TORONTO: With separatist group Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) planning to hold the next so-called Khalistan referendum on July 28, India has conveyed its displeasure to Ottawa that its territory is being used for such separatist activities.
Pro-Khalistani protesters held a protest outside the Indian Consulate in Vancouver on Wednesday, kicking off a 24-hour “picketing” against the consulate. (Photo provided) {{^userSubscribed}} {{/userSubscribed}} {{^userSubscribed}} {{/userSubscribed}}
India has also expressed concern about the location of the referendum in a public place, in this case a city facility. These views have been formally conveyed to the Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs by the Indian High Commission in Ottawa.
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Meanwhile, in some parts of Calgary where the referendum will be held, several signs for the upcoming referendum have been set up, but images obtained by Hindustan Times show some of them have been defaced with spray paint by unidentified individuals, with the words “illegal signage” written on them.
This was confirmed by SFJ legal adviser Gurpatwant Pannun, who said the flag had been “defaced” and “holes had been punched in the flag.”
He said this happened over the weekend, “and wherever we’ve put new ones up, they’ve continued to do the same thing,” he added.
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The posters include a photo of Talwinder Singh Parmar, the alleged mastermind behind the June 23, 1985 Air India Flight 182 (Kanishka) bombing, which killed 329 people and is the deadliest terrorist incident in Canadian history. It also features a photo of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the lead organizer of SFJ’s British Columbia campaign, which took place in Surrey on June 18 last year. Nijjar was considered a terrorist in India but was never charged in Canada. Nijjar’s murder led to a subsequent rupture in Indo-Canadian relations after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in the House of Commons on September 18, 2023 that there were “credible allegations” of a potential link between Indian agents and the murder.
The venue for the July 28th referendum will be the City of Calgary’s City Hall Atrium & Plaza, which is owned and operated by the city.
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Calgary is led by Indo-Canadian Mayor Jyoti Gondek.
The last government facility to be listed for a referendum was Tamanawis Secondary School in Surrey, British Columbia. But on September 3 last year, a week before the scheduled referendum date, a spokesperson for the Surrey District School Board said in a statement that they had “cancelled the community lease for one of our schools due to breaches of the lease.”
The referendum was finally held at the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey on September 10 last year, and earlier on September 18, 2022, at Gore Meadows Community Centre, a city-owned site in Brampton in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).
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Meanwhile, SFJ began a 24-hour “picket” at the Indian Consulate in Vancouver on Wednesday afternoon, citing a Washington Post report that the consulate provided logistical support for Nijjar’s murder. Canadian investigators have arrested four Indian nationals in the case, but no link to India has been disclosed. Law enforcement agencies, however, have said this line of investigation is still ongoing. India has described the allegations as “absurd” and “motivated.”
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