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Sikh-Canadian Politician Leads Canada's Delegation To Auschwitz' 70th Commemoration

STEPHANIE LEVITZ

 

 



Auschwitz, Poland

A man in a blue turban stood among thousands in toques, fur hats and yarmulkes in Poland on Tuesday, January 27, 2015, to mark the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and death camp and the International Holocaust Remembrance Day. 

Canada's Minister for Multiculturalism, Tim Singh Uppal, was there as the head of the official Canadian delegation for the commemoration ceremony.

But Tim Singh has championed the importance of Holocaust remembrance for much longer, an unusual role for a Sikh member of Parliament from an Edmonton-area riding with only a few hundred Jews.

"There is so much we can learn from what happened here," he said over the phone from Krakow, Poland ahead of his visit to the camp where an estimated 1.1. million were killed during the Second World War.

"And you can take those lessons and apply it to the present."

Toronto Conservative MP Mark Adler lives those lessons daily; his father Abram survived internment at Auschwitz and made his home in Toronto after the war.

"My father passed on a kind of optimism -- as bad as things can get, there are always sunnier things ahead," he said in Ottawa on Tuesday.

"You've just always got to be strong and make a positive difference."

Tim Singh's connection predates his time in government. His wife Kiran Kaur Bhinder is one of the only non-Jews ever to take part in a trip called March of the Living, which takes teens through Holocaust sites in Europe and then on to Israel.

Tim was taken by the stories his wife shared of her experiences, including her relationship with survivors from the camps, and began to develop his own relationships with them.

When he found himself with the opportunity in 2010 to bring a private member's bill forward in the House of Commons, he was besieged with pitches.

One stood out: Canada did not have a national Holocaust monument.

There had been attempts to pass similar legislation in the past. Former Liberal MP Susan Kadis, who is Jewish and represented the heavily Jewish riding of Thornhill, introduced a bill in 2008. Winnipeg MP Anita Neville, who is also Jewish, brought another one forward later that year.

But it was Tim Singh's bill that finally made it through. Construction on the monument is set to begin this year, funded by private donors and the federal government.

Holocaust remembrance is not a faith-based cause, Tim said.

"I was doing something as a Canadian, this is something that affects us all," he said.

"It wasn't because of anything of my own faith but this is something that I felt was important to us all as Canadians."

Tim has become a fixture on the Jewish community lecture circuit, addressing crowds ranging from the influential American Israel Public Affairs Committee to groups of teens about to depart on March of the Living trips.

He says he hopes to one day expose his own children, now 6, 4 and 2, to the story of what happened to the 11 million people who fell victim to the Nazi government's racist policies.

"It's so important that we pass on this history to future generations," he said.

For Tim, the issue of racism also hits closer to home.

In September, he posted on Twitter about an incident he personally experienced at a tennis court.

"A woman leaving the tennis court looked at me and my wife and said, "Are they members? Why can't they play in the day -- they don't have jobs," he wrote.

What he takes away from these encounters is the need for more education, he says, which comes also from more attention to history and the lessons of events like the Holocaust.

"It is important that we must learn from our history,"he said.

"We must know who we are."

 

[Courtesy: The Huffington Post. With files from Jennifer Ditchburn. Edited for sikhchic.com]

January 28, 2015

 

Conversation about this article

1: Sandeep Singh Brar (Brampton, Ontario, Canada), January 28, 2015, 9:35 AM.

We should all follow the example of Tim Singh and Kiran Kaur. This is not a 'Jewish' thing, this is about humanity. I can tell you that visiting the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. was a life changing experience. I would urge everyone to take the time to watch the 6-part BBC documentary "Auschwitz: The Nazis and 'The Final Solution'" which is available on Netflix.

2: Kulwant Singh (Oakville, Ontario, Canada), January 28, 2015, 10:46 AM.

Maybe, just maybe, someday Tim Singh will use the opportunity he's been provided in a powerful position, and put forth a similar effort into bringing awareness to the 1984 anti-Sikh pogroms?

3: Sunny Grewal (Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada), January 28, 2015, 12:21 PM.

