Canadian Heritage committee  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.

Canadian Heritage committee  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.

Canadian Heritage committee  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.

Canadian Heritage committee  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.

Canadian Heritage committee  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.

Canadian Heritage committee  That's a good question. We haven't collected the data for each and every incident, but I can tell you that the recent ones that have come to light publicly were the April 2016 attack on a Sikh man in Quebec City, and then on October 20, 2016, an attack on a Sikh man at Yonge-Dundas Square.

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you. Good afternoon. I'm legal counsel of the World Sikh Organization of Canada. We're a non-profit human rights organization established in 1984 with a mandate to promote and protect the interests of Canadian Sikhs as well as to promote and advocate for the protection of human rights of all individuals, irrespective of race, religion, gender, ethnicity, and social and economic status.

Canadian Heritage committee  Everything is fine.

Canadian Heritage committee  Indeed. I was waylaid on my way to the hearing, but this time I'm here and we should be good.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  After the pro-Soviet government fell, and there were various extremist elements and different insurgent groups, pressure increased on the Sikh community there. It increased on all communities there, but there's been a rise in religious intolerances. Whereas Sikhs and Hindus were seen as tolerated people and protected people, that has fallen to the wayside, and you have this increasing victimization.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  All right. It's not all or nothing. It happened piecemeal, but it was very tricky to actually coordinate, especially given that Manmeet was one person. But he managed to do it. Could it happen again? I don't know.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I don't see any issue in getting the private sponsorships done, particularly from the Sikh community, but I'll let the others comment.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It's a good question. With respect to their status as internally displaced, what they tend to do is they congregate and go to the last places of worship. With respect to their travelling outside, one of the biggest issues that this group of 200 had was in fact access to government identification, passports.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It's hard to speak universally, but the fact is Sikhs in most parts of Afghanistan haven't gone to school for at least two generations, so their ability to understand and interact with the system is highly limited. I would suspect that most of them don't even have basic registration papers.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That's a good question as well. Some of them do have ties to relatives who may have managed to escape. Once again, those who could have done it have largely done it, and helped their relatives to do it as well. In terms of ex-pat or refugee communities outside, there's a large contingent in places like Germany and the U.K., for example, but not so much in Canada.