Sikhs Keep Noticing MP Lantsman In Troubling Ecosystems
“Is there no vetting happening at the CPC of these events for deeply problematic pro-India propagandists or Hindu Nationalists, especially nowadays...?"
Jaskaran Sandhu
December 5, 2024 | 5.5 min. read | Original Reporting
On September 4, 2024, the Vedic Hindu Cultural Society (VHCS) in Surrey, BC, wrote a letter to Pierre Poilievre, the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) leader, chastising the party.
“We are disheartened to see a lack of cultural sensitivity in your choice of sending opposing ideological persons to Canadian Hindu places of worship," the strongly worded letter stated.
The “ideological persons” in question were two MPs, Tim Uppal and Jasraj Hallan, and two local CPC candidates, Harjot Gill and Jessy Sahota. They were just at the Hindu temple, smiling alongside the individuals now writing to the party to have them barred in the future.
What ideology did these CPC politicians ascribe to that was offensive to the VHCS? Sikhi - the faith shared by all four members.
The VHCS secretly sent the letter to the CPC, only to be leaked later to Baaz and independent journalist Gurpreet Sahota.
Baaz reported on it on September 11, 2024. It then went viral, necessitating a public response from the VHCS—although, this time, an apology. Not only did they admit to sending the letter, but they also said it had resulted in “unwarranted and unintended controversy while creating a wedge between Indo-Canadian Hindus and Sikhs.”
However, it was a wedge that the VHCS was more than happy to push privately.
The CPC never commented on the letter publicly and did not respond to questions either when asked by Baaz.
“This is the ongoing frustration with the Conservatives,” Balpreet Singh of the World Sikh Organization of Canada (WSO) shares. “These serious incidents targeting Sikhs keep happening in Canada, but neither the Conservative party nor their leader has much to say about them. You don’t see this meekness regarding other communities or issues. Only when India and Sikh Canadians are involved.”
There was another oddity to the content of that Anti-Sikh correspondence.
“We request that you send Shuv Majumdar, MP, Calgary Heritage or Deputy Leader Melissa Lantsman, Thornhill MP,” they write, going on to add that “In the past, they have shown signs of willingness to hear and understand the issues of Canadian Hindus.”
While the request for Majumdar is not unusual, he has a history of pro-India relations and stands, as well as mocking Sikhs commemorating the 1984 Sikh Genocide, Lantsman stands out.
Although she is neither of Indian heritage nor a Hindu, she has built strong links with the community, especially so after sponsoring the controversial Parliamentary petition to recognize “Hinduphobia” last year.
Vijaykumar Jain of the Canadian Organization For Hindu Heritage Education (COHHE), a pro-Hindu Nationalist organization known for its rhetoric against other minority communities, initiated the petition. Jain once even publicly called on the Indian Consulate in Toronto to engage in foreign interference against a Brampton school.
“When examining the content of the petition, in addition to the background of COHHE and the kind of attacks being made by those who support the petition against other non-Hindu communities, critics argue this ‘Hinduphobia’ petition suffers from misinformation, Anti-Sikh rhetoric, and Anti-Dalit sentiments,” Baaz reported at the time.
The petition also alluded to “attacks on Hindu temples.”
Sources in law enforcement and government that are across the investigations on various Mandir vandalisms in the Greater Toronto Area have told Baaz that one of the leading theories is the vandalisms are false flag operations committed by Hindu groups to malign the Sikh community and build political capital around the concept of “Hinduphobia.” Similar findings were publicly disclosed in a Queensland Police report from Australia regarding identical vandalisms around the same time after a freedom of information request made the documents public.
Over the past year, Lantsman has often appeared at Mandirs and Hindu community events. Singh shares that while there is “absolutely nothing wrong with attending diaspora events as a politician; in fact, it is encouraged,” on November 9, 2024, she inaugurated an event hosted by the Shaktii Foundation, which prominently featured “deeply troubling characters connected to pro-India and Hindu Nationalist ecosystems spreading disinformation against Canada and the Sikh community.”
Lantsman is seen in pictures from the event engaging with these individuals.
“Context is important here,” Singh shares, “the Shaktii Foundation event on November 9 came five to six days after Hindu Nationalist and Pro-India mobs organized Anti-Sikh protests and then attempted to storm Gurdwaras in Brampton and Mississauga. Some individuals she is seen standing shoulder to shoulder with are connected to those events.”
On November 3, 2024, a few hundred Hindu Nationalists tried to storm Malton Gurdwara, resulting in multiple arrests.
