Mounties Claim Veto Power over Sikh Parade

March 28, 2008

Author: Kim Bolan

Source: CanWest News Service/Times Colonist

http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/story.html?id=3b370a6c-af5a-4182-9c1d-2947fa481f1e

The RCMP plans to screen floats in an annual Sikh parade to ensure terrorism and political violence aren't glorified.

Chief Supt. Fraser MacRae said Thursday the RCMP and the City of Surrey, near Vancouver, want to avoid any repeat of 2007's Vaisakhi parade, where organizers honoured several assassins and terrorists as martyrs or "shaheeds" on parade floats.

Included as a martyr was Air India bombing mastermind Talwinder Singh Parmar, as well as the assassins of Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi and slain leaders of the International Sikh Youth Federation and the Babbar Khalsa, both banned groups in Canada.