#Canadian Sikh

[thenewspr]

Canadian Sikh group urges followers to protest outside Indian embassies - SUCH TV

A Canadian Sikh group has called on its members to protest outside the Indian diplomatic missions of main Canadian cities on Monday, a week after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau raised the prospect of New Delhi’s involvement in the murder of a Sikh separatist leader in British Columbia. Trudeau said last week Canada was pursuing “credible allegations” that Indian government agents may be linked to…

[allthecanadianpolitics]

An Ontario hospital network says it will conduct an "extensive review" of an incident in which an elderly Sikh patient was shaved last month without permission from him or his family and in violation of his religious principles. According to the World Sikh Organization of Canada (WSO), a non-profit organization that represents Sikhs in Canada, staff at Brampton Civic Hospital shaved Joginder Singh Kaler, 85, a patient who is a practising Sikh, on either Aug. 28 or 29 "in violation of his religious principles and personal dignity." Kaler had never shaved or cut his beard in his life before this incident, the organization said. The WSO said Kaler was unconscious and could not provide consent himself. It said the hospital contacted Kaler's family to obtain permission to shave him but his family refused the request. 

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[wheniamamonster]

Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar was brazenly shot dead outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, B.C. on June 18. Nijjar, a supporter of a Sikh homeland in the form of an independent Khalistani state, had been branded by the Indian government as a "terrorist" and accused of leading a militant separatist group — something his supporters have denied. "Canadian security agencies have been actively pursuing credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the Government of India and the killing of a Canadian citizen, Hardeep Singh Nijjar," Trudeau said Monday in a speech to the House of Commons. "Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty."

Tagging @allthecanadianpolitics

[griancraft]

I am so fucking scared for this next Canadian election the conservative guy wants to strip protections for queer people in the military and my brother is in the reserves and he's gay (he is very left he's doing it bc it's the only place that's actually hiring) and dating a trans guy. I'm scared for him and I'm so scared for whatever else that right wing fuckhead will ruin.

[nando161mando]

Location: Brampton, Canada

Date: November 5

Hindu nationalists called for the Indian Army to invade and attack Sikh temples in Canada. They gathered in large numbers, attacked passing cars, and raised chants of “Jai Shree Ram.” The protest was organised against the alleged attack by Khalistan supporters the previous day.

[zee-man-chatter]

To put this in context, Sikh extremist bombed an Air Canada 182 passenger jet bound for India. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/air-india-flight-182-bombing

During Covid, Sikh's raised money here in Canada to send over to India for their farmer's strike against Modi during the harshest lockdowns. Indian Police officers died during the farmers protests over in India, but Trudeau did nothing to stop the fundraisers here or the money going to India, but he did lock up the peaceful Trucker's protest participants in Ottawa.

For all his tough talk to Russia, Canada has starved it's military into the ground, if he's talking tough on the world stage, he doesn't have a leg to stand on.

Sikhs regularly fly banners on the 401 to raise awareness for their homeland, as they want to secede from India. If they're that involved in Indian politics, can anyone seriously think these people are invested emotionally to be Canadians first or assimilate? So Trudeau has blown his own credibility and Canada's too with India. Probably time for him to go on the magical, pompous un-reality tour with Prince Harry, as neither of them seem to be listening to others or living in reality.

[mspiggy]

all the americans i follow talking about their election has me thinking about the next canadian election (coming 2025)... god i wish white canadians weren't some of the most insidiously racist and xenophobic people in the world so all the former liberal voters frustrated with trudeau would vote NDP instead... but i know they're gonna throw their support behind canada's biggest most racist cardboard cut-out, also known as "pierre polievre"

[rickchung]

Late Bloomer (prod. Jasmeet Raina).

Crave's Sikh-Canadian family sitcom explores the intergenerational complications of contemporary internet culture colliding with traditional South Asian values. Created by and starring the former "Jus Reign" YouTuber, who rocketed to online stardom before going dark, his series balances issues of pleasing your immigrant parents and chasing your dreams while still living at home well into your thirties with trying to be true to both yourself and your heritage. It reveals so much about juggling multiple cultural identities while trying to make it in a social media influencer ecosystem.

