Trudeau attends Vaisakhi celebrations in Toronto | World News

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau returned to Toronto’s Vaisakhi nagar kirtan on Sunday after a seven-year hiatus.

He also spoke for more than four minutes to a assembled crowd at Nathan Phillips Square in downtown Toronto, flanked by cabinet colleagues including Harjit Sajjan and Omar Alghabra, and Liberal MPs from the Greater Toronto Area, or GTA.

“I remember participating in the Toronto Khalsa Day Parade a few years ago, and I’ve traveled across the country many times since. I always have fond memories of participating in Vaisakhi celebrations in Toronto, Ontario and across the country,” he said.

Trudeau last attended Toronto’s Khalsa Day event in 2017, which angered the Indian government by displaying the Khalistani flag, a poster of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and celebrating a motion in the Ontario Legislature in April of that year, saying the 1984 Years of anti-Sikh riots were “genocide”. Trudeau is the first prime minister to attend the event since Paul Martin in 2005.

Some Khalistan flags can be seen in front of the podium where Trudeau spoke. However, the Ontario Sikh and Gurdwara Council, or OSGC, organizers of this year’s march, have largely prevented separatists from hijacking the occasion.

“Sikh values ​​are also a deep expression of Canadian values,” Trudeau told the congregation. Khalsa Day marks the establishment of the Khalsa order by Guru Gobind Singh in 1699.

Trudeau is not the only prominent federal leader on nagar kirtan. Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre also made his presence felt.

Trudeau mentioned the Indian government in his brief speech, but in the context of improving air connectivity between the two countries. He said his government signed a new deal with New Delhi last year to add more flights and continued to raise the issue of direct flights to Amritsar.

He later tweeted: “From Vancouver to Edmonton to Toronto, I have fond memories of participating in Vaisakhi celebrations. Today we are back in Toronto for this year’s Khalsa Day parade – celebrating with friends old and new .. Happy Vaisakhi!”

It rained almost non-stop that day, but the Naga chanting still attracted more than 30,000 people. “The weather was terrible but thousands of people came,” said OSGC chairman Kultar Singh Gill.

Due to COVID-19-related restrictions since then, this is the first full-scale Khalsa Day celebration in Toronto since 2019.