NDP leader takes stand against terrorism

OTTAWA — NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says he condemns all acts of terrorism no matter who is responsible.

In a statement posted to the NDP website, Singh defends his decision to attend a June 2015 rally in California — an event billed as a commemoration of Sikhs who died during an invasion of the Golden Temple in Amritsar in 1984, but which was also a show of support for Sikh separatism.

Singh says he has long been an advocate for human rights and while he believes in allowing the Sikh community the opportunity to process the feelings inflicted by the trauma of the 1984 invasion, which he calls a genocide, he does not condone violence as a response.

Many Indian-Canadian families immigrated to Canada in the years following the temple attack, fleeing anti-Sikh rioting that followed it. In his statement, Singh says many Sikhs continue to process the fact their relatives were attacked for who they were and that they need the space to be able to express their feelings. He says he has dedicated much of his work around helping a community answer how it can “move through pain and trauma in order to reach acceptance so that it can arrive peacefully at reconciliation?

“I encourage all those facing these tough questions not to fall prey to rage and violence, but rather to embrace your truth and move forward with love and courage,” he wrote.

Singh’s statement, following a report about the 2015 rally, comes at a time of strained Canada-India relations, in part because of lingering Indian concerns that Canadian governments tolerate Sikh separatism and extremism by not speaking out against it.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s recent visit to India became more of a diplomatic embarrassment than a peace-building exercise, although Trudeau did manage to make some headway, publicly condemning extremism and signing a joint security framework with India to counter terrorism and violent extremism.

Balpreet Singh, legal counsel for the World Sikh Organization in Canada, said the demand that all Sikhs constantly condemn violence in general is not only tiring, it’s offensive.