[propicsmedia]

Proudly Sikh Proudly Canadian Series Contact propicscanada@gmail.com

sikh, sikhi, sikhism, Canada, Canadian, Hindutva, Radicals, India, Indian Government, Transnational Repression, Foreign Interference, Prime Minister Modi, RSS, RAW, India Spies, Violence, Temple, Amritsar, Genocides, Sikh Genocide, 1984, 1947, Sikh News, Punjab News, Government, India Consulate, India Canada Relations, Trudeau, Shaheed Nijjar, Nijjar, Pannun, sikhs For Justice, Khalistan, Khalistan Referendum, Referendum 2020, Sikh Issues, Proudly Sikh, Proudly Canadian, India Violence, Human Rights

[tweedsmuir-library]

Happy Diwali

Happy Diwali and Bandi Chor Divas ‘Tuhanu Diwali diyan boht both vadhaiyan’ Keval Tank, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons Diwali is celebrated by millions of people in India, Canada and around the world. Hundreds of millions of Hindus celebrate “the Festival of Lights.” Millions of Sikhs, and eople of other faiths, ialso celebrate Diwali. For Sikhs the festival has added significance as it…

[head-post]

Canada accuses Indian minister Amit Shah of plotting attack on Sikh separatists

The Canadian government claimed that Indian Home Minister Amit Shah was behind plots to attack Sikh separatists in the North American country, Reuters reported.

However, New Delhi dismissed Canada’s earlier allegations as baseless, denying any involvement. According to The Washington Post, Canadian officials claimed that Shah allegedly promoted a campaign of violence and intimidation against Sikh separatists in Canada, Canadian Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister David Morrison disclosed.

The journalist called me and asked if it [Shah] was that person. I confirmed it was that person.

India labelled Sikh separatists as “terrorists” and a threat to its security. Sikh separatists are demanding the secession of an independent homeland known as Khalistan from India. Insurgency in India in the 1980s and 1990s killed tens of thousands of people.

The 1984 riots erupted when Sikh bodyguards killed then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi after she had ordered security forces to storm the holiest Sikh temple to dislodge Sikh separatists.

Canada expelled Indian diplomats in mid-October, linking them to the assassination of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in 2023 in Canada. In response, India ordered the expulsion of Canadian diplomats.

The US also indicted former Indian intelligence officer Vikash Yadav for allegedly masterminding an uncovered plot to assassinate Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a dual US-Canadian citizen and Indian critic in New York.

The charges tested Washington and Ottawa’s relationship with New Delhi, which is often seen as a rival to Beijing.

Read more HERE

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"Mark Leier recounts the story of Robert Gosden, a radical activist in the BC Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) who later turned labour spy and whose life illustrates some of this flexibility [between socialism and religion]. Although Leier does not say so, Gosden very probably disavowed Christianity during his IWW period, as most radical IWW leaders did. Leier is certainly clear that Gosden was a materialist at this time, and in 1911 he dismissed spiritualism as “metaphysical dope [that] especially appeals to some emasculated persons.” Like many socialists, Gosden denounced any association with spirituality as effeminate weakness. However, a few years later, after a stint as a labour spy, when Gosden was “nearly forty years old, with no career, stable job, or home life,” he turned to spiritualism and “became particularly interested in Theosophy.”

Theosophy had emerged from spiritualism during the 1870s but was quite different in many ways. Even so, the two movements did maintain some relationship with each other, and in the United States, Britain, and Canada a number of people, especially social activists, feminists, intellectuals, and artists, appear to have moved from spiritualism to Theosophy during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Theosophy espoused the Western occult tradition but was also influenced by many ideas from Eastern religions – Buddhism and most particularly Hinduism. As a result, karma and reincarnation were integral to its beliefs, and cremation, a Hindu practice, was common among Theosophists at a time when it was beyond the pale for most Euro-Canadians. As Gillian McCann reveals in her study of the Toronto Theosophical Society, the adoption of many major tenets of Hinduism led Theosophists to respect and appreciate Eastern religions. They were very critical of the Christian missionaries who attempted to convert the followers of these religions. They were not immune to the “Orientalism” that pervaded Euro-Canadian society, however, and they sometimes viewed Eastern religions and cultures as exotic “others,” but they were much more positive than other Canadians about these religions and were generally respectful of the South Asians who occasionally provided lectures on links between Hindu teachings and Theosophical beliefs.

