Dosanjh vows not to let threats change his resolve

VANCOUVER — It’s been a tumultuous and perhaps trying week for Vancouver Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh, who saw his life threatened twice.

“As long as I stand for what I stand for, I will be a target,” Dosanjh told the Vancouver Province Friday after RCMP launched an investigation into a posting on a Facebook page calling for the former premier to be shot.

Dosanjh has drawn the ire of a minority of Sikhs since the ’80s, after speaking out against the violence sparked by Canadian members of the Khalistan movement who seek to create a Sikh homeland in India’s Punjab region.

“I don’t stand for dividing people on religion, I don’t stand for supporting hate or violence,” Dosanjh said.

“I have a very secular approach to life and that’s my right. I’m a Canadian by citizenship, I’m an Indian by heritage and I’m a Punjabi by mother tongue. I’m proud of all of that.

“For these guys, religion is everything. For me, religion is a small part of my life.”

Dosanjh was in a standing committee on national defence Thursday when one of his staffers interrupted to show him a posting from the Facebook group called “Ujjal Dosanjh is a Sikh traitor.”

“Someone shoot him — ASAP,” wrote one of the Facebook group’s members before the entry was deleted. Another wrote it “would be more appropriate to pierce him with bullets, not compassion.”

Members of the group accuse the former federal cabinet minister of “betraying his own people” and being “an insult to the Sikh religion” for his viewpoints on the Khalistan movement.

RCMP Insp. Paul Richards, who heads the force’s Integrated National Security Enforcement Team, said police are investigating the threats.

“It is unusual to have a threat like this directed at an elected official,” he said. “I think part of our job right now, in addition to looking at the nuts and bolts of if there is a threat, is also to look at the context.”

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With thanks : source : Vancouversun

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