(Photo by BC NDP via Flickr/CC BY 2.0 DEED)
Understanding the concerns many Sikh Canadians have today requires looking at the community’s history and experience in Canada, which has been shaped by both a long history of settlement and more recent waves of migration following political violence in India.
Members of the Sikh faith have lived and worked in Canada for over a century now. There has been a significant migration over the last three decades that has truly established Canada as a major cultural and religious hub for the global Sikh community. After the 1984 Sikh Genocide, the community began to lose hope that India could be a nation in which they could have freedom of expression and greater economic opportunities. It was important for them, after the violence of 1984, to migrate to parts of the world where they would have the right to express their desire for self-determination without facing persecution at the hands of the Indian government.
It has been known for over two decades that the repressive hands of the Indian state have been attempting to prevent Sikh dissent wherever it may take place globally. This has been made clear by assassination attempts on pro-Khalistan (Sikh Nation) activists in Canada, the United States (U.S.), and the United Kingdom (U.K.).
Canada has the second-largest Sikh population in the world, with a larger percentage of Sikhs in the country in comparison to India. Canadian-Sikh history is over a century long. One early example is the lumber mill workers who arrived in North Vancouver for work. As well as the Sikhs on the Komagata Maru who were forced to remain indefinitely on the ship, as immigration officials determined their fate.
The primary migration of Sikhs as we know it today took place after the 1984 Sikh Genocide. Sikhs left India hoping to find prosperity, and for many, Canada became that place. Thus, those who escaped persecution hope that this is the place where they can expect to feel protected and can comfortably feel like they belong, which is why threats to the lives of members of the diaspora are a shock.
When other Canadians disregard these incidents because they are not as impacted by them, it makes the diaspora question whether the rest of Canadian society will ever, even after a century, truly see them as Canadians. It makes them question whether the majority of Canadians see whiteness as a criterion for Canadian identity.
Foreign Interference from the Indian State
For years, Sikh organizations have raised concerns about the reach of the Indian state beyond its borders. Recent investigations and allegations have brought those concerns into the national spotlight.
Global News, through confidential sources, reported that former NDP leader Jagmeet Singh was the target of spying and attempted assassination by an Indian government agent in 2023. Harjit Sajjan, a former defence minister in Justin Trudeau’s cabinet, has noted that misinformation campaigns have targeted him at the behest of the Indian state. Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was the leader of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurudwara in Surrey, BC, was shot and killed in the parking lot of the property in June 2023. As of July 7, American prosecutors have charged 37 defendants in 3 indictments of orchestrating the killing of Nijjar.
(Photo by Fboudville via Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED)
It was confirmed by then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that there were credible allegations that Indian government agents did this, and Indian diplomats who were believed to have played a role were expelled from the country. Within the same week, there were assassination attempts of Sikh activists in the U.K. and the U.S. as well.
These events faced by members of the Canadian-Sikh diaspora are coinciding with rising anti-immigrant sentiment. There are a few reasons that can be associated with this sentiment, such as frustrations about the Temporary Foreign Worker program, which has placed visibly South Asian faces into primarily customer-facing roles. Sikhs, many of whom wear symbols of visible religious identity, have been frequently placed at the epicentre of this hate. This becomes a reminder that fear or distrust of newcomers revolves around race and difference.
Rising Anti-Immigrant Sentiment in Canada
Economic uncertainty has reshaped conversations about immigration across Canada. Many Canadians now associate rising immigration with broader affordability challenges, and newcomers have increasingly been blamed for problems that stem from a range of economic factors.
As shown in a study done by UTM, more and more young people are beginning to correlate immigration rates to economic uncertainty and unemployment rates. Globally, South Asians have faced the brunt of the rise in anti-immigrant sentiment. This may reflect growing economic uncertainty driven by austerity policies, which have led to rising housing costs, strain on healthcare, and unemployment.
Housing prices have been on the rise even after heavy immigration cuts. Showing the real issue might be the commodification of housing, where being a landlord is an easy investment for those who can easily afford it.
Immigrants are less likely to access the healthcare system, most likely due to a lack of familiarity, but face the blame for the overburdened system. The blame gets removed from the fact that the system has been underfunded since the nineties, after a decrease in federal health transfers to the provinces.
Lastly, immigrants often face the blame for rising unemployment rates, even though the lack of affordability has led to retirement delays or older Canadians reentering the workforce. This, of course, reduces the number of new positions opening up. South Asians actually face higher unemployment levels than the national average.
Regardless of the many complex reasons Canadians might be struggling, online echo chambers constantly spread vitriol and blame immigrants, primarily South Asian ones, for the issues many are facing.
Social Media: A Weapon of the Indian State Apparatus
The rise in anti-immigrant sentiment has not developed in isolation. Online platforms have become a powerful space for misinformation and coordinated influence campaigns to shape public debate.
One of the causes for this is notably that the current Indian government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has weaponized social media against the demographics that oppose him. Pro-Modi regime RSS Hindu nationalist bots have been posing as Canadians to spread vitriol towards the established Canadian Sikh community.
India has had a history of foreign interference to push its global interests, and the Modi government has been caught doing so on multiple occasions. Modi has been quoted as suggesting that “India is entitled to hunt down those it considers its enemies.”
