Trudeau to visit gurdwara after government removes reference to Sikh extremism

VANCOUVER – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will visit one of the largest Sikh temples in Canada this morning, just hours after his government agreed to remove a reference to Sikh extremism from a report on terrorism.

Trudeau and Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan will speak at the Ross Street Gurdwara in Vancouver, then partake in the city's Vaisakhi Parade to mark the Sikh holy day.

The visit comes a day after the Liberals agreed to make a change to the 2018 Public Report on the Terrorism Threat to Canada, which drew the ire of the Sikh community when it was released in December.

For the first time, the report listed Sikh extremism as one of the top five extremist threats in Canada.

But late Friday, the language was changed to remove any mention of religion, instead discussing the threat posed by "extremists who support violent means to establish an independent state within India."

There are roughly half a million Canadians who identify as Sikh, most of them in the Greater Toronto Area and suburban Vancouver.