On November 4, 2024, at a Coalition of Hindus North America Canada (CoHNA) protest, police had to stop a violent mob from attacking multiple Gurdwaras, eventually necessitating an emergency Public Order to disperse the crowd. More arrests were made at the CoHNA event, including one Hindu leader calling for the storming of Gurdwaras to loud cheers. Two warrants were also issued for Hindu Nationalists planning a petrol bomb attack on Sikhs and the police.
The community would criticize the CPC and Poilievre for staying silent about the mob violence and ignoring the attempts to attack and harm Sikhs by pro-India groups, including RSS organizations like the Shiv Sena and Bajrang Dal. Especially when, at this same time, Poilievre was quick to denounce mob violence in Montreal and even Amsterdam.
Baaz contacted the CPC for comments regarding their silence but did not receive a response at the time of publication. Baaz also asked if the CPC would support increasing calls to ban the RSS in Canada. The party did not respond.
“There were a handful of individuals that featured very prominently in the lead up to and during those protests,” Singh says, “those same individuals were platformed at this Shaktii Foundation event and given prominent stage time.”
Three individuals stand out in particular: Daniel Bordman, Abhijit Iyer-Mitra, and Kushal Mehra, who were all in attendance to record a live podcast panel as the main event.
Iyer-Mitra was visiting from India and boasts over 250,000 followers on X/Twitter. He is known for spreading disinformation online. He has recently baselessly claimed that “extremist gurdwaras” are “extortionist social control mafia.” He came out to support Indian media talking heads noted by Canada’s Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM) during the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference for being sources of Indian-based disinformation targeting Canada. He has also claimed that the Sikh turban is not essential to the religion.
Kushal Mehra resides in India and is a permanent resident of Canada. He played a prominent role in amplifying the CoHNA protest on November 4, which eventually attempted to storm Gurdwaras in the area. In the lead-up to the pro-India violence on the 4th, he falsely claimed in a tweet that “Khalistanis attacked Hindu Temples.” This came after he had, the day prior, accused Lantsman’s Hindu colleague, MP Arpan Khanna, of being called “Khalistani Khanna” and being “part of the problem.” He also, just a week before the Shaktii Foundation event on November 9, called on Poilievre to “stop taking pointers from your Khalistani trio when it comes to Hindu and Sikh issues” in an attempt to discredit Lantsman’s Sikh colleagues. In another tweet, he calls for the seizure of Sikh Canadian property in India and to “stop trade.” Mehra, also claims that the only reason the RCMP held a press conference on October 14, 2024, sharing unprecedented details about the ongoing investigation into India’s transnational repression against the Sikh Canadian community, was so Trudeau could secure the Sikh vote and that his “Khalistani advisors told him to do this.”
While Pierre Poilievre would issue a statement about the RCMP’s October 14 press conference, he did not share the statement, or any other words about the news, on any of his platforms, nor did the CPC. Baaz reached out to the CPC for an explanation of why that was but did not receive a response.
Bordman's rhetoric is so inflammatory that he was once successfully sued $500,000 for defamation. Over the past few months, he has been amplifying Anti-Sikh talking points on X/Twitter. He has also come to the defence of Indian media personalities flagged by RRM for engaging in disinformation targeting Canada, such as Shiv Aroor, the same media anchor that led the now bogus story of a CBSA officer being a Sikh terrorist.
Lantsman posed with all these individuals for a picture at the Shaktii Foundation gathering.
Questions sent to Lantsman by Baaz concerning the event went unanswered.
“Is there no vetting happening at the CPC of these events for deeply problematic pro-India propagandists or Hindu Nationalists, especially nowadays while Indian foreign interference and transnational repression are top of mind for our intelligence community and law enforcement agencies,” Singh asks.
Poilievre’s ongoing failure to get a security clearance to understand the scale of the foreign interference targeting Sikh Canadians may be leading to an intentional blind spot within the party, many Sikhs believe.
When Baaz emailed the CPC asking why Poilievre would not get clearance, considering the consensus from security experts and officials that he could not receive a full briefing without one, the party did not respond.
Jaskaran Sandhu hails from Brampton, Canada, and is the co-founder of Baaz. He is a Strategist at the public affairs and relations agency State Strategy and a lawyer. Jaskaran also previously served as Executive Director for the World Sikh Organization of Canada and as a Senior Advisor to Brampton’s Office of the Mayor. You can find Jaskaran on Twitter at @JaskaranSandhu_
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