue and sent a letter to the Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland to “take notice of the activities of the Indian diplomats posted in Canada which have the potential of creating disharmony and discontent among the peaceful Canadian Sikh community”. These developments underscore the fact that Canada is emerging out to be the trendsetter in Khalistani extremism and is setting new parameters of exclusionary practices.

The Khalistani elements have also campaigned to sabotage the passage of gay marriage bill and launched a global campaign to call for Khalistani elements across the world to oppose any such legislation in their respective regions. These elements are strongly against the entitlement of any such rights to the LGBTQI community.

However, subsequent Canadian governments have been reluctant to act against these elements and tend to promote them instead. To the dismay of pro-democracy advocates, Trudeau's government decided to omit the references made to Khalistani extremism from Canada’s annual report on the terrorism under the pressure of Khalistani extremists. Amongst five greatest threats to national security of Canada, the reference to the Khalistani extremism was made for the first time in the annual report, almost three and half decades after the deadly Air India Kanishka bombings, in which 329 citizens lost their lives with majority of them being Canadian nationals.

The desperation to gain the popular support of half a million Sikhs in the country is so desperate that in 2018, a motion in the Canadian parliament that denounced Khalistanis and their supporters was vehemently opposed by the MPs. The motion that denounced “Khalistani extremism and the glorification of any individuals who have committed acts of violence to advance the cause of an independent Khalistani state in India” was dropped after protests from the Liberal Party MPs.

However, the Conservatives have also surrendered to Khalistanis at times under the pressure of vote-bank politics. Garnett Genuis, a Conservative MP, received a warm and applauding welcome at a gathering of the community in Ontario where he “defended the right to peacefully advocate for Punjab independence.”

Canada has become the breeding ground for proscribed outfits like the Babbar Khalsa International and international Sikh youth Federation —organisations responsible for the 1985 Air India bombings as well. As both these organisations are banned in countries like the US, the UK, Australia, Japan, and India, operatives of these organisations based elsewhere in the world travel to Canada to convene meetings and coordinate strategies. Though these organisations are proscribed in Canada as well but are flawlessly operating under the nose of Canadian intelligence agencies. A response to an information request by Canada’s Immigration department highlighted that Khalistani operatives from the UK made visits in the first decade of the century and met top political and community leaders to garner support for lifting the ban from SFI and ISYF.

In fact, Canada is probably the only country where proscribed Khalistani groups can operate publicly and deliver violent speeches. Canada was the epicentre of the ISI funded ‘Referendum — 2020' campaign led by Gurpatwant Singh Pannun's SFJ. The area regions targeted by the outfit for the campaign were Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver. All the Sikhs opposing the campaign were either manhandled or were threatened about expulsion from the community. A number of Sikhs with pro-India sentiments also received death threats for opposing the propaganda campaign.

Canada is also increasingly housing Pakistan sponsored Khalistani leaders and dozens of such individuals are believed to be operating from the country now. Recently, under Indian pressure, two Khalistani extremists linked to Pakistani intelligence agency ISI were put on the no- fly list. Canada's Security Service has raised red flags over Bhagat Singh Brar and Parvkar Singh Dulai for playing at the hands of the ISI, planning attacks and radicalising the youth. In 2015, Brar has also travelled to Pakistan in 2015 to visit his father, who enjoys close ties with the ISI. Reportedly, both of them discussed delivering weapons in trenches and financing of terror attacks.

The promotion of tacit nurturing of the extremists by the Canadian government has also proved detrimental for the Canadian society as besides the terror incidents, Canada witnesses a number of gang wars emerging due to inter-community rivalry between Sikh groups. A number of Sikh youths in their 20s and early 30s become victims of the gang wars every year. The entire country, especially two regions — Vancouver and Ontario experience deadly bloodbath between Khalistanis themselves. The timeline of emergence and acceleration of gang wars between the members of the community was parallel to the growth of Khalistani extremism in Canada as most of these gangs came into being in the early 1980s and 1990s.

The Khalistanis are also the main forces behind several incidents of organised crime in Canada. In fact, the ‘Indo-Canadian’ crime gangs, ranked at the third place in the annual report of the Canadian, is led by the Khalistanis.

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It is high time for the Canadian government and the ruling class across party lines to stand up to the Khalistani extremists and proscribe the outfits and their operatives to ensure peace and tranquillity not only in Canada,but across the world.