Harjit Singh Sajjan is a Canadian Liberal politician who has served as the minister of international development since October 26, 2021. Sajjan served as the minister of national defense from 2015 to 2021. Sajjan is also a Member of Parliament representing the Vancouver South riding. He served in the Canadian Armed Forces as a decorated lieutenant colonel. He is Canada's first Sikh minister of national defense and was also the first Sikh Canadian to command a Canadian Army reserve regiment.
Personal and Early life
Sajjan was born on September 6, 1970, in Bombeli, a village in the Hoshiarpur district of Punjab. Kundan Sajjan, his father was a head constable with the Punjab Police in India, and he is now a member of the World Sikh Organisation (WSO), a Sikh advocacy group.
When he was five years old, Sajjan, his mother, and his sister immigrated to Canada to join his father, who had left for BC two years earlier to work for a sawmill.
During the summer, his mother worked on berry farms in BC Lower Mainland as the family settled in Canada. Sajjan, along with his sister and mother, would catch a van picking up immigrants to go berry-picking at local farms. Harjit Singh grew up in South Vancouver. During his teenage years, Sajjan was baptized as a Sikh to escape the bad crowd.
In 1996, Sajjan married Kuljit Kaur, a family physician and they have a son and daughter, Arjun and Jeevut.
An overview of his Military and Police career
Sajjan has had a decorated career as a police officer and combat veteran. For 11 years, he was a member of the Vancouver Police Department, principally in South Vancouver, where he finished his career as a detective in the gang crime section. He left the police force in 1989 to join the British Columbia Regiment (Duke of Connaught's Own) of the Canadian Army as a trooper and was commissioned as an officer in 1991. Eventually, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel.
He took part in four operational deployments as a reserve Lieutenant-Colonel in the Canadian Armed Forces and a member of the British Columbia Regiment, including one to Bosnia-Herzegovina and three to Kandahar, Afghanistan. In September 2011, he also became the first Sikh to command any Canadian Army regiment – his British Columbia Regiment.
He has received high commendation for his efforts and numerous military honors from the Canadian government, including the Meritorious Service Medal in 2012 for reducing the Taliban's influence in Kandahar Province. He has also been awarded the Canadian Peacekeeping Service Medal, the Order of Military Merit award, and served as Aide-de-Camp to the lieutenant governor of British Columbia’.
He acknowledges that he experienced overt racism, especially at the beginning of his training, yet he went on to become the first Sikh to command a regiment in the Canadian army. And when his Sikh beliefs, requiring facial hair, forbade him from wearing civilian gas masks while serving in the military, the innovative Sajjan created his own gas mask and patented it in 1996.
His career in politics
Sajjan defeated incumbent Conservative Wai Young in the 2015 federal election for Vancouver South. On November 4, 2015, Sajjan was appointed minister of national defense by Justin Trudeau. After Jody Wilson-Raybould resigned in February 2019, he briefly served as acting minister of veterans affairs, until Lawrence MacAulay was appointed.
His alleged affiliations with the Khalistan movement have strained relations with Amarinder Singh, the former chief minister of Punjab. Harjit Sajjan has been accused by the New Democratic Party (NDP) of "playing down his connection with the detainee controversy during the [Afghanistan] combat mission [Medusa] when Canadians handed over prisoners for torture."
The Conservatives subsequently criticized Sajjan for attending an event celebrating the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China in September 2019. Sajjan's spokesperson said he appeared as a candidate for his riding and didn't stay long.
On his visit to India in 2017, he took a stopover at an orphanage in Jalandhar. The Canadian minister enjoyed taking rides and clicking pictures while interacting with the girls of Unique Home. He appreciated Bibi Parkash Kaur, the founder of the Unique Home, and gave her an example of how she has made a difference in society by adopting abandoned girls and providing better education.
According to the National Observer, quoting a 2006 letter of gratitude for Sajjan's services from the commander of Canada's Coalition Task Force in Afghanistan, Sajjan was regarded as "the best single Canadian intelligence asset in [war] theatre" whose "hard work, personal bravery and dogged determination undoubtedly saved a multitude of Coalition lives."
In addition to his confidence, Harjit Singh Sajjan also takes great pride in being a Sikh. The Sikh Gurus' teachings are deep in his heart, and he firmly adheres to them. His life is guided by the Sikhi teaching "Mann Neeva Matt Uchi." As a devout Sikh, he also performs Sewa for the world. The entire world should look up to him as a phenomenal example.