Canadian Heritage Committee on Oct. 30th, 2017

[Balpreet Singh]

Absolutely. You can find them on our website, but I'd be happy to forward them to the committee as well.

[Anju Dhillon, Liberal, Dorval—Lachine—LaSalle, QC]

Please, yes; it would be better if you submitted the information.

[Balpreet Singh]

I will for sure.

[Anju Dhillon, Liberal, Dorval—Lachine—LaSalle, QC]

What has the WSO done to raise awareness when it comes to Sikhs being attacked and their religious symbols being ripped off?

[Balpreet Singh]

Whenever these incidents have come to light we've been pretty prominent in the media, but within our own community we've been educating individuals on how to respond to these sorts of incidents.

After 9/11 we had regular incidents of people being called “Osama bin Laden”. Really the best way to do this is through engagement. That's really what we've found. If you can engage with someone and explain to them why you're wearing a turban and the fact that you're a Canadian.... Our community has been here for well over a hundred years. I was born and raised here, and my father came here more than 50 years ago. When people recognize that we are a part of the community and try to understand, that's really the best way to address these sorts of things.

Secondly, we've been very clear with our community, and our community has been very much in agreement, that we can't address these sorts of incidents by saying we're not Muslims. That's really not the right way of doing it, because whether we're Muslims or not, there is no justification for these sorts of attacks. It has really been a question, then, of educating our own community.

Then, these sorts of events like Turban Eh! create a positive space for people to ask questions. I've met people who have engaged with Sikhs for many years and haven't even asked the question, “Why are you wearing a turban? What is its significance?” Creating that space is really important.

[Anju Dhillon, Liberal, Dorval—Lachine—LaSalle, QC]

The port situation is a question of bread and butter, of employment. To be discriminated against if you're wearing a turban and not be allowed to come to the port or work at the port.... Has WSO done anything to fight against that? Are there any success stories in Canada?

[Balpreet Singh]

This has been an ongoing situation. I have been raising a Quebec decision against Sikh truck drivers with our elected officials. Last month I filed a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission, because it's a federal jurisdiction area. When an individual took photographs of others walking around the port without helmets, even the lady telling him he needed to wear a helmet was not wearing a helmet.

So that is going to go through that process, but I would encourage the government to help with the situation because this is a federal area.

[Anju Dhillon, Liberal, Dorval—Lachine—LaSalle, QC]

When it comes to employment—you mentioned the boardrooms and other high-level positions—have there been many complaints of people not getting jobs because of the way they look?

[Balpreet Singh]

The discrimination here is a little harder to pick out. If you're not hired because you're wearing a turban, no one's going to say that anymore. You will not be hired because you're not the right fit, or maybe your interview could have been a little better. Often, these are excuses. We feel that the representation of Sikhs and minorities in general has to be better on boards, and I think having the data in front of us will help us identify the problem and result in solutions.

[Anju Dhillon, Liberal, Dorval—Lachine—LaSalle, QC]

Would you propose the government fight systemic discrimination based both on race and religion?

[Balpreet Singh]

Once again, first, the two tools that I suggested were data and statistics. We need to have the numbers in front of us. Even uniform hate-crime statistics, as he suggested, are important. Numbers are the “in”. I couldn't have worked with the Peel District School Board for the past five years had I not had this bullying report with numbers. We feel that numbers result in active steps to address the situation.

Second is encouraging and supporting community events where people can engage. Turban, Eh! was supported by the Community Foundations of Canada, which is federally supported. The goodwill generated was amazing.

[Anju Dhillon, Liberal, Dorval—Lachine—LaSalle, QC]

You mentioned that connecting people and organizations is very important. Do you work with any other religious organizations?

[Balpreet Singh]

Yes. We're a part of several interfaith organizations, and we work with our community partners in various religious groups. I had the privilege of being the co-chair of the cabinet of Canadians, which was put on by Cardus. It involved religious groups from across Canada. We worked with the Canadian Interfaith Conversation, which is an interfaith group that's all across Canada.

