FACED DISCRIMINATION WHEN I JOINED CANADA ARMY: SAJJAN

NEWDELHI:CANADA’S Indianorigin defence minister Harjit Singh Sajjan said on Thursday that he had “faced discrimination” in that country’s military because he “looked different”.

Sajjan, who moved from Punjab to Canada as a young boy, said this in the presence of Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, wife of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, currently on a week-long visit to India.

“I was born in India and moved to Canada when I was five... When I was 18 and joined the military there, I faced discrimination, even though I am a Canadian... because I looked different,” he said, during the Asia launch of a global campaign, ‘She Will Grow Into

It’, here.

“I hail from a small village and lived a very simple life before migrating to Canada,” said Sajjan, who had a decorated career in the army and became the defence minister in 2015. He shared an anecdote from his youth to underline the message of equality: “I was 12, and I came across a girl in India, with round, beautiful eyes, who came towards me begging for money and I asked her to go away...years later in Canada, when I faced discrimination, her face flashed in front of my eyes, and I realised she was begging because she was hungry.” He said that then he realised how it felt to be treated unequal.

“Sixty per cent of the world’s malnourished people are women, and this campaign seeks to fill the gap,” Sajjan said.