A Canada border officer, Sandeep Singh Sidhu, also known as Sunny Toronto, has sued both the India and the Canadian governments for throwing his life into turmoil, Global News reported. In his lawsuit, Sidhu said India called him a ‘Khalistani terrorist’ while he has no links with Indian politics and the Canadian government failed to defend him and instead forced him into hiding. Seeking $9 million in personal injury damages from New Delhi, the legal suit by Sunny said he was singled out by India because he had a “common Sikh name and a visible, uniformed position within the Canadian national security apparatus”.Reports claimed that Sidhu is a member of the banned International Sikh Youth Federation and was wanted in India as he is on the list of fugitives charged with promoting terrorist activities from Canada.
As the allegations surfaced in India, Sidhu was removed from his frontline job but the Canada Border Service Agency asserted that they reinstated him on the job, as they did not find any evidence behind the allegations.
Visited India last in 2018 for a wedding
Sidhu’s lawyers claimed that he was born in British Columbia and never got involved in Indian politics; he is not even a practicing Sikh. He visited India last in 2018 for a wedding. “Sunny became merely an instrument of India’s propaganda machine to falsely accuse Canada of employing and supporting a Khalistani extremist,” the statement of claim in the lawsuit read. As a result of the “coordinated foreign interference” offensive, Sidhu was subjected to a “tidal wave of aggressive misinformation” and calls for his extradition and murder, the suit alleged. But the CBSA would not provide him with any protection and threatened him with suspension or termination unless he cooperated with intrusive background checks that ultimately cleared him, it said.“The CBSA did nothing to help him and instead mocked the death threats against him and advised him that this was not a work-related matter,” according to the claim filed by Sidhu’s lawyer, Jeffrey Kroeker.