The intent of Theosophy was to reach a deeper understanding of the divine. As Michele Lacombe points out, Theosophists believed in “a divinity indistinguishable from a Universe which is living, conscious, and endlessly evolving.” This evolution moved toward a positive endpoint, which included the brotherhood of mankind. Not all Theosophists subscribed to the same views, but a belief in the interconnectedness of the world and in universal brotherhood was central for all. During the early twentieth century, Canada had few Theosophists (at least as listed on the census), but between 1901 and 1921 more than 30 percent lived in British Columbia, and the province claimed over 35 percent in 1911 and 1921, although even by 1921 British Columbians composed only 6 percent of the Canadian population.

Theosophy made its first official appearance in British Columbia in 1892, with the establishment of a “headquarters” in downtown Victoria. By 1894, this headquarters was also equipped with a free library of Theosophical books. The Victoria chapter seems to have been one of Canada’s first three Theosophical Societies. The Theosophists offered regular public lectures, provided by their own members or visiting speakers, and though their numbers were small, the new religion appears to have aroused considerable public interest. Sometimes the local paper noted that their talks attracted large audiences, as in the case of visiting speakers Dr. Griffith and Sidney Coryn, whose 1896 and 1898 lectures were titled “Theosophy in Ancient Egypt” and “Adepts and the Mysteries of Antiquity. In the spring of 1911, Mr. C. Jinarajadasa, a protégé of international Theosophical leader Annie Besant and a member of the executive of the International Theosophical Society, gave a series of three lectures in Victoria titled “The Growth and Evolution of the Soul,” “Theosophy in the Christian Church,” and “The Laws of Reincarnation.” After his lectures, a letter appeared in the Victoria Colonist from a local Sikh leader, protesting the fact that even Hindus “of good social standing” like Jinarajadasa had difficulty entering the country because of its racist immigration laws. Jinarajadasa was not the only Theosophist lecturer to discuss the relationship between Christianity and Theosophy, as this was an occasional topic at the Victoria Theosophical Society’s public lectures in the decades preceding the First World War. Titles such as “What Is True Christianity?” and “Some Forgotten Teachings of Jesus” imply that Theosophists hoped to interest Christians in shared Theosophical and Christian beliefs such as universal brotherhood – beliefs that they felt many Christians failed to practise.

...

Theosophy’s focus on the brotherhood of man and the amalgamation of Eastern and Western religious beliefs led at least some Canadian Theosophists to follow the example of their international leaders, such as Annie Besant, in attacking racism and British imperialism. Not surprisingly, this critique tended to concentrate on the behaviour of the British government and Christian missionaries in India, although in the Canadian context considerable focus was also placed on Canada’s racist immigration and citizenship laws. Hugh Johnston points out that both this critique and the adoption of Hindu beliefs forged links between BC Theosophists and at least a few South Asian immigrants, who were themselves highly critical of both Canada’s immigration laws and British rule in India. Johnston discusses Teja Singh, a well-educated and pious Sikh immigrant who was planning to undertake graduate work at Harvard and who spent some time in Vancouver during the pre-war years. Local Theosophists lionized him, “treating him as a guru and inviting him to their homes for intimate philosophical talks.” Canadian security officials considered Singh a subversive at least in part for his efforts to assist his compatriots in dealing with Canada’s racist immigration laws. Gillian McCann identifies another South Asian man, Kartar Singh, who immigrated to Vancouver during the pre-war years, moved to Toronto during the war, and became involved with the Toronto Theosophists. He returned to Vancouver in the late 1920s to assist the BC Sikhs in their struggle to become Canadian citizens.

Johnston also mentions another Sikh immigrant, Kapoor Singh, who was associated with the Theosophists. Singh came to British Columbia in 1912 as a labourer and became a businessman and community leader, developing increasingly close links with Theosophists in both Toronto and Vancouver. He was initially attracted to them because of their respect for Indian religious traditions and beliefs. Some Euro-Canadian Theosophists assisted South Asians in dealing with a racist society wherever they could, and by the interwar period were actively involved with them in challenging Canada’s immigration laws. Some Theosophists studied and practised their religion with the despised “Hindus” while also working to address their oppression in Canada, but the new religion was not socially transformative for everyone. Some Toronto Theosophists, who could not escape the values of Euro-Canadian society, treated visiting South Asian speakers in a highly racist manner.

