H.S. Sajjan
When Justin Trudau, the honorable prime minister of Canada announced his cabinet in 2015 and a turbaned Sikh S. Harjit Singh Sajjan was included there in as the defense minister, the whole world was
amazed and the Sikhs all over the world felt proud. S. Harjit Singh was born on 6th September 1970 at
Hosiharpur, Punjab. His father S. Kundan Singh Sajjan was a police officer in India. Harjit Singh Sajjan,
along with his mother and older sister, emigrated to Canada in 1976, when he was five years old, to join
their father who had left for British Columbia two years earlier to work at a sawmill. While the family was
getting established in their new life in Canada, his mother worked on berry farms in BC Lower Mainland
during the summer where Harjit Singh and his sister would frequently join her. Harjit Singh grew up in
a neighborhood in SouthVancouver. In 1989, S. Sajjan joined the British Columbia Regiment and rose to
the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He was deployed overseas four times in the course of his career: once to
Bosnia and Herzegovina, and three times to Afghanistan. Sajjan was wounded during his service in Bosnia.
After returning from Bosnia, he started his career with Vancouver Police Department. It was this career
of eleven years that he worked as a detective and as a liaison officer with the Afghan Police. His work was
highly appreciated and later on even after leaving his service with the police he was often consulted on
Afghan related problems. In 2011, he became the first Sikh to command a Canadian Army reserve regiment
when he was named commander of theThe British Columbia Regiment (Duke of Connaught’s Own). He
was bestowed with the Meritorious Service Medal in 2012 for diluting the Taliban’s influence in Kandahar
Province. He has also been awarded the Canadian Peacekeeping Service Medal. He also received the Order of
Military Merit award. He also served as an Aide-de-Camp to the Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia.
In 2015, he was picked up to fight election as a Liberal Party candidate and he won the election from
Vancouver South and was, thus, made defense minister of Canada.
It is not just his ability as a detective investigating gangs for the Vancouver Police Department and a
regimental commander in the Canadian Armed Forces, but also his Sikhi Saroop and his Sikh way of living
which make him a role model in the real sense. His Sikh beliefs required him to keep his facial hair which
prevents the use of regular military gas masks, so Sajjan invented his own gas mask that worked with his
beard, and patented it in 1996. The family to which he belongs has been taking keen interest in Sikh affairs
and activities. His father is still a member of the World Sikh Organization (WSO), a Sikh advocacy group.
In one of his lectures in Brampton he said that he has to work as a minister with more responsibility so that
people and the government may trust his community in future also. His sweet tone, humbleness and nice
behavior make him popular among the people. Even Justin Trudau had praised him when he spoke at the
time of Vaisakhi celebration in April 2016 at the parliament house. S. Harjit Singh married Kuljit Kaur, a
family physician, in 1996, and they have a son and a daughter. The family is, undoubtedly, a role model.