Mr. Speaker, these are very special days for Sikhs in India, in Canada and throughout the world.
Three hundred years ago the 10th Sikh Guru, Gobind Singh, restructured the Sikh community known as the Khalsa. The first baptism ceremony took place on April 13, 1669 in Andapur South, Punjab, India. It was the first day of the Festival of Vaisakhi and since then Sikhism has grown to be the fifth and youngest of the world's great religions.
Founded by Guru Nanak, it evolved through the 10 living gurus until Guru Gobind Singh passed the rule of the religion on to the devout followers of the religion and the Guru Granth Sahib a collection of holy scriptures of all the gurus and of other enlightened persons.
This year we celebrate the inauguration of the Khalsa and today we acknowledge the first baptism ceremony of a religion from which we all have much to learn.