Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion Canada or­gan­ised a Walk for Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion which saw the par­tic­i­pa­tion of thou­sands, in­clud­ing Sikh Cana­di­ans, all of whom demon­strated a vi­brant com­mit­ment to an in­clu­sive so­ci­ety fo­cussed to pros­per­ity of all in­clud­ing in­dige­nous com­mu­ni­ties and mi­grant peo­ples, pro­vid­ing a les­son to many across the world to­gether with com­mu­ni­ties and po­lit­i­cal lead­er­ship in South Asia.

Canada is un­doubt­edly the sec­ond home for the Sikhs. Hun­dreds upon thou­sands, born in home­land Pun­jab are mak­ing to new shores with Canada be­ing their pri­or­ity des­ti­na­tion. The vis­i­bil­ity of Sikhs across the po­lit­i­cal spec­trum in Canada has made to-be-mi­grant Sikhs more se­cure about Canada though there are suc­cess sto­ries in var­i­ous other walks of life too.

The steps taken by Canada to build the mo­saic pat­tern of in­clu­sive so­ci­ety, in­cludes the work of Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion Canada. Ac­cord­ing to Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion Canada, rec­on­cil­i­a­tion be­gins with each per­son and then ex­tends into their fam­i­lies, re­la­tion­ships, work­places and even­tu­ally into their com­mu­ni­ties.  It re­quires the abil­ity to be open to di­verse per­spec­tives and dif­fi­cult con­ver­sa­tions.

“We are able to live with ho­n­our, dig­nity and in­de­pen­dence. In the war, they fought and died for us, wear­ing the tur­bans.”

The method­olo­gies and tools used by Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion Canada go be­yond ver­bose-filled rhetoric. It is ac­tual rec­on­cil­i­a­tion in ac­tion -”through di­a­logue, lead­er­ship and ac­tion”. Re­cently when they or­gan­ised their Sec­ond Walk for Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion along­side the City of Van­cou­ver, as many as fifty thou­sand Cana­di­ans -in­clud­ing many from mi­grant and in­dige­nous com­mu­ni­ties par­tic­i­pated send­ing a clar­ion call for in­clu­siv­ity and re­it­er­at­ing their com­mit­ment to shared progress and pros­per­ity.

At the helm of Sikh af­fairs in Canada, the World Sikh Or­ga­ni­za­tion over­whelm­ingly par­tic­i­pated not only to en­dorse broth­er­hood of Cana­di­ans but also to demon­strate that the spirit of rec­on­cil­i­a­tion is in con­so­nance with the Sikh com­mit­ment of Sar­bat da Bhala.

Sikh or­ga­ni­za­tions, Gur­d­waras and post-sec­ondary Sikh stu­dent as­so­ci­a­tions from across the Lower Main­land British Co­lum­bia took part in the Walk and the Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion Expo, a mul­ti­cul­tural and in­clu­sive event that fea­tured com­mu­nity and ed­u­ca­tional booths, cul­tural per­for­mances, and speak­ers.  At the Expo, mem­bers of the Sikh Mo­tor­cy­cle Club tied tur­bans on at­ten­dees while Sikh youth ex­plained the sig­nif­i­cance of the Sikh ar­ti­cle of faith.

“Sikhs un­der­stand the need for rec­on­cil­i­a­tion and truth-telling.  We look to our Métis, First Na­tions and Inuit sis­ters and broth­ers for in­spi­ra­tion as we work to­gether to lay a foun­da­tion for a new way for­ward.”Jas­bir Kaur Rand­hawa, WSO Na­tional Vice Pres­i­dent”

Dur­ing the event, Jan­meet Singh Khalra, son of hu­man rights ac­tivist Jaswant Singh Khalra who was dis­ap­peared by In­dian se­cu­rity forces in Sep­tem­ber 1995, was cer­e­mo­ni­ally blan­keted as an hon­orary wit­ness by Chief Ian Camp­bell, along with other hon­orees, in­clud­ing BC Pre­mier John Hor­gan, Van­cou­ver Mayor Gre­gor Robert­son and Holo­caust sur­vivor Rob­bie Wais­man.

Chief Camp­bell, ex­plain­ing the sig­nif­i­cance of the blan­ket cer­e­mony said, “this now means we are fam­ily. We have adopted all these fine peo­ple by blan­ket­ing them to show them that we are in the same ca­noe.  We all must put our pad­dles in the wa­ter to col­lec­tively move for­ward. We also must not ig­nore that this coun­try is founded and built on a very solid foun­da­tion of In­dige­nous peo­ples. We will no longer be in­vis­i­ble in our own land.  Our his­tory is your his­tory.”

Jas­bir Kaur Rand­hawa, the WSO Na­tional Vice Pres­i­dent said, “We stand in unity and sol­i­dar­ity with our In­dige­nous friends.  Sikhs un­der­stand the need for rec­on­cil­i­a­tion and truth-telling, as our com­mu­nity has not yet had this op­por­tu­nity with re­spect to the thou­sands of Sikhs who were dis­ap­peared and killed in In­dia af­ter 1984.  We look to our Métis, First Na­tions and Inuit sis­ters and broth­ers for in­spi­ra­tion as we work to­gether to lay a foun­da­tion for a new way for­ward.”

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Such a process for rec­on­cil­i­a­tion in South Asia can save thou­sands of lives and mil­lions in mon­e­tary re­sources for progress and pros­per­ity of its peo­ples. So­cial and po­lit­i­cal de­vel­op­ments in coun­tries like In­dia and its neigh­bour­hood call for a deeper un­der­stand­ing of the tri­als and tribu­la­tions, ex­pec­ta­tions and as­pi­ra­tions of dis­tinct com­mu­ni­ties and na­tion­al­i­ties that dot the In­dian sub-con­ti­nent. Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion Canada chief Dr Robert Joseph has summed it aptly, “Our fu­ture, and the well-be­ing of all our chil­dren rests with the kind of re­la­tion­ships we build to­day.”