The 2020 EU Disinfo Lab revealed that there has been a disinformation wing attempting to further Indian national interests since 2005. 750 media outlets in 119 different countries were a part of this. The goals of this propaganda were to be critical of Pakistan and non-Hindu communities, including Sikhs.
CBC News, while reviewing hundreds of misinformation posts on X, identified that many of these posts contained misleading and inflammatory comments about the Khalistan movement, which goes directly against India’s foreign affairs objectives, just like Pakistan’s. Posts of those who are critical of the Khalistan movement often have significant amplification by bots and often post misleading information.
Trudeau-Era Response
As the allegations gained national attention, the federal government faced growing pressure to confront the foreign interference publicly. For many Sikh Canadians, it was a test of whether their concerns would be taken seriously.
When the assassination of Nijjar took place, Justin Trudeau took what was considered a bold but truthful stance regarding the matter. He testified at a public inquiry into foreign interference about his claim in the House of Commons that India was behind Nijar’s assassination.
His testimony came days after the RCMP had confirmed that Indian government agents were interfering and attempting to commit violent crimes against Canadian citizens. Sikhs, as a global religious minority, are often overlooked by contemporary discourse, so this was an interesting reason to be in the spotlight.
(Photo by Wikiravidas via Wikimedia Commons/CC0 1.0 DEED)
As Trudeau took a strong stance in support of the community, more information about the activities of Indian government agents continued to come to light. Sikhs had been suspicious of interference for a few decades, but the ex-PM’s support gave the community hope that the world was finally listening to their concerns rather than treating it as a mere conspiracy theory. In essence, Sikh-Canadians hoped that India could not threaten them in their own homes anymore.
Shift Under Carney: Trade and Economic Priorities
Under Carney’s leadership, Canada has placed greater emphasis on economic partnerships and trade diversification. This shift has affected how earlier concerns about foreign interference are being shaped by the government’s approach to its relationship with India.
However, when Carney came into power, other geopolitical stressors became the primary concern of the Canadian government. As Trump pressured Carney about tariffs, tensions with the U.S. forced Canada to increase its trade with other countries. While wrapping up his India trip in February, he said, “We are one family”, and affirmed a “joint commitment to the rule of law.”
(Photo by India’s Prime Minister’s Office via Wikimedia Commons/GODL-India)
Despite years of evidence, in terms of threats and intel that show that India’s foreign interference is a long-term trend, the Canadian government’s efforts to normalize relations with India are alarming. Carney’s refusal to acknowledge these changes as he focuses on foreign economic policy feels like a slap in the face of Sikhs, who viewed Canada as a haven of political expression and safety.
Here, the words of Balpreet Singh, legal counsel of the World Sikh Organization to PressProgress, showcase the impact this has on the Sikh community’s sense of belonging. As Singh states, “[Sikhs] may be Canadian citizens, but we’re not Canadians. We’re not treated as Canadians; we’re not given the same rights and privileges. We will always be the outsiders.”
Carney has left activists living with threats from India, and they are left wondering whether their needs are a priority at all. They believe he is prioritizing trade with India over addressing threats facing Sikh leaders linked to the Khalistan movement. Restoring normalcy with India, a country that has the blood of the Sikhs on its hands, is a shocking move. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service has confirmed that India remains one of the “main perpetrators of foreign interference and espionage against Canada.”
Trust or Trade?
At its core, the issue is whether Canadian institutions are meaningfully addressing concerns about foreign interference and political violence and maintaining public trust. When allegations emerge that a foreign government has targeted Canadian citizens and residents on Canadian soil, the Sikh community will naturally look to the federal government to determine whether their security and rights will be defended.
Carney’s policies have raised questions about Sikh belonging and true equal citizenship in Canada. If the community perceives its security concerns being sidelined when they become inconvenient to larger geopolitical or economic goals, it makes them wonder whether some Canadians are afforded greater protections than others. Whether or not that perception reflects the Carney government’s intentions, it has real consequences for trust and the belief that all citizens are equally entitled to safety and protection under Canadian law.
Sikh Canadians are navigating multiple pressures simultaneously, with the nexus between foreign interference concerns and domestic anti-immigrant sentiment creating a unique challenge. When a community is simultaneously portrayed by some as outsiders within Canada while also facing allegations of intimidation from actors connected to a foreign state, questions inevitably emerge about where that community truly belongs. It becomes a question of whether their concerns receive the same level of public attention and political urgency as those of communities that occupy a more socially dominant position, such as white Canadians.
If foreign governments can successfully intimidate activists, shape public narratives through disinformation campaigns, or influence public discourse without significant consequences, it raises questions about the ability of democratic institutions to protect the rights and freedoms they claim to guarantee. Legal citizenship guarantees rights and protections on paper, but belonging is shaped by so much more than that.
As Ottawa pursues closer ties with New Delhi, the challenge will be demonstrating that trade and diplomacy do not come at the expense of protecting Canadian citizens. For Sikh Canadians, the question is not simply whether Canada values its relationship with India, but whether their security and concerns will continue to matter when they become inconvenient.
Edited by Lubaba Mahmud
