by Gurpreet Singh on April 25th, 2021 at 9:09 AM 1 of 2 2 of 2
First it was the University of British Columbia and then it was Simon Fraser University the two tallest academic institutions in Greater Vancouver.
One after the other backed off from an event featuring Hartosh Singh Bal, political editor of the New Delhi-based
Caravan magazine.
After that event was cancelled, SFU stepped in and organized another event for Bal on Monday (April 26). Shortly after going public with this, SFU too developed cold feet and decided to cancel.
Bal had been invited to talk about the ongoing farmers’ struggle in India.
Thousands of farmers have been camping outside New Delhi for months asking the right-wing Hindu nationalist government to revoke controversial farm laws that threaten their livelihood.
VANCOUVER â Much has been made of the controversy surrounding Hartosh Singh Bal, an Indian journalist and nephew of the âButcher of Punjabâ KPS Gill, under whose murderous reign in Punjab saw the extrajudicial killing of thousands of innocent Sikh men.
While some mainstream and Indian media has painted this as an affront to free speech by radicalized Sikh students at the University of British Columbia with one deranged former politician, an avid anti-Sikh individual, who has gone berserk, threatening to burn his useless UBC degree or throw it in the garbage (he did neither), but UBC Sikh students say it has nothing to do with free speech and everything to do with human rights and a failure by Bal to address his uncleâs reign of terror that claimed the life of acclaimed human rights activist Dr. Jaswant Singh Kalra.
by Guest on April 17th, 2021 at 7:31 AM 1 of 2 2 of 2
The UBC Sikh Students Association released the following open letter explaining its opposition to the political editor of Caravan, Hartosh Singh Bal, participating in the Harjit Kaur Sidhu Memorial Program. It was addressed to UBC president Santa Ono and Faculty of Arts dean Gage Averill.
April 12, 2021
Waheguru ji ka Khalsa! Waheguru ji ki Fateh!
We, the UBC Sikh Students’ Association, wish to share our concerns in regard to the baseless allegations that are circulating to malign the Sikh community and misinform the public about the circumstances in which this year’s Harjit Kaur Sidhu Memorial Program was cancelled.
As top Sikh politician puts pressure, Canada s UBC to probe why Hartosh Bal talk was cancelled theprint.in - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from theprint.in Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Farmer Protests
Canada’s University Of British Columbia (UBC) has cancelled Harjit Kaur Sidhu Memorial Program 2021, in which journalist Hartosh Singh Bal, Political Editor at Caravan Magazine was slated to deliver an address on the topic of ‘Perspectives on the Farmer’s movement in India 2020-21 on April 7, 2021. The university website has put up notice stating that the lecture has been cancelled.
Even though the university has reassured students that the lecture will be rescheduled and announced in due course, UBS alumnus Aadil Brar has pointed out that the lecture has been cancelled under pressure from radical Sikh elements in British Colombia. Expressing how this sets a wrong precedent, Aadil added that he would be writing a letter as an alumnus to UBC in protest.