Portraits of The Community - South Asian Canadians
Baltej Singh Dhillon
The RCMP officer who fought for his religious freedoms
Baljeet Singh Dhillon is a 1966 born Sikh man who emigrated to Canada from his birthplace of Malaysia when he was 16 years old shortly after his father passed away in 1982. Dhillon and his family emigrated to British Columbia, Canada where his older brother was already established, allowing the family to be close, and have the ability to support one another.
Dhillon kept his hair uncut and continued to wear a turban as he entered the public school system in Canada. He did this despite the hardships and racism that he would face for continuing to display his religion in such a way. He did this because of a promise he made to his father to continue to wear his turban, which he didn’t intend to break.
Dhillon did indeed face many hardships and experience racism after moving to Canada. His house was routinely egged or graffitied. He was the victim of taunting and racial slurs. Despite this though, Dhillon did not change any part about himself to conform. He was placed into an English class for students who did not speak the language well, despite having an excellent command of the language. Dhillon remarks that they put him in such a class simply because of his heritage, rather than doing any form of testing.
Dhillon did well in school, going on to study criminology at Kwantlen College with the hopes of entering into law school after. However, during his time in school, he had volunteered with the RCMP, in hopes it would increase his odds of getting into law school. He set up Block Watch in his community, as well as acted as an interpreter and translator for South Asian Immigrants. This experience prompted him to pursue a career in the RCMP instead of becoming a lawyer.
Dhillon met all the requirements to become an RCMP officer, however, the dress code of the time explicitly forbid him to wear a beard and his turban, two things that are very important to Dhillon and many other Sikhs. Dhillon appealed directly to the RCMP commissioner who agreed with Dhillon and recommended that the dress code be changed to allow for Sikh religious observance. A precedent had been recently set some years prior with the modification of the code to allow skirts and high heels for female officers. A number of municipalities also allowed Sikh officers on their police forces to wear turbans. As well, the RCMP at the time had recently undertaken affirmative action hiring policies, making the change in dress code a natural extension of those policies.
Public response brought both support and opposition. Some opposed the change on the grounds that the Stetson hat was a part of Canadian heritage, and it was wrong to remove it from the uniform. This opposition was rooted in the racist beliefs that many of the time held. Support however came from many sides. People argued that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms allowed for this religious expression. Some pointed to the Sikh soldiers of the British Army that served in both World Wars as an example of turbans being used as part of uniforms.
After the changes to the dress code were officially announced, along with a provision allowing female officers the opportunity to wear trousers, Dhillon went on to become an extremely distinguished member of the RCMP. He was first stationed in Quesnel, BC. Later he became an investigator for the RCMP, working on notable cases such as the 1985 Air India Bombing. After retiring in 2019, Dhillon continued to work in law enforcement as a member of an anti-gang agency.
Photo Credits:
[left] After a religious-rights campaign, Baltej Dhillon became the first RCMP officer allowed to wear a turban as part of his Mountie uniform, Photo taken from The Canadian Encyclopedia, courtesy of Baltej Singh Dhillon.
[right] RCMP Inspector Baltej Singh Dhillon, Photo taken from Voice Online
Naranjan Singh Grewall
The First Indian-Canadian Mayor
PHOTO TAKEN FROM "SOUTH ASIAN PIONEERS: NARANJAN SINGH GREWAL" ARTICLE ON THE SOUTH ASIAN POST WEBSITE
Naranjan Singh Grewall immigrated to Canada from the village of Dhudike in 1925 at age 17. Grewall was a hard working and intelligent young man. He was able to quickly find work.
He was employed at the Fraser Mills after coming to Canada, rising through the company ranks fairly quickly. He was made a foreman at the company. He continued though to distinguish himself from his peers, becoming a union leader as well during his time at the Mills.
In 1942, following the internment of Japanese-Canadians in the interior of Canada, Grewall was able to beat out other bidders and purchase a number of mills formerly owned by Japanese-Canadians. He consolidated these mills with others that he purchased, creating a new company, Mission Sawmills. Eventually, Grewall’s company grew to possess six sawmills.
Grewall’s political career began when he ran for city council in 1950. He was able to beat out several other candidates, owing to his popularity as a community figure. Grewall was the first Canadian of South-Asian heritage to become a major political figure of any municipality in Canada. This was a landmark victory, a continuation of rights that were won in 1947 allowing South-Asian Canadians the right to vote. Four years later, he became chairman of the board, effectively the then mayor of Mission, making him again the first South-Asian Canadian to hold such an office.
During his political career, Grewall distinguished himself by fighting against the ongoing corruption facing small towns like Mission in regard to the logging industries. At the time, the provincial government was handing out logging rights to large companies owned by friends of government officials. Grewall continually campaigned for the right for Mission, and other cities like it to own and manage their own logging lands.
Grewall continued his political career, trying but ultimately failing with a close loss to Lyle Wicks to get voted into a higher office. Following this loss, however, and the attention he brought to the issues of corruption in the logging industry in BC, Grewall began to receive death threats. His mills were firebombed, as well as his home.
On June 17th of 1957, Grewall was found dead in a Seattle motel he had been staying in during a business trip. While police ruled the death a suicide, the family of the departed believed that it was a murder. The recent death threats and attacks on his businesses led credence to this claim.
Despite his life being cut short, Grewall is remembered for the important contributions he made to the city of Mission. The city went on to be able to manage is own lumber resources, a right it continues to hold to this day. In 1995, he was commemorated by his city with a street, Grewal’s Terrace, named after him.