Govt facility to host SFJ's Khalistan referendum in Canada on July 28, says Pannun

The secessionist group Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) has announced that it will hold the next phase of Khalistan referendum at a government facility in Calgary on July 28.

According to a Hindustan Times report, SFJ’s general-counsel Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on Thursday announced that Calgary Municipal Plaza, which is owned and operated by the city of Calgary, will host the referendum.

Pannun said the referendum “is expected to be thronged by pro-Khalistan Sikhs in thousands,” added the report.

If the referendum goes ahead as planned, it will be the first time since September 2022 that a referendum will be held at a government location.

Interestingly, the Calgary Municipal Complex Atrium and Plaza site shows no event listings. The atrium’s schedule is blank, while the Plaza is marked as closed for “resurfacing” on that day, reported Hindustan times.

Booking the atrium is limited to registered non-profits, charities, and school groups, with reservations required at least 30 days in advance. The plaza, however, is available to any group or individual from 7 am to 11 pm. While a permit is not required, users can secure exclusive use of the plaza by registering their events.

According to the report, the last time a government facility was registered for the referendum was at Tamanawis Secondary School in Surrey, British Columbia. However, a week before the scheduled date, on September 3 last year, a spokesperson for the Surrey District School Board announced in a release that they had “cancelled a community rental of one of our schools due to a violation of our rental agreement.”

The stated reason for withdrawing permission was that the promotional materials for the event featured images of the school alongside images of a weapon. The referendum poster actually displayed both an AK-47 machine gun and a kirpan, added the report.

“Despite repeated attempts to address the issue, the event organisers failed to remove these concerning images, and materials continued to be posted throughout Surrey and on social media,” the release said.

That referendum was ultimately held on September 10 last year at the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey.

Prior to that on September 18, 2022, it was organised at the Gore Meadows Community Centre, a municipal property in Brampton in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).

India and Canada’s relations strained after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada was investigating “credible allegations” about the potential involvement of Indian government agents in the murder of Khalistani separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia in June.

India “completely rejected” the allegations, calling them “absurd”.

India has time and again raised the issue of Canada government giving space to separatist elements in the name of freedom of speech.

In May, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that Canada allowing space to separatist elements reflects the vote bank politics of the Trudeau-led government rather than law of the land.

“Your vote bank is more powerful than your rule of law,” said Jaishankar, adding. “Freedom of speech does not mean freedom to support separatism. We cannot for good relations overlook that.”

Jaishankar said India respects and practices freedom of speech, but that does not equate with freedom to threaten foreign diplomats, extend support to separatism or allow political space to elements advocating violence.

Jaishankar said Canada’s response to India’s concerns has been that it has freedom of speech.

“Whenever we have taken this up with the Canadians..it is not a new issue… It has been going on almost for 10 years and they keep saying, oh ‘we have freedom of speech’,” Jaishankar said.

“We also have freedom of speech in our country. But freedom of speech does not mean freedom to threaten foreign diplomats, freedom of speech does not mean the kind of positions and the kind of activities which people in Canada are doing which does harm to our country because of its support for separatism,” Jaishankar added.

The external affairs minister also wondered how people with dubious backgrounds are being allowed to enter and live in Canada, referring to Khalistani supporters among the Sikh migrants from Punjab.

With inputs from agencies