Sikh Groups Express Concern Over Sajjan Afghanistan Inquiry

Ottawa (November 4, 2024):  In advance of Minister Harjit Singh Sajjan’s upcoming appearance before the Standing Committee on National Defence, three Sikh organizations, including the Manmeet Singh Bhullar Foundation, Khalsa Aid Canada, and the World Sikh Organization of Canada, have expressed serious concerns about the motivations behind this inquiry. The appearance seeks to question Minister Sajjan’s role in directing Special Forces to rescue Sikh and Hindu minorities during the 2021 fall of Afghanistan.

The letter, signed by Tarjinder K Bhullar, Director of the Manmeet Singh Bhullar Foundation, and co-signed by Jatinder Singh, National Director of Khalsa Aid Canada, and Danish Singh, President of the World Sikh Organization of Canada, expresses concern that the inquiry is being politicized, unfairly targeting Minister Sajjan's faith as a basis for questioning his actions. The signatories fear that this action may foster divisive narratives and discourage Canada’s future humanitarian efforts.

The full letter that was sent yesterday to members of the Standing Committee on National Defence follows below:

November 4, 2024

RE: Minister Sajjan to appear before Standing Committee on National Defence

On the eve of Minister Harjit Singh Sajjan’s attendance at The Standing Committee on National Defence, to discuss his role in directing Special Forces to rescue Sikhs and Hindus during the August 2021 fall of Afghanistan, we share serious concern about the motivation of this committee to ask for Minister Sajjan to appear before them. At a time of increased anti-immigrant sentiment and the targeting of Sikh Canadians, we are concerned that the influences of politicization and partisanship will have a long-lasting impact on Canada’s past and future efforts to answer the call for humanitarian assistance when the world is in need.

For those of us who engaged with the Minister at that time, we know it is a blatant misrepresentation of the facts to suggest that his motivation to assist the Sikh and Hindu population to leave Afghanistan during the summer of 2021 was due to his sharing the same faith as these vulnerable people. 

It is pointedly partisan that members of the official opposition, after openly supporting and advocating for this vulnerable population to be helped, are now using their voices to support a false and dangerous narrative for their own political gain, after the Bloc Québécois called for this unnecessary inquiry. In July 2020, 25 opposition MPs sent a signed letter to the Minister of Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada to ask for the creation of a special program to assist this population. Petitions, statements in the House of Commons and correspondence from members from all parties formed the basis of ongoing support to strengthen the very open ask to the current government to create a public policy and leverage existing processes for the private sponsorship of Sikh and Afghan religious minorities. 

The fall of Afghanistan in August 2021 was not the motivating factor for the Save Afghan Minorities project. It began in the Spring of 2015 when Balpreet Singh, The World Sikh Organization of Canada’s Legal Counsel, discussed the dire circumstances of Sikhs and Hindus in Afghanistan with Alberta MLA Manmeet Singh Bhullar. MLA Bhullar saw this work as non-partisan, reaching out across party lines, political jurisdiction and internal borders. Media reports, his own accounts on social media, and reflection following his untimely passing in November 2015, make these facts irrefutable. Since forming the Manmeet Singh Bhullar Foundation in 2016, the same approach has been used to advocate for this cause.

By the time of the fall of Afghanistan, over five years of work to assist these people had been completed. Afghan Sikhs and Hindus had been clearly identified as a vulnerable population, with several hundred of them having already fled the country, awaiting to be sponsored to Canada through the private sponsorship route. Public policy was developed as a result of years of advocacy. In 2019, several of these families had already successfully started arriving in Canada.

Four former Immigration, Refugee, and Citizenship Canada Ministers, none of whom are Sikh and one of whom was Conservative, are well versed in this file. The House of Commons Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration has twice heard from representatives from the World Sikh Organization of Canada and the Manmeet Singh Bhullar Foundation about the plight of Sikh and Hindu religious minorities in Afghanistan. 

In the critical days of August 2021, as many organizations did, the Manmeet Singh Bhullar Foundation reached out to then Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, Marco Mendocino, to reinforce the need to include Sikh and Hindu populations in the list of vulnerable groups the Canadian government would endeavour to support as the Taliban strengthened their control. In Canada, the World Sikh Organization of Canada, Khalsa Aid International, and the Manmeet Singh Bhullar Foundation, along with organizations in the United States and Canada, were reaching out to and reminding politicians of all stripes and backgrounds to assist all vulnerable populations, including Sikhs and Hindus.

The exaggerated and flawed narrative that Minister Sajjan went beyond his parameters as Minister of Defence to rescue Sikhs during this time is just that – flawed. During this period, we communicated with both Minister Sajjan and other Ministers, MPs, government and opposition to reaffirm the critical need to assist Afghan Sikhs and Hindus, as per established government policy as it pertained to this vulnerable group. Minister Sajjan was clear in his communications to us that the names of individuals to be helped must be provided to IRCC, just like all other vulnerable groups that were being identified. It was our understanding that this group had to make their own way to the designated perimeter, in hopes of receiving assistance. 

Where we find ourselves today and its direct link to racism that many Sikh Canadians feel this incident highlights, cannot be underscored. How a federal Canadian Minister is having his identity reduced down to one singular dimension, his faith, cannot be ignored. The insult of reducing the entirety of his role and responsibility as a Minister, during a trying time for the world, down to one simple task or action cannot be ignored. The nearly decade-long advocacy towards creating public policy, in contrast to a month-long turnaround to assist and welcome other populations to Canada, cannot be ignored. The admonishment of Minister Sajjan for helping someone with whom he shares an aspect of identity compared to the admiration for Ministers of other faiths and heritage who have rightfully advocated to assist at a time of need cannot be ignored.

Canada has always served as a place where community and government work together to ensure we help fellow humans. With today’s increased anti-immigrant sentiment and this politically motivated and targeted inquiry, once again Canadians and the diaspora communities we represent are reminded that for all its promise, some in Canada still do not see that a Sikh is and can be as Canadian as them.