"I Am Not South Asian": Hundreds of Thousands Attend Annual Vancouver Sikh Parade

Scenes from yesterday’s annual Sikh festival, which reportedly drew 300,000 people in Vancouver, BC, Canada. “Kill Modi politics,” shouted a group of Khalistani protesters stationed along the parade route.

The parade celebrating the founding of the Khalsa was organized by Canada’s oldest and richest Sikh place of worship, the Khalsa Diwan Society in Vancouver, BC. The atmosphere was festive, with swords and spears commonplace as part of Sikh culture. Both federal and provincial major political parties had their tents set up.

One overlooked fact about the organizers: a tainted history of proximity to international drug traffickers. The Society’s 2015 president, Sohan Singh Deo, is the brother of notorious wanted gangster Parminder Singh “Pindhi” Deo.

In 2005, the Society’s executive Kalwant Singh Puar tried to bail out his daughter, Ravinderjit Kaur Shergill, from U.S. custody after she was charged—and later convicted—of conspiracy to distribute ecstasy and distribution of ecstasy.

Shergill was a Canadian politician connected to the NDP and Liberal Party, was caught boasting to an undercover officer about his family’s political connections and his brother’s ability to put people six feet deep during the operation. The Khalistani group that was excluded from the parade will organize their own next week in Surrey, BC.

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