Canadian MP distances himself from referendum

Amritsar, January 1

Canadian parliamentarian Sukhminder Singh Dhaliwal, popularly known as Sukh Dhaliwal, has distanced himself from the “Referendum 2020” campaign and asserted that the Canadian Government did not interfere in matters of other countries.

He was here on Wednesday on a thanksgiving visit to the Golden Temple for being elected as a parliamentarian from Surrey-Newton, a federal district in Canada’s British Columbia province, for the fourth time.

On the demand for Khalistan being made by a section of Sikhs in Canada, the MP said as far as the campaign was peaceful no curbs would be put. A native of Jagraon, Dhaliwal said: “I had studied at Khalsa College in Amritsar. I was fortunate to have shifted to Canada, where religion is a personal matter and people enjoy equal opportunities.”

“Religious faith is very important as it offers hope to individuals. Being born in a Sikh family, I have come to the Golden Temple to pay my respects and said my prayers on the occasion of Gurpurb,” he said. Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee officials, led by its member Gurcharan Singh Grewal, felicitated him with a “siropa”. Grewal said Dhaliwal was instrumental in tabling a resolution to term the 1984 anti-Sikh riots as genocide in the Canadian Parliament. — TNS