The Minister of Security of Canada appears before the Standing Committee on Public Safety and Emergency Preparation

AMRITSAR: Canada's National Democratic Party (NDP) leader Jagmeet Singh has introduced a motion requiring Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale to appear before the Standing Committee on Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness before June 21 to explain why sections targeting specific communities were added to the 2018 Public Safety Report.

"The motion by NDP MP Matthew Dubé calling on minister Goodale to appear before June 21, 2019, was passed with the support of all members of the committee. Liberal MP Ruby Sahota successfully put forward an amendment to the motion asking that the Minister appear as soon as possible" informed Balpreet Singh of World Sikh Organization (WSO), Canada in a release issued here on Thursday.

He informed that the MPs present at the community meeting furthermore affirmed that they would work with the community to ensure Sikh representation be included on the Cross-Cultural Roundtable on Security.

He further informed that a day earlier Goodale had issued a statement in which he acknowledged that “the language used to describe some threats unintentionally maligned certain communities….and is not in line with the values of the government of Canada”.

Notably, Canadian Sikhs supporting the move to separate Punjab from India for Khalistan state has expressed their objection at the inclusion of “Sikh (Khalistani) Extremism” to the 2018 Public Safety Canada Report on Terrorism Threats to Canada.

The Report does not make any reference to current extremist activities in the Sikh community and simply states, “some individuals in Canada continue to support Sikh (Khalistani) extremist ideologies and movements.