U.S. Sikh temple shooting offers lessons for Canada: NDP MP

More than 100 people gathered for Sunday prayers at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, just one week after a shooting rampage — now dubbed a hate crime — left seven people dead.

According to the Associated Press, women sang hymns as a group lowered a flag pole outside the Gurdwara. The group of about 50 men and boys unwrapped the orange cloth covering the pole, washed the pole with water and milk and then rewrapped it with a fresh cloth. The group then planned to go inside the temple for more prayers and hymns.

In the crowd was New Democrat MP Jas Sandhu.

In a telephone interview Sunday morning, he told Yahoo! Canada News that he wanted to be there to show solidarity with the Sikh community — between 30 to 40 per cent of constituents in Sandhu's suburban Vancouver riding are Sikh.

He also made the trip for personal reasons.

"My wife's uncle and aunt live about a mile away from the Oak Creek Gurdwara," he said.

"They were getting ready to go to the temple that morning until they heard that there had been a shooting. A number of the people that died were their friends. I wanted to support them. I wanted to support my family."

In addition to taking part in the prayers on Sunday, Sandhu attended the funeral services of the six Sikh victims on Friday and has had one-on-one meetings with victims' families.

He says there's lessons that he's bringing back with him to Canada.

"We need more education and more awareness about each other and different religions," Sandhu said.

"I think what we can learn from this is that governments at the federal level, at the provincial level and the municipal level have to be wary that these kinds of things can happen in Canada too... We need to identify people that may have tendencies to commit these idiot crimes."

The "idiot crimes" already happen in Canada — in significant numbers.

According to Statistics Canada, the number of hate crimes reported to Canadian police rose 42 per cent in 2009 on top of a 35 per cent increase the previous year, before dropping 18 per cent in 2010.

In 2010 (the most recent year for which data are available), police reported 1,401 hate crimes, 53 per cent of which were motivated by race or ethnicity. Religiously motivated hate crimes in Canada accounted for another 29 per cent and sexual orientation for 16 per cent.

Indeed, the Wisconsin Sikh temple tragedy should be a wake-up call for Canadians as well.

Hate crimes in Canada (by race or ethnicity):

Blacks: 271 incidents

Arabs and West Asians: 75 incidents

South Asians: 67 incidents

Hate crimes in Canada (by religion):

Jewish: 204 incidents

Muslim (Islam): 52 incidents

Catholic: 50 incidents