Whereas some Theosophists challenged racial oppression or fought for women’s rights, others were strong socialists. Robert Gosden, although a complex figure by the time he embraced spiritualism and then Theosophy in the mid- to late 1910s, retained at least some of his socialist ideals. Perhaps the most famous BC activist to incorporate both socialist and Theosophist ideals in the years before the First World War was Matti Kurikka, the leader of Sointula, a Finnish socialist utopian community on Malcolm Island, just off the northeast coast of Vancouver Island. The extent to which the Sointula community accepted Kurikka’s Theosophical beliefs is not clear. Certainly, his embrace of the free-love currents of Theosophical thought helped to break up the community fairly soon after its founding. Those who remained, however, stayed true to socialist, cooperative beliefs but seemed more irreligious than Theosophist. As a longtime resident told Imbert Orchard in the 1960s, long-time inhabitants of Sointula “were all pretty against” the church and Christianity.

Most scholars have focused on the relationship between socialism and Theosophy in Ontario, whereas Samuel Wagar provides an in-depth exploration of the subject in the BC context. He concentrates largely on the 1920s, when active socialist and Theosophist Jack Logie ran a number of summer camps in the Okanagan that promoted both Theosophist and socialist beliefs. However, Wagar also identifies earlier links between socialism and Theosophy, arguing that materialism was not the only model available to BC socialists, since a number of prominent socialists espoused Theosophy. Wagar discusses a major front-page article titled “Socialism and Theosophy,” which appeared in the April 1903 issue of the Western Socialist, an organ of the Socialist Party of British Columbia. It was written by Phillips Thompson, an Ontario Theosophist and well-known leftist, whose career reflects an ongoing spiritual journey. In the 1880s, Thompson had promoted a radical Christian social gospel critique of capitalism, and later in the century he became involved in spiritualism. He was also an active member of Toronto’s freethought community for a time but had embraced Theosophy by the early 1890s, which he saw as the best way of integrating spirituality with socialism. As he told Western Socialist readers,

I am a class-conscious Socialist from the ground up, and I claim that my Socialism is reinforced by [Theosophy]; in fact, I might go further and say based upon the truths of Theosophy.

Thompson was clear that he did not accept Christianity, but at the same time, his article was rather different from the general hostility to religion that characterized Marxist journals in British Columbia. Wagar notes that in 1907, Jack Logie ran as a candidate for office in the Socialist Party of Canada, although he does not provide evidence that Logie was a Theosophist at the time. He has clear evidence that by 1920 some individuals combined Theosophy and socialism: for example, socialist James Taylor was also president of the Vancouver Theosophical Society in 1920, and A.M. Stephen, president of the Julian Theosophical Society in Vancouver during the early 1920s, was also a committed Marxist and a well-known author and poet. Those who integrated Theosophy and socialism were able to abandon a capitalist-tainted Christianity but retain a spiritual belief system that focused on human betterment and the brotherhood of man."

- Lynne Marks, Infidels and the Damn Churches: Irreligion and Religion in Settler British Columbia. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2017. p. 197-199, 203-205

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Canadian police said they arrested three suspects Friday in the slaying of a Sikh separatist leader last June that become the center of a diplomatic spat with India, and are investigating possible ties between the detainees and the Indian government. Three Indian nationals in their 20s identified as Kamalpreet Singh, Karan Brar and Karampreet Singh were arrested in Edmonton, Alberta on Friday morning in the slaying of 45-year-old Hardeep Singh Nijjar by masked gunmen outside Vancouver, police said. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sparked a diplomatic feud with India in September when he said that there were “credible allegations” of Indian involvement in the slaying of Nijjar. India had accused Nijjar of links to terrorism, but angrily denied involvement in the slaying. In response to the allegatio ns, India told Canada last year to remove 41 of its 62 diplomats in the country. Tensions remain but have somewhat eased since.

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[hezigler]

International Political Assassination

[mrsingh5-blog]

Sikh

[zvaigzdelasas]

[Samaa is Pakistani Private Media]

The video posted on X has since made rounds on different social media platforms. "This issue must reach its logical end after escalation .. it should not be left in the middle .. Mr Trudeau What are you? .. Today 10 of our submarines will go from Hindustan and nuke you Canada .. What is your place?" the Indian politician said in the video.

23 Sep 23