OTTAWA, Canada—Terry Milewski has been airing hatchet jobs against the Sikh community for many years now. There was his overtly racist report in 2007 on “Samosa Politics” in which he recommended isolating and shunning 100,000 Sikhs who participated in the Vasaakhi Nagar Keertan in Surrey—all because they dared to celebrate those who fought against injustice and human rights abuses in India. There was his inaccurate report in 2011 on the Sikh opposition to noted anti-Sikh politician, Ujjal Dosanjh, in which he portrayed all opposition to Ujjal Dosanjh as coming from so-called terrorists. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that Milewski would further defame the Sikh community in 2012 as they rally in support of Bhai Balwant Singh Rajoana.
The crimes of Beant “Singh”, the victim of Bhai Balwant Singh Rajoana’s plot, were nowhere to be mentioned in his piece on CBC.ca. According to Amnesty International, 50,000 Sikhs—men, women and children—were killed or “disappeared” during Beant “Singh’s” time as Chief Minister of Punjab. Instead, Milewski chooses to appeal to the fears of the Canadian population by suggesting that Bhai Balwant Singh Rajoana is a cold-blooded terrorist with no possible righteous motives. The fact that Sikhs in Canada contribute immensely to their country is never mentioned in any of Milewski’s reports. Instead, racist Canadians are free to make insulting comments against Sikhs on the CBC’s website because they have been whipped into an anti-Sikh frenzy by Milewski’s inaccurate reporting. The consequences of Milewski’s anti-Sikh reports include a less tolerant Canada, and a Canada in which minorities feel oppressed and marginalized by the mainstream media.
Sikhs have been making the analogy for weeks now that a hypothetical assassin of Adolf Hitler would not be treated this way. An assassin of Joseph Kony would be celebrated. The US army soldiers who killed Osama Bin Laden were treated as heroes. Milewski never tells the other side of the story, there is no semblance of balanced, honest journalism. He abuses his power as a journalist with the CBC by airing one-sided anti-Sikh propaganda at every opportunity that he can. In every piece that he writes on the Sikh community, he tries to portray a community filled with violent, raging, angry extremists.
Why would he do this when it isn’t so? Is it just because these sorts of lies get better ratings, or does Milewski have some sort of agenda against the Sikh community? Milewski does his reporting as if he is a mouthpiece for the Government of India, the same government that oppresses Sikhs today just as they have been doing for many decades. On the other hand, the Indian media is now writing articles on why Bhai Rajoana’s life should be spared.
Jonathan Kay, an editor with the National Post, has also joined in with Milewski in his attempts to marginalize and misrepresent the Sikh community. Jonathan Kay wrote an article in the National Post, which was also carried in publications owned by the same company, that portrayed Bhai Balwant Singh Rajoana as a terrorist. Bhai Balwant Singh Rajoana is a hero to Sikhs in India and around the world for his stance against the slaughter of Sikhs in Punjab. The Sikh community will never apologize or bow into media pressure for celebrating a Sikh who stopped Beant “Singh’s” ruthless slaughter of so many innocent people.
Sikhs ask for an equal application of the law in a state where power is stacked against them. They ask for legitimate redress of their grievances, including human rights violations and crimes against humanity—many perpetrators remain free as the rich and famous, politicians and actors. Sikhs this week are protesting in support of a group of policemen who realized that their boss, Beant, was a cold blooded genocidal mastermind who had to be stopped at all cost. They did the only thing that was available to them and they succeeded, saving countless lives as a result.
These people are not faceless terrorists. They are caring and honest human beings that put their lives, and their families’ lives, on the line to save others.
