Feds agree to drop ‘Sikh extremism’ from report on threats of terrorism

OTTAWA — Friday evening, hours before Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visited one of the biggest Sikh temples in Canada, his government agreed to change the language in a report on terrorism to no longer explicitly mention Sikh extremism.

The 2018 Public Report on the Terrorism Threat to Canada released in December drew ire from Canada’s Sikh community for talking about Sikh extremism for the first time as one of the top five extremist threats in Canada.

Although the objections were largely about the inclusion of Sikhs at all, because of the report’s lack of evidence to back it up, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said he would ask for a review of the language the report used, because entire religions should never be equated with terrorism.

On April 7, Goodale issued a statement saying the 2018 report would be left as it was, but future reports would have to speak to the ideologies or intentions of extremists, not their religions.

Instead of “Sikh extremism” future reports would, if it was appropriate, discuss threats posed by “extremists who support violent means to establish an independent state within India.”

That changed late Friday, just hours before Trudeau was to join Vancouver MP and Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan to visit the Khalsa Diwan Society’s Ross Street Gurdwara in Vancouver and march today in the city’s Vaisakhi parade.

“The report has been updated to reflect this terminology, and it will be used in future public documents,” the department said.

Balpreet Singh, the lawyer for the World Sikh Organization in Canada, said the original report was “deeply hurtful and insensitive” and welcomed the government’s decision to change it as an “acknowledgment there was a mistake that was made.”

But he said the change took too long and required too much effort from the community.

Singh noted, however, the report still refers to extremism in both Sunni and Shia Islam, which, he said, undermines the government’s commitment to be more careful about not maligning entire religions.

Singh is also concerned that the government is listing extremist elements advocating violence for Khalistan without any evidence. “Prove it or remove it,” Singh said. He said whether the latest move will help the federal Liberals mend fences with Sikh voters is not for him to say.

With 16 Sikhs elected as Liberal MPs in 2015, and four in Trudeau’s cabinet, the connection between the party and the then-new government was strong.

It took a downturn last year after Trudeau’s troubled trip to India, where he signed an agreement to co-operate with the Indian government to fight terrorism threats, including from Sikh extremist groups Babbar Khalsa and the International Sikh Youth Association.