Below is an article appearing on the Toronto Star web site pertaining to recent and common conflicts occurring at Sikh Temples across Canada – not just this one in particular.
Temples are registered as CORPORATIONS – designed to collect money in support to further their cause of independence back home in India. Yes there is a religious element of their purpose…but let us not ignore THE FACTS.
This article sites Special Fundraising Events that draw thousands of visitors. The property they are trying to re-zone in a quiet residential non-sikh neighbourhood in Guelph cannot support the eventuality of this occurring.
Please take into account demographic of the community they want to build the second largest Sikh temple in Canada – young families with many children.
I took the liverty of highlighting some important facts. GU
April 22
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/798418–clashes-at-sikh-temples-fuelled-by-politics-moneySunday’s pitched battle at a Sikh temple in Brampton can be traced to a bitter conflict over politics and the control of millions of dollars.
When two warring groups clashed at the Guru Nanak Sikh Centre, turbans flew and blows were exchanged before machetes, hammers and construction knives were brandished. Four people were injured and three were charged with assault. Each side said the other incited the violence.
It was the most extreme example of internal conflict at a Sikh temple in the Toronto area in recent times but it was by no means the only one. Few of the almost two-dozen Sikh temples in the Toronto area have been untouched by controversies, mostly pertaining to different factions vying for control.
Currently there is a power struggle at four temples, including Ontario Khalsa Darbar at Derry and Dixie Rds. in Mississauga, one of the largest temples in Canada.
“It’s all about greed,” said Sandeep Brar, amateur historian and creator of www.sikhmuseum.com. “The congregation is growing rapidly and much money is being offered at the temples. The issue at heart here is who controls the money.”
At stake are millions of dollars.
Ontario’s Sikh community, pegged at about 105,000, is relatively well-to-do and, in terms of charitable giving, extraordinarily generous. Anyone can worship at the temple anytime and services are followed by communal meals open to all.
At each temple is at least one donation box. As a result, most temples are rich.
The Guru Nanak Sikh Centre, for example, has assets worth more than $30 million and annual offerings of more than $2 million, said Nachhattar Chohan, one of the board members who have taken temple management to court. “There is no transparency, no accountability,” he said.
No one will talk openly about it but there have been rumblings of misappropriation of funds at temples for years.
In 2008, a YouTube video surfaced showing a board member at Guru Nanak Sikh Centre stuffing his pockets while counting money donated by the congregation. “There was outrage among the community but the temple management then said it was a fabrication,” said Rajinder Sandhu, now a board member.Apart from money, temples, that are well attended every weekend and on special occasions, are also a platform to promote political agendas.
“It doesn’t sound (like) much, but it’s very important,” said Gurdev Mann, president of the North York Sikh Temple, which is not affiliated with any umbrella Sikh organization.
Temple managements decide which politicians to invite to events which thousands attend, added Mann. “It’s all about who they want to give the platform to. If it’s a politician management doesn’t care for, they’ll ask him to speak at a time when few people are there.”
The Guru Nanak Sikh Centre, with the largest congregation in the province, is considered a Liberal stronghold even though some temples unofficially banned MPs Navdeep Bains and Ruby Dhalla after they voted in favour of same-sex marriages about five years ago.
Being connected with temples is also a status symbol, said Balraj Deol, editor of Khabarnama, a Brampton Punjabi weekly. “You are considered important and influential … People will do anything for it.” (perhaps throw bricks through their own windows to garner sympathy and headlines as i find it hard to believe those in Guelph will do such a horrible and cowardly act)
Some even resort to violence, as recent events have shown.
Pritpal Singh, 46, understands that people have differences, but “violence inside temples is unacceptable to people.”
Singh was at the Glidden Rd. temple when the fight broke out. “I tried to stop some people who were hitting others with hammers and machetes but they started hitting me instead.”
He was bruised and has a cut on his forehead, but that’s not what really bothers him. “Violence bothers me. Temples should be free of controversy. They should be what they are meant to be: Places of worship.”
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Denise Balkissoon Staff Reporter
A Sikh temple in Etobicoke voted off almost half its board of directors on Wednesday afternoon, but the ousted group is refusing to accept the decision.
Members of the Sikh Spiritual Centre, at Albion and Hwy. 27, were scheduled to meet and discuss the future of the centre’s 21-member board.
But 10 of the members refused to take part in the vote, saying that the 11-person ruling group, which includes president Gurinder Singh and secretary Major Singh, were preventing members that disagreed with them from attending the meeting.
Major Singh said that 56 SSC members were eligible to vote at the meeting. The opposition, which includes now-former board members Bhopinder Dhillon and a similarly named member, Major Singh Kler, disputed that number, saying over 125 regular attendees had voting power.
Two years of volunteer work at the temple is required to become a voting member, said Baldev Sandhu, another member of the ousted group.
The 10 opposing members had made a legal motion to stop the meeting, but it was denied. So, they refused to enter the upstairs meeting space, which was guarded by hired security guards and police.
The governing body had been elected about two years ago. Last month, a fist fight broke out between board members inside the temple, which explained the heavy presence of police. A wave of bloody violence has recently swept Sikh temples in the GTA. Last Sunday, hammers, knives and machetes were drawn in a fight at Brampton’s Guru Nanak Sikh Centre.
Inside the SSC on Wednesday, Gurinder Singh, Major Singh and the 42 people they had gathered in person and by proxy voted to oust the dissenters and elect 10 new men to the board of directors.
Refusing to accept this decision, Dhillon, Kler and their party gathered in the prayer hall and chose their own 21-member board of directors, with Bhalwinder Singh Gill as its president.Now, the SSC has two groups of 21 people claiming to be its board of directors.
“We are in control of the temple, we already run the temple,” said Dhillon, when asked how his group intended to take power.Andrew Tulk, the lawyer representing the 10 ousted members, said a legal application to reinstate the ousted members was the next “obvious step,” but that the issue won’t be resolved for six to eight months.