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Ottawa: More than 53,000 Canadian Sikhs from across four provinces cast ballots in Ottawa during the latest phase of the Khalistan Referendum, an unofficial global voting campaign organised by the secessionist group Sikhs For Justice (SFJ).<\/p>\n
According to Kashmir Media Service, Sikh voters from Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia (BC), and Quebec converged on the McNabb Community Centre, forming lines that stretched nearly two kilometres despite freezing temperatures, snowfall, and high winds. Organisers said thousands were still waiting when the 3:00pm closing time arrived, prompting officials to continue the polling process so that all could vote.<\/p>\n
SFJ had declared November 23 as \u201cCanada\u2019s Referendum on Khalistan,\u201d positioning the vote as a public response to the Canadian government\u2019s handling of relations with India. The group questioned why Prime Minister Mark Carney\u2019s government held G20 trade meetings with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the same day, particularly after Canadian intelligence agencies publicly linked Indian government operatives to assassination plots, foreign interference and criminal networks targeting Canadians.<\/p>\n
Speaking to voters via satellite message, SFJ General Counsel Gurpatwant Singh Pannun framed the referendum as part of a decades-long struggle over Sikh political rights. He argued that 41 years after the 1984 anti-Sikh violence, Punjab now faces what he called \u201ceconocide\u201d under Modi\u2019s government.<\/p>\n
\u201cHistory shows Indira Gandhi ultimately faced the political consequences of her actions,\u201d Pannun said, adding that SFJ seeks what he described as the political, not physical, defeat of Modi\u2019s policies \u201cthrough ballots, international accountability, and the continued rise of the Khalistan movement.\u201d<\/p>\n
Voters express opposition to India-Canada trade engagement
\nAs participants exited the venue, SFJ volunteers posed a question to each voter: whether they supported the Carney government\u2019s decision to pursue trade talks with India without demanding accountability for the killing of BC Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, whose assassination Canadian officials have said was linked to Indian government agents.<\/p>\n
According to SFJ, the response from voters was \u201coverwhelmingly and almost unanimously\u201d against the government\u2019s engagement with India.<\/p>\n
The organisation said the turnout reflected not only support for Punjab\u2019s independence from India but also widespread dissatisfaction with Ottawa\u2019s approach to New Delhi amid ongoing diplomatic tensions.<\/p>\n
SFJ leaders reiterated that they expect full accountability for Nijjar\u2019s killing and that they oppose any Canadian government stance that downplays the warnings issued by national security agencies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ottawa: More than 53,000 Canadian Sikhs from across four provinces cast ballots in Ottawa during the latest phase of the Khalistan Referendum, an unofficial global voting campaign organised by the secessionist group Sikhs For Justice (SFJ). According to Kashmir Media Service, Sikh voters from Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia (BC), and Quebec converged on the McNabb …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":188781,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[5],"class_list":["post-188780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-india","tag-top-story"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/assests\/2025\/11\/Khalistan-refrendum-696x398-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188780"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":188782,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188780\/revisions\/188782"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}