@2: Kulwant Singh ji: I dont think it will happen. The 1984 pogroms are an NDP "issue". Also, I highly doubt that the Conservative party would want to run afoul of the Indian government for business opportunities by addressing 1984, regardless of Tim's presence as an MP and Minister. The main point of this story is very powerful and it is not lost on me. However, I feel that there is something very hypocritical in recognizing an atrocity against other people but not doing anything, or being able to do anything, to bring up the one that happened to your own.

4: Kaala Singh (Punjab), January 28, 2015, 2:12 PM.

This is happening only because Jews today are an economic, scientific and military force. Otherwise these are the very countries that massacred Jews just about 70 years ago. If Sikhs become strong like the Jews, then even India will have no choice but to build a memorial for the slain Sikhs of 1984!

5: Hardev Singh (Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada), January 28, 2015, 2:55 PM.

RE: Comments # 2& 3: I am optimistic that if there was initiative, we can expect support from an unexpected source, that is the Jewish community who can empathize with the 1984 genocide.

6: Tony Singh (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), January 28, 2015, 10:55 PM.

Unfortunately, the Jewish community won't be coming to the defense of Sikhs anytime soon as Israel is busy building an anti-Muslim alliance with India. If anything, Israel and its supporters in the West will be blindly ingratiating themselves with India by opposing all Sikh causes in the West. Apparently, no morality or an element of human decency is allowed to enter the picture when it comes to India, Israel and the like.

7: Dr Birinder Singh Ahluwalia (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), January 29, 2015, 5:13 PM.

I didn't know Tim played tennis! I have been unsuccessful in getting a copy of Tim's bill, the one proclaimed in this article. I will be grateful to get a copy and read its details.

8: Surjit Singh (Markham, Ontario, Canada), January 30, 2015, 7:04 AM.

Normally, I would laud Tim's pronouncements and advocacy on the Holocaust. After all, it is consistent with the values of Sikhi, something he may have inherited, as appears from his Sikh identity. However, it is on the strength of this very identity that he holds his post in the Canadian cabinet; he boasts no other great qualifications which make him deserving of the honour. Then, pray, why never a word for the no less suffering of Sikhs in India, or of the Palestenians at the hands of the Israelis? I am afraid Tim too has, like his colleagues in the Canadian Conservative Party (Harper, Baird, et al) prostituted himself to Jewish campaign money and hand-outs. The Jewish lobby has become adept at wielding its financial clout, forgetting that it never buys friendship or sympathy, all it garners is a temporary respite from accountability.

9: Sewak Singh (London, United Kingdom), January 30, 2015, 7:46 AM.

Another article on sikhchic.com's homepage today says it all about Tim Singh Uppal, doesn't it? Read the one on 'Legalized Bribery'! Pity that Tim too, like other politicians everywhere, sold his soul for a few silver pieces. However, he has no excuse ... you're a Sardar, for heaven's sake! Behave like one!

10: Mehar Kaur (Alberta, Canada), January 30, 2015, 9:40 AM.

Even more than Israeli/Jewish bribes given to our politicians to buy their blind loyalty, my concern is over the same pattern with the same ilk from India who carry on their corruption here in Canada and other countries in the West. I'd be curious to find out the list of junkets Tim Uppal has enjoyed from or on behalf of Indians, in exchange for which he has been so ready, willing and able to remain silent over the human rights violations and massacres in India!

11: Onkar Singh (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada), January 30, 2015, 12:09 PM.

Despite Tim's chicken-heartedness over Sikh issues, I'm glad he's taking the lead on the Jewish Holocaust project. We as Sikhs should never hesitate in fighting for others, no matter who the 'other' is.

12: Tony Singh (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), January 31, 2015, 9:22 PM.

Onkar Singh ji, unfortunately reality dictates that Sikhs start acting in their self interest, while fighting for the rights of others. Nobody else is going to stand up for Sikhs. We need to be more selfish in the causes we expend our time, effort and energy on to ensure that our quom continues to thrive well into the future. This is exactly how the Jews have bounced back after the Nazi holocaust. Too many SIkhs start jumping on the band wagon for the latest popular fad.

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