Sex, Sikhs and politics

Toronto: Multi-cultural Canada is experiencing two hair-raising nationwide controversies, both with serious political and cultural implications.

One is an “unprecedented diplomatic war” between Canada and India over the murder last June of a Sikh political activist in British Columbia.

The other “war” is over gender ideology and sex education in schools.

Canada has expelled a senior Indian diplomat. Indian retaliated by expelling a senior Canadian diplomat. Trade and tariff deals, and official exchange visits are on hold. Commentators advise Canada to tread softly. India has suspended its visa services in Canada while Canada is deciding how to respond.

What started this? Canadian PM Justin Trudeau made a bombshell announcement last Monday in the House of Commons.

“Over the past number of weeks, Canadian security agencies have been pursuing credible allegations of a potential link between the agents of the Government of India and the killing of a Canadian citizen, Hardeep Singh Nijjar.”

Trudeau’s use of the words “allegation” and “potential” helped push his anouncement into tangled controversy. The Opposition Conservative leader, Pierre Poilievre, whose polling fortunes now exceed Trudeau’s, cautiously said “if the allegation is true” it is a serious matter for Canada’s sovereignty. Many argue Trudeau’s announcement was premature. There have been repeated calls for Trudeau to produce the evidence beyond allegations. However, he explained that the investigations are still continuing, and went further, to ask India to co-operate with Canada.

India, however, noted its frequent appeals for Canada to control, if not prosecute, “Sikh terrorists” with subversive connections in India.

Bilingual Canada is extremely ethnically sensitive. All government signs and literature are in both English and French. As I walked through the busy streets of Toronto, I was intrigued by the large number of Indian and Chinese students who crowded the streets.

The Sikh population, over 700,000, carries political capital. It plans to hold anti-India rallies in several Canadian cities. The New Democratic Party (NDP) leader is a Sikh, who, as reported, is banned from India. A large part of the 400,000 Indian student population in Canada is Sikh. The 45-year-old Hardeep Singh Nijjar was head of a prominent Sikh temple in Vancouver, the Guru Nanak Gurdawa. He was also a leading agitator for an independent Sikh state – Khalistan, 60 per cent Sikhs.

The troubling Sikh vs India history includes violent exchanges between Sikh separatists and India’s military, the 1984 assassination of PM Indira Gandhi after her military clampdown on Sikh militants in the Golden Temple of Amritsar, and the 1985 bombing of an Air India flight from Canada, killing 329.

India’s external department official Arindam Ragchi criticised "Khalistani terrorists and extremists who have been provided shelter in Canada and who continue to threaten India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

“Canada is a haven for terrorists,” alleged the Indian Government.

Given its deep religious passions and international networks, Sikh separatism is likely to be alive for a long time.

Given the cautious, cool responses by the US, Australia and the UK, Trudeau seems moving into damage control.

Meanwhile, thousands of “protective” Canadian parents unleashed a massive “One Million March for Children,” protesting “gender ideology and sex education" in schools. They noisily clashed with name-calling supporters of the school programme, which aims to build sexual awareness in children as they move from grade to grade.

One protesting parent, Ali Bashir, put the case this way in the Toronto Sun: “I am here because I want to protect my kids to get an education based on math and science and not worry about their gender...If he is a boy, he is a boy. If she is a girl, she is a girl. I don’t care what anybody thinks about that.”

Trudeau explained his 2015 programme: “Let me make one thing very clear. Transphobia, homophobia and biphobia have no place in this country. We condemn this hate and its manifestations and we stand united in our support of 2SLGBTQ1-plus.”

However, protest co-cordinator Benita Pederson replied: “Children should be learning about the biology of the male, the female and it should stop there.”

“The protesters are fed misinformation,” explained social worker Malena Boungen.

The controversial Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) programme starts with basics at Grade 1 and advances with more sexual details up to Grade 8.

Now trailing in the polls, Trudeau may take the political threats from these parents seriously.