Sikhs in Canada

Sikhs in Canada

• There are approximately 500,000 Sikhs in Canada

• In 1867, Canada’s first Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald wrote: “War will come someday between England and the United States and India can do us a yeoman’s service by sending an army of Sikhs …”

• The first Sikhs arrived 1897 as part of the army regiments travelling through Canada in celebration of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee

• By 1907 there were close to 5000 Sikhs in Canada and the first Sikh gurdwara was established in Vancouver in 1908

• The Abbotsford gurdwara established in 1911 is a Canadian National Historic Site and marked its centenary in 2011

• Nine Canadian Sikhs are known to have fought for the Canadian Forces in WW1

• Discriminatory immigration policies resulted in an exodus of Sikhs from Canada from 1908 onwards. The attitude of intolerance was embodied by the tragic Komagata Maru incident in which a ship of 376 mostly Sikh passengers was turned back from the Vancouver port after not being allowed to dock and being denied food and supplies for two months

• With liberalized immigration policy in the 1960s and 70s, Sikh immigration grew dramatically and spread across Canada

• There are Sikh communities in every Province in Canada

• Canada’s 2011 Census showed Punjabi to be the most spoken immigrant language in the country

• Several Canadian Sikhs have served as federal Members of Parliament and Cabinet Ministers and also as representatives and ministers in several Provincial Legislatures

• Baltej Singh Dhillon was the first Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer to be allowed to wear a turban

• Lt. Col. Harjit Singh Sajjan became the first Sikh to command a Canadian army regiment in 2011.