Sikhs Enjoy Strong Presence in Just Trudeau's Cabinet

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has unveiled the most diverse cabinet in the country’s history.

The Liberal government’s cabinet is now gender equal and touts a significant presence for the country’s ethnic minorities.

“It’s an incredible pleasure for me to be before you today to present a cabinet that looks like Canada,” Trudeau declared Wednesday.

Among the diverse crowd are four ministers of Sikh origin — a conspicuously high number when you consider that India, where most Sikhs live, only counts two Sikhs in current senior cabinet-level positions.

Harjit Sajjan, 42, a former police officer and veteran of three military deployments to Afghanistan, is now defence minister. He swiftly became the subject of social media celebrity.

The others are Amarjeet Sohi, sworn in as minister of infrastructure, Navdeep Bains, 38, a business school professor who now has the portfolio for innovation, science and economic development and Bardish Chagger, 35, a daughter of Sikh immigrants who was sworn in as minister of small business and tourism.

Sikhs comprise a small percentage of India’s population, but a more considerable proportion of the Indian diaspora, particularly in Canada. Indians make up almost 4 per cent of Canada’s overall population; Sikhs count for around 1.5 per cent.

Punjabi, the language of the Indian state that’s the homeland of most Sikhs, is now effectively the third language in Parliament. Nineteen Indian Canadians were elected to the 338-seat House of Commons last month.

The ascension of figures like Sajjan and Sohi may not please all Indians, though. Sajjan is connected to the influential World Sikh Organization a group that has links to the Khalistan movement — which advocates for a Sikh country of it's own.

Sajjan has brushed off any link to the now subdued Khalistan cause and told CBC last year that he has “no negative vibes from anybody” in his constituency.

After moving to Canada as a teenager Sohi went back to India in his early 20s to work as a social activist. But he was swept up by local police in the state of Bihar amid a climate of fear and hysteria over the threat of Sikh terrorism and was imprisoned for two years without charge.

Sohi says he was tortured and kept in solitary confinement. The Edmonton Journal reported that Amnesty International took up his case, as did a local Edmonton interfaith coalition. Sohi said the Canadian Security Intelligence Service did as much to help free him as anyone.

The ordeal led to Sohi’s return to Canada and formed the bedrock of his politics. It’s relevant now in the context of growing Islamophobia in both Canada and the U.S. amid concerns over infiltration by Islamist extremists.

“Once I was mistaken for a terrorist because I was a Sikh. If we start marginalizing people here because of their faith, who does that help?” Sohi asked the Alberta newspaper. “It doesn’t help us. It probably helps (the Islamic State).”