On 19th August (local time) Canada’s leader of opposition, Pierre Poilievre, visited the Guru Nanak Mission Centre (GGNMC) in Brampton. His visit to the centre has sparked controversy as it actively promotes a pro-Khalistani stance. In a post on X, Poilievre wrote, “Stopped by the Guru Nanak Mission Centre in Brampton where volunteers are hard at work serving the community united by our common values of faith, family and freedom. Thank you for the warm welcome and for all you do for Canadians.”
Stopped by the Guru Nanak Mission Centre in Brampton where volunteers are hard at work serving the community united by our common values of faith, family and freedom.
— Pierre Poilievre (@PierrePoilievre) August 19, 2024
Thank you for the warm welcome and for all you do for Canadians. pic.twitter.com/0D17bdycAP
Anti-corruption and anti-terrorism investigative journalist Mocha Bezirgan criticised Poilievre and shared an image from GGNMC’s official account where they called terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar a “shaheed” or martyr. The poster read, “We stand for the establishment of the sovereign state of Khalistan”.
Pierre Poilievre visited a Khalistani temple in Brampton, accompanied by his deputy MP Tim Uppal, whose wife was an executive with the World Sikh Organization, and whose brother was charged in a drug sting in 2014 but later acquitted, despite the convictions of his co-accused.… https://t.co/bdx0oQpMS5 pic.twitter.com/s3Cs6sXPHR
— Mocha Bezirgan 🇨🇦 (@BezirganMocha) August 19, 2024
In his post, Bezirgan wrote, “Pierre Poilievre visited a Khalistani temple in Brampton, accompanied by his deputy MP Tim Uppal, whose wife was an executive with the World Sikh Organization, and whose brother was charged in a drug sting in 2014 but later acquitted, despite the convictions of his co-accused. The temple calls Hardeep Singh Nijjar a martyr. Najjar was an executive with Sikhs for Justice, the organization that organized the Khalistan “referendum” in Calgary last July. At that event, Canada’s first Sikh to be convicted of terrorism crimes, Santokh Singh Khela, who is also an organizer for Sikhs for Justice, was presented with an award by Ajaib Singh Bagri, who was acquitted in Canada’s deadliest terror attack (Air India Bombings) that took place a year after where Bagri pledged to kill 50,000 Hindus at the WSO’s founding convention. The parents of the suicide bomber who killed Punjab’s Premier were also present.”
Another journalist, Daniel Bordman also criticised Poilievre by asking if he saw the photographs of the terrorists supported by GGNMC. He wrote, “Did they have up the wall with the pictures of all the terrorists they support, or did they take it down before you got there?”
Did they have up the wall with the pictures of all the terrorists they support, or did they take it down before you got there?
— Daniel Bordman (@DanielBordmanOG) August 19, 2024
OpIndia checked the Instagram account of the centre and found the post calling Hardeep Singh Nijjar a martyr. The post was published on 18th June 2024, one year after Nijjar was murdered.
Canada accused India of killing Nijjar
Hardeep Singh Nijjar was a designated Khalistani terrorist wanted by the Government of India. He was killed on 18th June 2023 in a possible gang war. However, the Canadian government blamed the Government of India and Indian agents for killing him. Notably, four persons who were arrested in his murder case in May 2024 were associated with the Lawrance Bishnoi Gang. Nijjar was a Sikh separatist leader who propagated the demand for a separate Sikh nation, Khalistan. He was living in Surrey, British Columbia Canada and was chief of Guru Nanak Gurdwara.
India has accused Nijjar of involvement in several violent incidents, including the 2007 bombing of a cinema in Ludhiana and an attempted murder in 2021. National Investigation Agency has named him in the case of the attempted murder of Hindu leader Kamaldeep Sharma. In 2015, Indian agencies apprehended Mandeep Singh Dhaliwal who was a Surrey resident during his visit to India. A few days later, it was revealed that he was associated with a Khalistani terror training camp in Canada. He told Punjab police during interrogation that he had plans to carry out terror activities in Punjab and was sent by Nijjar to attack leaders of Sects. Furthermore, he informed the police that he was working with another terrorist to get arms and ammunition from Pakistan.
Globe and Mail talked to two people associated with Dhaliwal. They told on the condition of anonymity that Dhaliwal attended an arms training camp in 2015. Furthermore, five other Sikh radicals also took training at those camps. They were trained by Nijjar to operate weapons and GPS. They also learned how to communicate securely and did target practice at three different sites in the Lower Mainland. Nijjar was also linked to gangster-turned-terrorist Arshdeep Singh Gill or Arsh Dala. He is the head of the Dala Lakhbir gang which uses Canada as a base for running an extortion ring in Punjab.
Till date, Canada has not provided any credible evidence that Indian agents were involved in Nijjar’s murder.
Tim S Uppal targetted India after Justin Trudeau accused Indian agents of killing Nijjar
In September 2023, after Canada accused India of killing Nijjar, Uppal expressed outrage over the murder of the Khalistani terrorist. Tim S Uppal, the Deputy leader of the Conservative Party, said, “Let me begin by offering my sincere condolences to Bhai Hardeep Singh Nijjer’s family. I also did so in person with his son after his assassination. An assassination of a Canadian on Canadian soil in the parking lot of a Gurdwara.” While speaking at the House of Commons, he remarked, “At that time in June and now, we call on the RCMP for a full investigation. We call on the Indian government to act with utmost transparency in this investigation because these allegations are an outrageous affront to Canada’s sovereignty.” “Canadians must be kept safe from extrajudicial killings of all kinds, most of all from foreign governments. Canadians must be protected on Canadian soil,” he lent credence to the unfounded allegations of Justin Trudeau.
“It is for this reason that Conservatives brought forward a Foreign Agent Registry bill S-237 in November of 2021, which continues to be blocked by this Liberal-NDP government. If this Bill was passed when Conservatives proposed it, foreign agents working to intimidate, influence or even assassinate a Canadian citizen could have been stopped,” Tim S Uppal was heard saying. “We must work together to protect Canadians from foreign interference and to ensure Bhai Hardeep Singh Nijjer’s killers are brought to justice,” he further added.
Earlier Pierre Poilievre had also offered condolences to the family of slain Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. “If these allegations are true, they represent an outrageous affront to Canada’s sovereignty…Our citizens must be safe from extrajudicial killings of all kinds, most of all from foreign governments. Canadians deserve to be protected on Canadian soil.” “We call on the Indian government to act with utmost transparency as authorities investigate this murder…We are all Canadians.This is our country. We must be united for our home and each other.”
