Airport worker targeted for “Sikh surname” sues India and Canada

A Vancouver airport border officer is suing both the governments of India and Canada, after he was branded a “terrorist” in Indian media simply due to his “Sikh surname”.

The completely random Indian media propaganda campaign against BC resident Sandeep (Sunny) Singh Sidhu took place in November. According to a statement from his legal team this week, Sidhu “was singled out by India because he had a common Sikh name and a visible, uniformed position within the Canadian national security apparatus”.

The lawsuit, which was filed in Ontario Court and seeks $9 million in personal injury damages, alleges India spread fabrications about Sidhu to hit back at Canada exposing India’s anti-Sikh transnational repression campaign; namely the assassination of Shaheed (martyr) Bhai Hardeep Singh Nijjar. The suit also says the Canadian government failed to protect him from the allegations and the subsequent disruption to his personal life, including death threats from Indian nationalists believing the accusations. Sidhu was accused of being a Khalistan (free Sikh homeland) extremist, in what is now a typical Indian nationalist tactic to malign Sikhs.

Sidhu said the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) “would not provide him with any protection and threatened him with suspension or termination unless he cooperated with intrusive background checks that ultimately cleared him”, causing him distress and showing a lack of support against the ridiculous accusations. Sidhu was forced to stop picking up his daughter from school and then even relocate, amongst further lifestyle changes forced on him by the attack from India.

Despite the threats, an internal work review determined Sidhu was not in danger in his role with CBSA, an outcome which partly motivated this lawsuit, with Canadian authorities accused of being unsupportive to his plight, one which is now common amongst Canadian Sikhs.

Among Sidhu’s accusers was notorious Hindutva (Hindu extremist) Indian army figure Major Gaurav Arya, one of India’s most popular Youtubers, who began the campaign just after the 2023 assassination of Shaheed Nijjar. Arya, an openly genocidal Hindu nationalist, publicly stated that UK Sikh activist Shaheed Bhai Avtar Singh Khanda would be “eliminated” just months before the Birmingham resident died of suspected poisoning. The death threat to Khanda also came after a different fabricated claim, this time about a London protest. Arya regularly makes outlandish claims and brazen threats towards Sikhs cited as “anti-national”, and has even rallied India’s diaspora to start paying criminals to attack Sikh groups critical of India.

The random demonization of Sidhu is not the first time such an incident has happened. In 2017 British Sikh amateur historian Bobby Singh was branded a Khalistani terrorist who was said to have been caught meeting with Pakistani intelligence (ISI). In reality, Singh participated in an official event of exchanging artefacts and documents related to Sikh history in Pakistan, featuring renowned Pakistani historian Ihsan H Nadiem.

In between Bobby Singh and Sunny Sidhu, dozens of other Sikhs have also found themselves branded terrorists or wanted gangsters overnight through Indian media and its propagation of NIA (National Investigation Agency) agendas. The case of the Winnipeg (Canada) murder of Sukhdool Singh Gill highlights how local police in Punjab often conflict NIA accusations. Furthermore, the Sukhdool Singh case also underlines a blatantly suspicious connection between targeted violence of diaspora Sikhs and obscure allegations stemming from India, something which will only validate the concerns iterated in Sunny Sidhu’s lawsuit.

Sidhu previously told Canadian media the attack is also based on his job role, something which aligns with a belief that India’s targeting of such individuals is aimed at decreasing Sikh (and Sikh-background) representation in the country’s infrastructure.

Sidhu’s lawsuit also details bigotry from colleagues at CBSA following the accusations from India. Speaking on the situation, Sikh Press Association Senior Press Officer Jasveer Singh said:

“Sikhs the world over will be hoping Sunny Sidhu is successful in his lawsuit, as it may set a precedent for this long-ignored issue.

“On any given day, a Sikh can have their picture circulated as a terrorist to hundreds of millions in India, and nothing is done about it, not even when it threatens peace in countries like Canada or the UK. As if trial by media is not enough, in India it does not even require any evidence. Just being a Sikh – or of Sikh background – is enough to validate accusations of being a terrorist.

“There is no doubt Sunny Sidhu is just another victim of a long-running anti-Sikh Indian government agenda to disrupt and intimidate the diaspora community, where criticism of their Hindutva regime is rife. Sikhs will be following this case closely, hoping that the Canadian government takes accountability for protecting its citizens from dangerous regimes like the Indian government.”