Steps from the old quarter of Amritsar, the holiest city for the Sikh community, 62-year- old Ashok Kumar tended his newspaper stand, with the dailies perched precariously on the seat of a scooter, and sighed. The headlines are dominated by the news — in English and Punjabi — of the bitter diplomatic fight between India and Canada, and Kumar doesn’t like it.
“This shouldn’t be happening,” said Kumar, especially with what he called “baseless speculation” from Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau.
The newspaper vendor told CBC News that everyone in his corner of Punjab is paying close attention to the growing rancour between the two countries, following the bombshell statement from Trudeau that Canada is pursuing “credible allegations” that link Indian government agents to the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian citizen, on Canadian soil.
Nijjar was campaigning for an independent Sikh state called Khalistan. New Delhi considered him a terrorist.
Newspaper vendor Ashok Kumar tends to his stand in Amritsar on Saturday. Kumar has had a busy week, with many people in India’s northern Punjab state anxious to keep up with the diplomatic twists and turns of the deepening tensions between India and Canada. (Salimah Shivji/CBC News)
The anxiety is palpable on the streets of Punjab, the only Indian state with a majority Sikh population, with most people, like Kumar, concerned that regular Punjabis will feel the brunt of the worsening ties between the two once-friendly countries.
Kumar, in an interview with CBC News in Punjabi, talked of “a lot of rumours swirling around,” and fear that Canada might follow India’s lead, after the latter suspended visa services for Canadian citizens wanting to visit India. Canadian authorities have given no indication that they intend to stop granting visas to Indian citizens due to the tensions with India.
But mostly, the newspaper seller is worried about the renewed spotlight on the secessionist Khalistan movement, which has some traction in diaspora communities but garners little support in India. India considers the movement violent and a threat to the country’s territorial sovereignty.
“Sikhs in Punjab don’t demand Khalistan. They want peace and prosperity,” Kumar said. “That’s why they go to Canada to improve their earnings.”
Tens of thousands of Indian students, many of them from Punjab, apply for visas to study in Canada every year, searching for a better life and more opportunities. (Salimah Shivji/CBC News)
Visa processing suspension causes worry
Ramandeep Kaur, 20, admitted she isn’t someone who usually follows geopolitical news, but this week has changed that. She was also feeling anxious as she left work at a private ESL school on a Saturday afternoon.
“Students feel really disappointed with [what’s happening],” said Kaur, who grew up in one of Punjab’s largest cities, Patiala, dreaming of becoming a nurse in Canada. “I applied for a visa and I don’t know what will happen in the future with this issue.
“I’m worried about it because I invested a lot of money on this [dream],” she added.
Ramandeep Kaur, 20, has wanted to study in Canada for years, and is now concerned the worsening India-Canada ties could jeopardize her dream. (Salimah Shivji/CBC News)
Canada is a top destination for tens of thousands of Indian international students each year, many of whom come from Punjab.
For both Sarabjit Kesar, 52, and her close friend Kamaldeep Ghumman, 53, the past week has been “tense and filled with pressure,” they said, following India’s announcement it would temporarily stop issuing visas to Canadian citizens.
Both mothers have adult children living and working in Canada. The weekend was filled with stress, as Kesar packed a suitcase for her flight to Toronto the following day — her first trip to Canada to visit her sons marred by her persistent worry about whether her trip would be disrupted by any future retaliatory measures in the diplomatic standoff.
“Our thoughts are filled with fear over what will happen in the future,” Ghumman said.
“What types of measures will the government take?” she wondered, if the feud escalates.
Kesar added that everyone in their circle of friends was worried.
“The tension is so high and everyone feels depressed, like me,” she said.
Kamaldeep Ghumman, left, and her friend Sarabjit Kesar, have spent an anxious week dissecting the news of the growing diplomatic rift between the countries. ‘The tension is so high’ across Punjab, especially among parents with children studying in Canada, Kesar said. (Salimah Shivji/CBC News)
For others, it’s not so much a personal worry but a more generalized concern about what Trudeau’s allegations linking New Delhi to an extrajudicial killing of a Khalistani activist mean for the Sikh community in India, after months of the Indian government claiming that the separatist movement was having a resurgence in the northern Indian state.
Harveer Singh, 30, called it a “political stunt” by the Canadian government.
“It’s disheartening,” Singh, 30, told CBC News outside Amritsar’s Golden Temple, the Sikh religion’s holiest spot, which was stormed by Indian army officers in 1984 in a bid to quell Sikh militancy. Thousands of people were killed.
Singh said Canada’s accusations were an attempt to gain votes that had put a razor-sharp focus on a “particular agenda of Khalistan and the separation from India,” and feared it could have consequences.
“Some people who don’t have any kind of knowledge, they will just start hating us,” he said. “They portray a picture of Sikhs that all Sikhs are Khalistanis [and] this is really sad.”
The New Democrats have declared a federal byelection victory in their Winnipeg stronghold riding of Elmwood—Transcona.
The NDP candidate Leila Dance told supporters in a tearful speech that even though the final results weren’t in, she expected she would see them in Ottawa.
With several polls still to be counted, Conservative candidate Colin Reynolds conceded defeat and told his volunteers that they should be proud of what the Conservatives accomplished in the campaign.