[Anju Dhillon, Liberal, Dorval—Lachine—LaSalle, QC]

Thank you.

My next questions will be for the Muslim Food Bank gentlemen.

You mentioned that when immigrants come they feel isolated, they feel separate from everybody else. What does your organization do to help alleviate that a little?

[Muainudin Ahmed]

One of the programs we run is around cultural connectivity. We have workshops where we bring in local people of that cultural background to have almost a mixer—if you want to call it that—with the newcomers to welcome them into the society, and also to connect them to all the community organizations to help them along.

[Anju Dhillon, Liberal, Dorval—Lachine—LaSalle, QC]

Do you have anything to add to that?

[Azim Dahya]

Yes. When the refugees come here we have a welcome basket for them, regardless of where they come from and what religion they are. This welcome basket will have some materials to help them connect with the organization. We also provide a social worker who will do an assessment for motherly needs for the babies, and in turn, we will provide baby items, toiletries, as the need requires.

By having these connections at the earliest stage, building relationships when they come to the country, because those are the long-lasting relationships, I think we have been able to manage to help them settle down faster in the community.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you very much. We've gone over time here.

I'm going to Scott Reid for the Conservatives.

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Mr. Singh, could you spell Turban, Eh! for me?

[Balpreet Singh]

Sure, it's “Turban”, and then “Eh”.

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, ON]

Okay.

I heard “aid”. I tried typing it in on my iPad while you were talking to the other witnesses, and I got a story from New Zealand about a Sikh who helps somebody who just suffered an injury by taking off his turban and creating a tourniquet out of it, thereby stopping their bleeding. Anybody else can do a Google search. They'll probably get the same thing. Thank you for that. I'll look that up instead, after I've asked you some other questions and I'm no longer chatting with you.

You mentioned this incident where nobody's wearing hard hats and this is used as an excuse to deny access to a Sikh. How do we deal with workplaces where a hard hat is a practical safety measure, along with reflective jackets and steel-toed boots? How is that normally handled?

[Balpreet Singh]

That's a fair question.

I think you'll find the Sikh community is really reasonable when it comes to these sorts of things. Where there's an actual risk of head injury—and particularly where a person isn't assuming the risk exclusively themselves, where they are responsible in a position where they could have an impact on others—a hard hat needs to be worn, or that person needs to be placed somewhere else if they're not willing to do that.

However, when you have a situation where someone is being specifically targeted for wearing a hard hat, even while the people around him aren't wearing them, it's kind of like picking on someone. That's discriminatory behaviour. We've seen it before. There has been a decision out of the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, called Loomba, where it has been clearly established that you can't pick on someone when no one else is really wearing it. We're talking about these weigh stations, where there's nothing above you that can fall on your head, and these individuals are being very reasonable saying that they can sit in their cabin and don't need to come out of the truck cabin.

I think it's really a situation of education, but it needs to be resolved.

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, ON]

The Loomba decision to which you referred, does that essentially provide the guideline as to where one can act reasonably, not expecting safety regulations to be enforced, or is it purely on a bullying sort of issue?

[Balpreet Singh]

The Loomba decision was an interim decision and focused specifically on whether someone was being specifically picked on when others weren't wearing a helmet, and whether that's okay or not. That decision said it wasn't okay.

For example, in the U.K. there is a general exemption for Sikhs on work sites from wearing the helmet. I think it's something that needs to be looked at, but as I said, Sikhs are reasonable in that there are going to be situations where hard hats are necessary. But a lot of the time you're seeing a blanket requirement without the actual analysis.

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, ON]

This is a really good, practical discussion. A few years ago, we had a similar discussion about the first Sikh to join the RCMP and a practical solution was to design a turban that is part of the uniform. That was really the end of a problem, which indicated that practical solutions are available to these kinds of problems anywhere. It's simply a matter of thinking in a practical way. I appreciate that.

You mentioned Sikh-related hate incidents in the Peel region. A number of organizations collect this data nationwide. I'm assuming you do it nationally, not just in the Peel region.