SIKHI ROCKS IN CANADA..!!

                                     SIKHI AND CANADA

 

 



SIKH'S IN CANADA

There are approximately 500,000 Sikhs in Canada

In 1867, Canada’s first Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald wrote: “War will come someday between England and the United States and India can do us a yeoman’s service by sending an army of Sikhs …”

The first Sikhs arrived 1897 as part of the army regiments travelling through Canada in celebration of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee

By 1907 there were close to 5000 Sikhs in Canada and the first Sikh gurdwara was established in Vancouver in 1908

The Abbotsford gurdwara established in 1911 is a Canadian National Historic Site and marked its centenary in 2011

Nine Canadian Sikhs are known to have fought for the Canadian Forces in WW1

Discriminatory immigration policies resulted in an exodus of Sikhs from Canada from 1908 onwards. The attitude of intolerance was embodied by the tragic Komagata Maru incident in which a ship of 376 mostly Sikh passengers was turned back from the Vancouver port after not being allowed to dock and being denied food and supplies for two months

With liberalized immigration policy in the 1960s and 70s, Sikh immigration grew dramatically and spread across Canada

There are Sikh communities in every Province in Canada

Canada’s 2011 Census showed Punjabi to be the most spoken immigrant language in the country

Several Canadian Sikhs have served as federal Members of Parliament and Cabinet Ministers and also as representatives and ministers in several Provincial Legislatures

Baltej Singh Dhillon was the first Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer to be allowed to wear a turban

Lt. Col. Harjit Singh Sajjan became the first Sikh to command a Canadian army regiment in 2011.