Political watchers had a keen eye on the results to see if the Tories could sway traditionally NDP voters on issues related to labour and affordability.
Meanwhile in the byelection race in the Montreal riding of LaSalle—Émard—Verdun the NDP, Liberals and Bloc Québécois remained locked in an extremely tight three-way race as the results trickled in slowly.
The Liberal stronghold riding had a record 91 names on the ballot, and the results aren’t expected until the early hours of the morning.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
MISSISSAUGA, Ont. – Golf Canada has set an impressive stretch goal of having 30 professional golfers at the highest levels of the sport by 2032.
The World Junior Girls Golf Championship is a huge part of that target.
Credit Valley Golf and Country Club will host the international tournament from Sept. 30 to Oct. 5, with 24 teams representing 23 nations — Canada gets two squads — competing. Lindsay McGrath, a 17-year-old golfer from Oakville, Ont., said she’s excited to be representing Canada and continue to develop her game.
“I’m really grateful to be here,” said McGrath on Monday after a news conference in Credit Valley’s clubhouse in Mississauga, Ont. “It’s just such an awesome feeling being here and representing our country, wearing all the logos and being on Team Canada.
“I’ve always wanted to play in this tournament, so it’s really special to me.”
McGrath will be joined by Nobelle Park of Oakville, Ont., and Eileen Park of Red Deer, Alta., on Team Canada 2. All three earned their places through a qualifying tournament last month.
“I love my teammates so much,” said McGrath. “I know Nobelle and Eileen very well. I’m just so excited to be with them. We have such a great relationship.”
Shauna Liu of Maple, Ont., Calgary’s Aphrodite Deng and Clairey Lin make up Team Canada 2. Liu earned her exemption following her win at the 2024 Canadian Junior Girls Championship while Deng earned her exemption as being the low eligible Canadian on the world amateur golf ranking as of Aug. 7.
Deng was No. 175 at the time, she has since improved to No. 171 and is Canada’s lowest-ranked player.
“I think it’s a really great opportunity,” said Liu. “We don’t really get that many opportunities to play with people from across the world, so it’s really great to meet new people and play with them.
“It’s great to see maybe how they play and take parts from their game that we might also implement our own games.”
Golf Canada founded the World Junior Girls Golf Championship in 2014 to fill a void in women’s international competition and help grow its own homegrown talent. The hosts won for the first time last year when Vancouver’s Anna Huang, Toronto’s Vanessa Borovilos and Vancouver’s Vanessa Zhang won team gold and Huang earned individual silver.
Medallists who have gone on to win on the LPGA Tour include Brooke Henderson of Smiths Falls, Ont., who was fourth in the individual competition at the inaugural tournament. She was on Canada’s bronze-medal team in 2014 with Selena Costabile of Thornhill, Ont., and Calgary’s Jaclyn Lee.
Other notable competitors who went on to become LPGA Tour winners include Angel Yin and Megan Khang of the United States, as well as Yuka Saso of the Philippines, Sweden’s Linn Grant and Atthaya Thitikul of Thailand.
“It’s not if, it’s when they’re going to be on the LPGA Tour,” said Garrett Ball, Golf Canada’s chief operating officer, of how Canada’s golfers in the World Junior Girls Championship can be part of the organization’s goal to have 30 pros in the LPGA and PGA Tours by 2032.
“Events like this, like the She Plays Golf festival that we launched two years ago, and then the CPKC Women’s Open exemptions that we utilize to bring in our national team athletes and get the experience has been important in that pathway.”
The individual winner of the World Junior Girls Golf Championship will earn a berth in next year’s CPKC Women’s Open at nearby Mississaugua Golf and Country Club.
Both clubs, as well as former RBC Canadian Open host site Glen Abbey Golf Club, were devastated by heavy rains through June and July as the Greater Toronto Area had its wettest summer in recorded history.
Jason Hanna, the chief operating officer of Credit Valley Golf and Country Club, said that he has seen the Credit River flood so badly that it affected the course’s playability a handful of times over his nearly two decades with the club.
Staff and members alike came together to clean up the course after the flooding was over, with hundreds of people coming together to make the club playable again.
“You had to show up, bring your own rake, bring your own shovel, bring your own gloves, and then we’d take them down to the golf course, assign them to areas where they would work, and then we would do a big barbecue down at the halfway house,” said Hanna. “We got guys, like, 80 years old, putting in eight-hour days down there, working away.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
DETROIT (AP) — The Detroit Red Wings signed forward Lucas Raymond to an eight-year, $64.6 million contract Monday, completing a deal with one of their best young players less than 72 hours before training camp begins.
Raymond will count $8.075 million against the salary cap through 2032. The 22-year-old was a restricted free agent without a contract for the upcoming NHL season and was coming off setting career highs with 31 goals, 41 assists and 72 points.
The Red Wings have another one of those in defenceman Moritz Seider, who won the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year in 2021-22.
Detroit is looking to end an eight-year playoff drought dating to the Original Six franchise’s last appearance in 2016.
Raymond, a Swede who was the fourth pick in 2020, has 174 points in 238 games since breaking into the league.
