Good morning. Wendy Cox in Vancouver today.
It’s been a year since Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar was gunned down in the parking lot of the temple where he was a leading figure, a proselytizer of an independent Sikh nation carved from India.
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Globe and Mail reporters tried to answer that question in the days after he was killed. The shooting stood out for its brazenness – in the afternoon, as people played soccer in a field nearby, on the grounds of a religious facility – even as targeted violence is relatively common in the Lower Mainland.
But Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s statement in the House of Commons months later suggesting Indian agents may have been involved prompted The Globe to look more closely into the man and his politics.
We looked for more than six months. Reporters Nancy Macdonald and Greg Mercer, with an assist from Indian freelancer Sandeep Singh, combed through Indian court documents and financial records. The Globe spoke to friends and foes, and had translated hours of speeches by Mr. Nijjar himself.
Greg travelled to New York to interview the man, a close associate of Mr. Nijjar’s, who U.S. authorities allege escaped a similar fate at the hands of a plot tied to India. Sandeep visited Mr. Nijjar’s home village. Nancy spent uncalculated hours reaching out to the Sikh community.
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The portrait of Mr. Nijjar that emerged was one clouded by fraught international politics between India and Canada and deep historical animus between the Sikh community and the government of India. It was even difficult to discern Mr. Nijjar’s correct age.
Mr. Nijjar had invoked the use of weapons against Indian adversaries. To Indian security officials, Mr. Nijjar’s calls for violence are more proof that Canadian authorities were ignoring the problem of Sikh extremism in this country. India has made many allegations against Mr. Nijjar, including blaming him for a 2007 bombing of a cinema and an attempted murder in 2021, but has failed to provide compelling evidence to support them.
To supporters of Khalistan, however, Mr. Nijjar simply leaned heavily into the warrior imagery prevalent in Sikh culture. Framing it as a call to actual violence, they say, is to play into the hands of India’s hyper-nationalist Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, and his efforts to conjure up monsters abroad.
The Globe investigation found that although he was never convicted of any crimes, interviews with people who knew Mr. Nijjar reveal he was indeed steeped in Sikh extremism, including allegations that he organized weapons training in B.C. and was linked to a shadowy militant group called the Khalistan Tiger Force.
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It’s a fascinating read and I encourage you to spend some time with it.
This is the weekly British Columbia newsletter written by B.C. Editor Wendy Cox. If you’re reading this on the web, or it was forwarded to you from someone else, you can sign up for it and all Globe newsletters here.