Canada’s Indian-origin Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan said he faced racial discrimination “looking different” while he was serving the Canadian military.
Mr Sajjan was born in India and moved to Canada with his parents when he was five.
“I faced discrimination, even though I am a Canadian because I looked different," Mr Sajjan said during the launch of a program for girls in New Delhi last week when he was accompanying Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to India.
“I hail from a small village and lived a very simple life, before migrating to Canada,” he said.
Mr Sajjan – a combat veteran who has served in Bosnia and Afghanistan - became the Defence Minister of Canada in 2015. He was the first Sikh to command a Canadian Military Regiment.
Harjit Sajjan Source: sikhchic.com
In 2016, he said in an interview that he had never experienced racism before joining the military.
“I finally found out what racism was when I joined the military,” Sajjan told Global News.
In February 2016, a veteran parliamentarian Jason Kenny was accused of directing racist remarks at Mr Sajjan when the former said MPs needed an ‘English to English’ translation of Mr Sajjan’s responses.
Speaking to young women students in Delhi, Mr Sajjan said he realised how it felt to be treated unequally.
He described the students as “powerful agents of change”.
“Every child has a gift and endeavours to accomplish your inner potential and realise what you dream to become,” he said, adding, that “But, when you find your dream and success, go back and serve people”.
